Jazz Articles about Miles Davis

Miles. La autobiografía

by AAJ Staff
November 1, 2009

La editorial barcelonesa Alba lleva desde hace años publicando en castellano una estupenda serie de libros dedicados a la música, con especial incidencia en el jazz. Gary Giddins, Ashley Kahn y Laurent de Wilde han sido algunos de los autores que han visto sus libros traducidos en cuidadas ediciones. Entre sus últimas novedades no estrictamente jazzísticas destacan la autobiografía de Ravi Shankar, Mi música, mi vida, y la considerada biogfrafía definitiva de Michael Jackson, firmada por J. Randy Taraborrelli.

Miles Davis: Unlimited Miles

by Bill King
September 29, 2009

I can't think of an artist who has had greater influence over jazz the past forty years than Miles Davis. For music, style, language and business, Davis was at the top of the game. One to never step aside and let critics dissuade or impede his aspirations, he constantly retooled his band with the brightest most gifted young players of the moment. There are those who will argue that Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Oscar ...

Miles Davis: That's What Happened: Live in Germany 1987

by Graham L. Flanagan
September 13, 2009

Miles DavisThat's What Happened: Live in Germany 1987 Eagle Eye Media2009The idea that Miles Davis “lost his chops" sometime after the '70s has been stated many times. This DVD offers proof that they simply evolved along with the changing musical landscape in order to be (as Miles says in a bonus interview) “up to date." In fact, this performance, captured in Munich circa 1987, shows him in excellent technical form. Davis--often hunched ...

Miles Davis: That's What Happened: Live in Germany 1987

by John Kelman
August 5, 2009

Miles DavisThat's What Happened: Live in Germany 1987 Eagle Eye Media2009The exhaustive (and expensive) 20CD box set, The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux 1973-1991 (Columbia/Legacy, 2002), finally set the record straight about the late trumpeter's often misunderstood and overly criticized final decade. Admittedly, many of his studio releases were inconsistent and, at times, flat out weak, with his 1985 swan song for Columbia, You're Under Arrest particularly forgettable. But in performance, Davis ...

Liner Notes

by Jeff Fitzgerald, Genius
June 15, 2009

When renowned jazz critic Leonard Feather was asked about this record, he said something favorable. And thus has become the general consensus since its release in late 1959, early 1974, 1989, 1998, and finally in 2004. I'm certain that upon hearing it, you'll feel the same.The fates aligned when this session was recorded. Not only did Miles Davis discover three additional skinny ties he'd forgotten that he'd bought, but Rudy Van Gelder snagged a really sweet parking spot ...

The Arab Roots of Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain

by John Murnane
May 17, 2009

Miles Davis Sketches Of Spain Columbia 1960

His biographer Ian Carr called trumpeter Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959) “one of the seminal albums, and one of the most enduring classics, of jazz." It was, indeed, a pioneering leap into modal jazz, and most Davis fans would agree with Carr's assessment. The trumpeter was accompanied by an outstanding band comprising tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, alto saxophonist Julian Cannonball Adderley, pianist Bill ...

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue

by Doug Collette
March 1, 2009

Even as the period photos of Miles Davis and co., taken in the studio and on the stage around the time of Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959), place the music of this Legacy Edition squarely in its time, two excellent sets of liner notes alternately expound upon and contemplate the ongoing influence of this hallmark album, now fifty years old. If the merchandising created last year (a package with DVD, LP and book etc) to celebrate the half-century ...