Miles Davis: The many layers of a cool life
Rich contrasts flowed through the life and music of Miles Davis.
This was the consummate cool-guy trumpeter, with fans ranging from Sinatra to rappers. “I don’t know any other musician who has played with Charlie Parker and Prince,” drummer Vince Wilburn told the Television Critics Association last month.
Davis played in the turbo-charged style of the 1940s, then switched to a slower, emotional style. As Farah Griffin, a music historian, put it in a new PBS film: “I want to feel the way Miles sounds.”
The film (9-11 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25) is aptly called “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool.” Davis’ sound and image were so cool that we might guess he was born in a grotto and raised in a jazz club. Read more…