I don't know any of the details, but I have heard that Miles Davis beat women. I have no respect for men who beat women. Or for anyone who beats anyone else, for that matter. The question is do you reject the art because of the behavior of the artist? Well...John Lennon also beat women. (He even included a line about that in the song, "Fixing a Hole": "I used to be cruel to my woman / I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved....") Does that mean that I should stop listening to John Lennon? Does that meant that I should stop listening to The Beatles? Sorry, but that's not going to happen.
So what about Miles Davis? I don't know. But I have been listening to Kind of Blue (and just finished reading two books about it), and now it looks like I'm going to be reading his autobiography.
Deep breath.
Okay.
Day 1 (Jazz Day 46 / DDRD 1,624) April 12, 2022
Read to page 23, and will probably read a little more later today, but this was enough for now. It's not a hard read, and it is at least occasionally interesting, but Miles is so abrasive...and comes off as so ignorant (I would guess that I've already read the word "motherfucker" two dozen times; I'm not offended, just bored) that it has not been easy going. I have serious doubts about my ability to read this book. Of course, we're still in the Miles As A Child stuff, which I really don't care about, and I would suspect that once he becomes a working musician things should get more interesting. But thus far all I can think is that Miles really seems like an asshole. At one point he mentions seeing a friend who had been badly hurt in a fire, and describes the friend as looking like a hotdog that has been burned. That friend later died from his injuries. What kind of shitwad describes another human being...much less a friend...in that way? It's beyond callous. It's brutal. Strange, too, that Miles talks in a prologue about what a beautiful human being Dizzy Gillespie is and how much he loves him...since Dizzy seems to represent the opposite end of humanity from Miles--a person who is full of love and truly cares about other people, is willing to sacrifice himself to help others, all of that.
I'm not ready to quit yet, but I'm not all that anxious to get to know Miles any better, either.
P.S. And today I picked this up from the library:
It's 23 + 260 + 4* = 287 pages, which would normally mean a little over 14 days' worth of reading, but I'm betting it will be more like a 7 day book for me. Maybe less. In fact, I'm kind of tempted to ditch Miles and get right onto this Trane...but we'll see how tomorrow goes.
* The endpapers have text...which seems to be in Coltrane's hand... hence the "extra" four pages.
Day 2 (Jazz Day 47 / DDRD 1,625) April 13, 2022
Read to page 51. And Miles has graduated from high school and is earning a steady income as a musician, so hopefully we're now on the cusp of The Good Stuff.
Meanwhile, however, we had to hear about Miles's first sexual experience, about how his dad knocked his mom's teeth out, and so forth. Also, how Miles stopped going to The Juilliard School because the music was Too White. Which is understandable, I suppose, but it made me wonder: if a White guy went to Fisk University to major in English, but left because the literature was Too Black, would that be considered racist?
Well, first off I think you'd have to conclude that the person was pretty stupid, because going to Fisk and being surprised that there was a preponderance of emphasis on Black literature certainly doesn't strike me as smart. But racist? Hmmm. I'd have to say yes, that it was racist. So isn't the same thing true for Miles and Julliard? I'm going to say yes.
Not that that seems surprising, as Miles throws racist stuff around casually on a regular basis. You could, of course, point out that he was not averse to working with White musicians...but from my previous readings on Kind of Blue, I also know that he constant harassed Bill Evans with racist language, so I don't know that that mitigates any charge of racism against him.
I'm not giving up, but I have to say that it's hard not to conclude that Miles Davis was an asshole a lot of the time when his mouth wasn't wrapped around a trumpet's mouthpiece.
Day 3 (Jazz Day 48 / DDRD 1,626) April 14, 2022
Read to page 75.
According to Miles, Charlie Parker "was the greatest alto saxophone player who ever lived." Since John Coltrane was primarily known for playing tenor saxophone, I guess that still leaves room for him.
The first recording date for Miles was in May of 1945. He noted that he played with Herbie Fields, Leonard Gaskin on bass, and a singer named Rubberlegs Williams. He says that he did not play any solo parts, just ensemble playing. (66) A little Googling revealed that the recording date was April 24, 1945, and Wikipedia has lots of details on this date (HERE), including the titles of all of the songs that were recorded.
