Popular Post Jud Posted March 31, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted March 31, 2021 47 minutes ago, bluesman said: As a person, Miles was a perpetual mess. Read his autobiography (the one co-authored by Quincy Troupe) and try to find the Rolling Stone bio. He got hooked on heroin in the '50s, continued to record, but as described in one of the bios, "his performances were haphazard". When he was on, Miles was about as good as it gets except for the virtuosos, almost all of whom who had more technique than taste. But he was off so many times in his career and for so long at a time that he left a legacy of marginal performances. Between '75 and '81 (the years covered in the movie Miles Ahead, which is well worth seeing), he didn't release a single recording. An apocryphal story's been published so many times that it's probably true. In 1982, when Musician Magazine asked what he did between '75 and '81, Miles answered: “Nothin’. Gettin’ high. I didn’t feel like playing the trumpet, didn’t feel like listening to music. Didn’t want to hear it, see it, smell it, nothin’ about it… I didn’t come out of the house for about four years… But then Dizzy came around and said, ‘What the f**k are you doing? You were put here to play music!’ So I started back.” He was one angry, miserable, nmessed up human for most of his life. He was notoriously unfaithful to his wives, which broke up his marriages His breakup with his wife Frances Taylor really shook him badly, which also affected his playing. He married Betty Mabry in '68 and divorced her within a year, after which he got back into heavy drug use. He married Cicely Tyson, with whom he'd been having affairs for years while still married to Mabry - and he cheated on Tyson to the point at which she divorced him too. If you don't view Miles in accurate context, you can't really understand the frenetic and dangerous balance in which his talent was suspended. He was a truly great musician. Sadly, he didn't value that enough to let it ease any of his pain - and it didn't seem to mean enough to him to help keep his demons in check. He was willing to sacrifice his greatest gift for his vices, and he suffered for this as much as we did. Miles never really achieved peace, equanimity, or true joy in life. And we never got more than a glimpse of the greatness that lay within him. Saw Miles live a couple of times. First time he *opened up* for Herbie Hancock, who was having a moment (no disrespect to Herbie, some of whose music I like a lot). The friend I'd gone with and I were completely blown away by Miles, to the point where, when Herbie took the stage and started playing, we silently nodded to each other and left. Herbie's music just wasn't in the same league. The second time he was the headline act. (John McLaughlin opened and was amazing.) When Miles played we heard everything from jazz way out there on the edge to funk so hard 70-year-olds were up boogieing their asses off. It really wasn't so much his trumpet playing at all (though he did have a talent for saying a lot with a few notes - there's a famous story about his advice to Coltrane, who was the opposite), but about his compositions; his ear for others' compositions; and his huge talent for picking sidemen. I don't know that there has ever been another jazz musician in the vanguard of three revolutions in jazz: Be-bop (as sideman to Charlie Parker along with Dizzy); cool jazz; and fusion. bluesman, ssh and sphinxsix 1 2 One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature. Link to comment
Jud Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 7 hours ago, firedog said: Boy, Herbie must have been having a really bad night. He's such a talented musician and composer. Never thought of him as not in the same league. Nope, he wasn't having a bad night. I like a bunch of Herbie Hancock's music, and I had never thought of him as not being in the same league either. It's just that *nobody* was really in the same league as Miles. He was exploring the unknown and blowing the tops of our heads off doing it, while Herbie was playing music. Doing a fine job of it, but in that moment, the contrast coming right after Miles made playing music seem kind of, well, boring. One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature. Link to comment
Jud Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 2 hours ago, Bill Brown said: Though I would have had to stay for Herbie :). Though was this in his electric, I think more simple phase? I suspect so. You aren't that old :). This would have been approximately Fall 1974 or Winter 1975. One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature. Link to comment
Jud Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 @sphinxsixJust when we were starting to have fun? I hope not! sphinxsix 1 One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature. Link to comment
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