Miles on Miles: Interviews and Encounters with Miles Davis (1) (Musicians in Their Own Words) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556527063 ISBN 13: 9781556527067

Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books, 2008

Synopsis

Miles on Miles collects the thirty most vital Miles Davis interviews. Essential reading for anyone who wants to know what Miles Davis thought about his music, life, and philosophy, Miles on Miles reveals the jazz icon as a complex and contradictory man, secretive at times but extraordinarily revealing at others.

 

Miles was not only a musical genius, but an enigma, and nowhere else was he so compelling, exasperating, and entertaining as in his interviews, which vary from polite to outrageous, from straight-ahead to contrarian. Even his autobiography lacks the immediacy of the dialogues collected here. Many were conducted by leading journalists like Leonard Feather, Stephen Davis, Ben Sidran, Mike Zwerin, and Nat Hentoff. Others have never before seen print, are newly transcribed from radio and television shows, or appeared in long-forgotten magazines.

 

Since Miles Davis’s 1991 death, his influence has continued to grow. But until now, no book has brought back to life his inimitable voice--contemplative, defiant, elegant, uncompromising, and humorous. Miles on Miles will long remain the definitive source for anyone wanting to really encounter the legend in print.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Maher Jr. is the author of Jack Kerouac’s American Journey and Kerouac: His Life and Work and the editor of the critically acclaimed collection Empty Phantoms: Interviews and Encounters with Jack Kerouac. Michael K. Dorr is a poet, playwright, editor, former publisher, and founder of LitPub, Ink, a literary agency.

Reviews

Davis was regarded by many as, in the words of one journalist, the wickedest, canniest, deepest, slickest, baddest musician of the last century, and Maher (Kerouac: His Life and Work) and Dorr, a poet and literary agent, have put together a collection of interviews covering the full spectrum of his career, from publicity materials linked to one of his earliest recordings for Columbia Records in the 1950s to a conversation two years before his death. Davis wasn't always the easiest person to talk to—if you're going to shut up, man, I'll tell you was his impatient response in one frustrating conversation—but when approached by the right person, someone with the perceptiveness of Nat Hentoff or Art Taylor, he could produce dazzling insights (in one 1987 interview, he spins intricate technical details on getting the right sound out of synthesizers). It's the little scenes that are most memorable: Davis at a birthday party for Louis Armstrong, or trying to persuade his errand boy biographer Eric Nisenson to make a late-night drug delivery. In some unfortunate cases, the interview is more about the self-important journalist celebrating his proximity to a jazz legend than about Davis himself, but even then it's impossible for anybody but Davis to hold the spotlight for long. (Nov.)
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Miles Davis turned his back to the audience and made music that moved continents. As legendary for his sharp tongue and toughness as for his searching, bunker-busting music, he was a fearless man of strong feelings and megatalent. Unusually frank in his statements about racism, Davis made journalists cower, and his iciness, magnetism, spiky humor, rage, and genius are all palpable in the 28 interviews Maher and Dorr have rescued from near oblivion. Nat Hentoff listens to music with Davis, who offers brilliant critiques. Lionel Olay reports on a poolside conversation more suited for a boxing ring. Davis tells Les Tompkins, “Jazz is an Uncle Tom word,” then lets his guard down with Cheryl McCall and tells the story of his kicking drugs cold turkey and his five-year retreat from music and the limelight. Moving forward from 1957 to the end of his life, in 1991, these sparring sessions and profound exchanges trace Davis’ dynamic artistic evolution, from poetic ballads to molten fusion, and his endless quest for liberation. --Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1556527063
• ISBN 13: 9781556527067
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Maher Jr. Paul, Dorr Michael K.