It looks like "That's the Stuff You Gotta Watch" was Miles' first recorded song...with Rubberlegs Williams on vocals, Herbie Field on tenor sax & clarinet (and it's Herbie who takes the solo--obvious since Rubberlegs calls him out), Teddy Brannon on piano, Leonard Gaskin on bass, and Ed Nicholson on drums. It's an inauspicious beginning, but hey...aren't most of them? According to Wikipedia, Miles was so nervous that he forgot most of the details of this date, and that seems to be affirmed by his mention of it in the autobiography.
Looking at this Wikipedia information is kind of puzzling. If I'm reading it correctly, then the group recorded 15 tracks that day...and 8 of those tracks (4 different songs) were written by Miles Davis. Miles would have been 18 years old at the time. Yowza.
Read to page 105.
Some time ago...I think it was during The Hodeir Trilogy...I made a comment about how surprised I was that Neil Hefti was actually considered a Jazz guy, since I'd only known him as the guy who wrote the theme for Batman. I then sought out some of his music courtesy of YouTube and was astonished at how bad it was...just schmaltzy and overblown and pretty much worthless. So it amused me greatly when Miles said, "No amount of money was going to make me happy playing those bullshit Neal Hefti arrangements Benny's band was playing." (86)
Also reaching back into the past...but this time just to yesterday...vis-a-vis Miles' initial recording efforts, at the top of page 105 he notes that in August of 1947 he went into the studio and did "Milestones," "Little Willie Leaps," "Half Nelson," and "Sippin' at Bell's." Well, all of those tracks were listed on the Wikipedia page I mentioned as if they had been recorded at the same time...when it actuality it looks like Miles' first session in the studio only produced four tracks, none of which he had written. That makes a hell of a lot more sense. Part of me wants to do a little update on the Wikipedia page to make this clear...but the other 96 parts of me isn't feeling great and doesn't care enough to make the effort.
Read to page 127.
Read to page 153. Right now, Miles is a heroin addict and he is paying for his heroin by working as a pimp. For some reason he feels that his trumpet playing isn't at its best right now.
I'll go on.
Read to page 177. More heroin.
Read to page 200. Heroin addiction ends, racist sniping continues. You know, Miles really is an asshole.
Read to page 220, and Miles has just started talking about the lead-in stuff for Kind of Blue.
Before that, he was talking about a recording session in May of 1956
for the Prestige label with Coltrane, Philly Joe, Paul and Red which sounded interesting. Something about how the recordings captured some of the band banter. It caught me fahn-see, so I went looking for more information. Turns out the session occurred at the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on May 11, 1956, and that the band --Miles Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums--recorded 14 tracks on that day. And if that's not incredible enough, get this: those tracks accounted for almost two full albums (one track shy for each of them) and 1/3rd of a third album.
Also, yet another example of Miles Davis's casual and regular racism: "...you could be a great musician, an innovative and important artist, but nobody cared if you didn't make the white people who were in control some money." (205) I wouldn't argue with the fact that (1) the people in charge of the recording companies were all about the money or (2) that most of them were White people. But their whiteness is irrelevant here. Black heads of recording companies would be all about the money, too. Anybody at the head of any for profit company is going to be all about the money, since that is what business is for. Put it this way: if I said that Black musicians were all about getting paid for performing their music, that would be both true and racist. It would be racist because I'm implying that the musicians' Blackness is somehow a relevant factor in the equation, when in reality any professional musician is all about the money to the extent that they perform for money...because that is how they earn their living. And certainly there's nothing wrong with that. It's just wrong to attribute it to skin color.
I also decided that I was going to try to see if Miles could get through a page without using the word "motherfucker," but I have gotten so used to the word that it's hard for me to notice in now. I can tell you--and this is not hyperbole--that it appears on virtually every page of the book at least once, though...and maybe no virtually about it. Maybe I'll try to notice in Tomorrow's 20.
P.S. Almost forgot. Guess who showed up in today's reading?
There doesn't seem to be any way of escaping from this French dude.
