The Miles Davis Reader

If you ever needed proof that a magazine can have a love affair with a musician, you're holding it in your hands. For DownBeat, the preeminent publication of the jazz world, Miles Dewey Davis was one of its most cherished subjects. Since it began covering the jazz scene in 1939, no other artist has been more diligently chronicled in its pages than Davis. The beauty of this collection is seeing the development of an artist over time. The reviews of his music go from quietly introducing a new talent to revering, perhaps, the greatest jazz artist of his generation. The feature articles begin with a very young, very polite Davis lamenting, “I've worked so little. I could probably tell you where I was playing any night in the last three years.” As he develops, the interviews show Davis gaining confidence and stature, showing swagger and becoming the over-the-top, say-it-like-it-is showman that made every interview an event. The Miles Davis Reader compiles more than 200 news stories, feature articles, and reviews by some of the greatest writers in jazz into one volume. It delivers a patchwork of his words and music – in the moment, as they happened. With several lengthy features added along with a dozen new photographs, this new edition is a beautiful series of snapshots, a year-by-year ride through the many phases of Davis as an artist and as a man.

Interviews and features from Downbeat Magazine

The story of the final recordings of one of the greatest jazz musicians of the twentieth century

Interviews, essays, and other documents offer information about the life, work, and contributions of the innovative jazz trumpeter whose career stretched from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Publisher description

Quincy Troupe's candid account of his friendship with Miles Davis is a revealing portrait of a great musician and an intimate study of a unique relationship. It is also an engrossing chronicle of the author's own development, both artistic and personal. As Davis's collaborator on Miles: The Autobiography,Troupe--one of the major poets to emerge from the 1960s--had exceptional access to the musician. This memoir goes beyond the life portrayed in the autobiography to describe in detail the processes of Davis's spectacular creativity and the joys and difficulties his passionate, contradictory temperament posed to the men's friendship. It shows how Miles Davis, both as a black man and an artist, influenced not only Quincy Troupe but whole generations. Troupe has written that Miles Davis was "irascible, contemptuous, brutally honest, ill-tempered when things didn't go his way, complex, fair-minded, humble, kind and a son-of-a-bitch." The author's love and appreciation for Davis make him a keen, though not uncritical, observer. He captures and conveys the power of the musician's presence, the mesmerizing force of his personality, and the restless energy that lay at the root of his creativity. He also shows Davis's lighter side: cooking, prowling the streets of Manhattan, painting, riding his horse at his Malibu home. Troupe discusses Davis's musical output, situating his albums in the context of the times--both political and musical--out of which they emerged. Miles and Me is an unparalleled look at the act of creation and the forces behind it, at how the innovations of one person can inspire both those he knows and loves and the world at large.

This exhaustively researched, revised edition of Ian Carr's classic biography throws new light on Davis' life and career: from the early days in New York with Charlie Parker; to the Birth of Cool; through his drug addiction in the early 1950s and the years of extraordinary achievements (1954-1960), during which he signed with Columbia and collaborated with such unequaled talents as John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly and Cannonball Adderly. Carr also explores Davis' dark, reclusive period (1975-1980), offering firsthand accounts of his descent into addiction, as well as his dramatic return to life and music. Carr has talked with the people who knew Miles and his music best including Bill Evans, Joe Zawinul, Keith Jarrett, and Jack DeJohnette, and has conducted interviews with Ron Carter, Max Roach, John Scofield and others.

Based on interviews with family and friends, this account of the jazz great's life reveals the influence of Miles Davis' life on his work as well as the musician's persistent desire to re-invent himself.

Music provides the soundtrack to our lives. But music's true excitement is often found on the off-beats. Cedric Hendrix has been a music fan for more than four decades. His life of public service has been enhanced by a seemingly endless search for the best bands playing the perfect songs, the majority of which have been ignored by the commercial music industry. At first, Hendrix discovered music via radio. But chance encounters, unplanned circumstances, and fortuitous timing have combined to send Hendrix down a musical path explored by a seemingly chosen few. The information he stockpiled qualifies him for membership in what seems like an exclusive club. Hendrix wants to swing those club doors open to anyone willing to listen. I Can't Be the Only One Hearing This is more than a book about music. It is an odyssey: an autobiographical journey through life via melody, harmony, and rhythm. Events mark the passage of time. Hendrix's musical discoveries mark the events. With the aid of musicians, journalists, record store experts, web designers, music store owners, and fans, Hendrix offers a look at music and bands both above and below the radar. He shows how through it all, there are really only two kinds of music: good and bad. Which is which is up to the listener. Music is the soundtrack to life. Cedric Hendrix wants to share his life's soundtrack. Put on your headphones and press "play."

RUNNING THE VOODOO DOWN