Read to page 229 and had to pull up short. Because on page 228 it happened. Miles is telling a story about one of the women he loved, Frances Taylor, and how she came home one day and told him that she thought Quincy Jones was handsome. "Before I realized what had happened, I had knocked her down...." the story ends with him saying, "I told her not to ever mention Quincy Jones's name to me again, and she never did." He expresses no remorse, and the implication is that she got what she deserved. What a fucking asshole. In the next paragraph he lets us know that that wasn't the only time he hit her... and that he felt "bad" about it, but only did it because he loved her so much and was jealous. He also loved her so much that he forced her to turn down several key movie roles she'd been offered (West Side Story, Porgy and Bess, and a Sammy Davis, Jr. movie) and instead "let" her teach dancing to some other stars who lived in the apartment building where they were.
I read to the end of this section and the beginning of the next just to see what he would have to say, but after telling this he just went right on to talking about his music, like it was no big deal to him at all.
I really don't know if I want to read any more of this book. I'm astounded that he would even write about this. I mean, we're talking about a guy who trained with a professional boxer, and he's telling about how he beat up on a woman? He is such a detestable human being...such a poor excuse for a human being...that right now I don't know if it matters that he created some beautiful music.
A long time ago my mom told me that she'd rather not know too much about people she admired...because it so often led to disappointment. I'm seeing the wisdom in my mom's words now, for sure.
Read to page 51. And Miles has graduated from high school and is earning a steady income as a musician, so hopefully we're now on the cusp of The Good Stuff.
Meanwhile, however, we had to hear about Miles's first sexual experience, about how his dad knocked his mom's teeth out, and so forth. Also, how Miles stopped going to The Juilliard School because the music was Too White. Which is understandable, I suppose, but it made me wonder: if a White guy went to Fisk University to major in English, but left because the literature was Too Black, would that be considered racist?
Well, first off I think you'd have to conclude that the person was pretty stupid, because going to Fisk and being surprised that there was a preponderance of emphasis on Black literature certainly doesn't strike me as smart. But racist? Hmmm. I'd have to say yes, that it was racist. So isn't the same thing true for Miles and Julliard? I'm going to say yes.
Not that that seems surprising, as Miles throws racist stuff around casually on a regular basis. You could, of course, point out that he was not averse to working with White musicians...but from my previous readings on Kind of Blue, I also know that he constant harassed Bill Evans with racist language, so I don't know that that mitigates any charge of racism against him.
I'm not giving up, but I have to say that it's hard not to conclude that Miles Davis was an asshole a lot of the time when his mouth wasn't wrapped around a trumpet's mouthpiece.
Day 3 (Jazz Day 48 / DDRD 1,626) April 14, 2022
Read to page 75.
According to Miles, Charlie Parker "was the greatest alto saxophone player who ever lived." Since John Coltrane was primarily known for playing tenor saxophone, I guess that still leaves room for him.
The first recording date for Miles was in May of 1945. He noted that he played with Herbie Fields, Leonard Gaskin on bass, and a singer named Rubberlegs Williams. He says that he did not play any solo parts, just ensemble playing. (66) A little Googling revealed that the recording date was April 24, 1945, and Wikipedia has lots of details on this date (HERE), including the titles of all of the songs that were recorded.
It looks like "That's the Stuff You Gotta Watch" was Miles' first recorded song...with Rubberlegs Williams on vocals, Herbie Field on tenor sax & clarinet (and it's Herbie who takes the solo--obvious since Rubberlegs calls him out), Teddy Brannon on piano, Leonard Gaskin on bass, and Ed Nicholson on drums. It's an inauspicious beginning, but hey...aren't most of them? According to Wikipedia, Miles was so nervous that he forgot most of the details of this date, and that seems to be affirmed by his mention of it in the autobiography.
Looking at this Wikipedia information is kind of puzzling. If I'm reading it correctly, then the group recorded 15 tracks that day...and 8 of those tracks (4 different songs) were written by Miles Davis. Miles would have been 18 years old at the time. Yowza.
Day 4 (Jazz Day 49 / DDRD 1,627) April 15, 2022
Some time ago...I think it was during The Hodeir Trilogy...I made a comment about how surprised I was that Neil Hefti was actually considered a Jazz guy, since I'd only known him as the guy who wrote the theme for Batman. I then sought out some of his music courtesy of YouTube and was astonished at how bad it was...just schmaltzy and overblown and pretty much worthless. So it amused me greatly when Miles said, "No amount of money was going to make me happy playing those bullshit Neal Hefti arrangements Benny's band was playing." (86)
Also reaching back into the past...but this time just to yesterday...vis-a-vis Miles' initial recording efforts, at the top of page 105 he notes that in August of 1947 he went into the studio and did "Milestones," "Little Willie Leaps," "Half Nelson," and "Sippin' at Bell's." Well, all of those tracks were listed on the Wikipedia page I mentioned as if they had been recorded at the same time...when it actuality it looks like Miles' first session in the studio only produced four tracks, none of which he had written. That makes a hell of a lot more sense. Part of me wants to do a little update on the Wikipedia page to make this clear...but the other 96 parts of me isn't feeling great and doesn't care enough to make the effort.
Day 5 (Jazz Day 50 / DDRD 1,628) April 16, 2022
Day 6 (Jazz Day 51 / DDRD 1,629) 🌅♱April 17, 2022♱🌅
I'll go on.
Day 7 (Jazz Day 52 / DDRD 1,630) April 18, 2022
Day 8 (Jazz Day 53 / DDRD 1,631) April 19, 2022
Day 9 (Jazz Day 54/ DDRD 1,632) April 20, 2022
Before that, he was talking about a recording session in May of 1956
for the Prestige label with Coltrane, Philly Joe, Paul and Red which sounded interesting. Something about how the recordings captured some of the band banter. It caught me fahn-see, so I went looking for more information. Turns out the session occurred at the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on May 11, 1956, and that the band --Miles Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums--recorded 14 tracks on that day. And if that's not incredible enough, get this: those tracks accounted for almost two full albums (one track shy for each of them) and 1/3rd of a third album.
🤯
I also decided that I was going to try to see if Miles could get through a page without using the word "motherfucker," but I have gotten so used to the word that it's hard for me to notice in now. I can tell you--and this is not hyperbole--that it appears on virtually every page of the book at least once, though...and maybe no virtually about it. Maybe I'll try to notice in Tomorrow's 20.
P.S. Almost forgot. Guess who showed up in today's reading?
There doesn't seem to be any way of escaping from this French dude.
Day 10 (Jazz Day 55 / DDRD 1,633) April 21, 2022
I read to the end of this section and the beginning of the next just to see what he would have to say, but after telling this he just went right on to talking about his music, like it was no big deal to him at all.
I really don't know if I want to read any more of this book. I'm astounded that he would even write about this. I mean, we're talking about a guy who trained with a professional boxer, and he's telling about how he beat up on a woman? He is such a detestable human being...such a poor excuse for a human being...that right now I don't know if it matters that he created some beautiful music.
A long time ago my mom told me that she'd rather not know too much about people she admired...because it so often led to disappointment. I'm seeing the wisdom in my mom's words now, for sure.
Time Passes, Then...
Day 11: Jazz Day 83 (DDRD 1,661) May 19, 2022
= 
💩
Yes, I decided to have another go at Miles: The Autobiography, picking up where I left off, of course. We'll see if the 28 days away have made any difference.
Read to page 260. Which leaves 164 pages...8 days or less. Today's stuff was good. There was a bit of sad irony in a story Miles told about getting into it with Art Blakey, who was strung out on drugs at the time. According to Miles, Blakey got aggressive because he thought Miles had had sex with his wife, and Miles punched him and knocked him out. The sad irony part is that Miles talks about how torn up he was about this, and how he went home and cried. I guess hitting men was harder for him than hitting women.
In other news, Miles defined artists' performances of Classical Music as "robot shit."
= 💩Hmpf.
Day 12: Jazz Day 84 (DDRD 1,662) May 20, 2022
Read to page 290. Actually read a few extra pages yesterday, and then a few extras today, so that. I cringed a bit when Cicely Tyson entered the story, knowing that she had been abused by Miles, but at this point it's not there, I'm glad to say. Funny (but not ha ha funny) how Miles talks about his love for Coltrane, what a great person he was, how he missed him when he died...and yet Miles can also be such a callous--even brutal--person.
134 pages to go.
ADDENDUM: Read a little more, to page 301. So 123 pages to go now.
Miles Davis refers to Steve Miller as a "sorry ass cat" and lumps him in with The Other no talent rock musicians. He also bemoans the fact that these performers, who know nothing about music, are making so much money, and suggests that he, with his far superior knowledge of music, should easily be able to do the same thing. I'm thinking he might be missing something there....
Day 13: Jazz Day 85 (DDRD 1,663) May 21, 2022
Read to page 324. Which actually means that there are only 100 text pages to go.
In the course of today's reading, I found out the Richard Pryor was a funny motherfucker and a great mother fucker within the space of five lines on page 302. Also that Miles was disappointed in both of his older sons, both of whom were alive when this book was published, so that must have made them feel really great. Have I mentioned that Miles Davis was a gigantic asshole?
On the other hand...it also hit me how many of the big names in Jazz have been associated with (as in played with) Miles Davis over the years. Just off the top of my head...Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Eric Dolphy, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Keith Jarrett, George Benson, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Clarke...and I don't even KNOW that many Jazz greats, so I probably missed a couple of dozen of them. And get this...he was planning to do an album with Jimi Hendrix, but Jimi died before they got to work on it. Sheesh...the guy was pretty much a History of Jazz in and of himself.
Which doesn't really mitigate his failures as a human being, of course, but it's kind of a Bill Cosby Thing: as tempting as it might be to ignore the achievements of an artist who was a shitty human being, you just can't do that. You don't have to support them in any way, either, but to deny what they achieved is not reasonable.
I think.
Day 14: Jazz Day 86 (DDRD 1,664) May 22, 2022
Read to page 341. 83 pages to go.
ADDENDUM: Pre-Church Reading: to page 357. So now it's 67 pages to go.
Day 15: Jazz Day 87 (DDRD 1,665) May 23, 2022
Read to page 387. Which included this important statement:
"Black people are acting out roles every day in this country just to keep on getting by. If white people really knew what was on most black people's minds it would scare them to death. Blacks don't have the power to say these things, so they put on masks and do great acting jobs just to get through the fucking day." (375)
I think that's a very important thing to consider.
Unfortunately, these pages also included another violence against a woman story...two back to back, actually, and both against Cicely Tyson. I was really hoping to get through the last pages of this book without any more of this. At least this time Miles didn't give a "Why She Deserved It" context...though he didn't express any remorse about it, either. I just keep wondering what kind of "man" not only beats on women, but also tells about it in his autobiography? I can only think of three possibilities: (1) a very stupid man, (2) a man so full of himself that he doesn't even understand that what he did was wrong, or (3) a man who is either a sociopath or a psychopath.
I'm going to push on through to the end of this now, but I'm not very happy about it, am going to write a review of it for goodreads which will get some of the angst off of my mind and out of my heart, and am pulling the plug on my Jazz Readings the minute I turn the final page of this fucking book.
Thanks, Miles Davis. You motherfucker.
37 pages to go. I'm going to try to read a little more today and then maybe I can finish this off tomorrow and be done with it.
Day 16: Jazz Day 88 (DDRD 1,666) May 24, 2022
Read to page 441, and am now shaking the dust from my sandals.
Miles had to go back to talking about hitting women one more time. This time in the abstract, and it boiled down to, "Some women are really pushy and if you let them get away with that they keep pushing, so sometimes you have to hit them." This time at least he added, "But you can't do that." And then the twist: "I used to do that, but now I just walk away." So if you're feeling very generous-minded, I guess you could attribute that to some personal growth, but as for me...I'm just glad to leave this book behind. I don't know what I'll be reading tomorrow for my Daily Devotional Reading project, but it sure as hell won't be about Jazz. I've had all that I can stand on that topic. So once again, Thank you, Miles Davis. You truly are a motherfucker.
DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read
DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
2nd 1K Sub-Total: 13,945 pages. So as of Day 578 of The Second 1,000 Days, I've already passed (by a substantial amount) the number of pages I read in all of the first 1,000 Days. Woo-hoo.
(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
2nd 1K Sub-Total: 15,547 pages. Grand Total: 28,996 pages.
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
2nd 1K Total: 17,164 pages Grand Total: 30,613
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