Book Description
For more than forty years Miles Davis has been in the front rank of American music. Universally acclaimed as a musical genius, Miles is one of the most important and influential musicians in the world. The subject of several biographies, now Miles speaks out himself about his extraordinary life.
Miles: The Autobiography, like Miles himself, holds nothing back. For the first time Miles talks about his five-year silence. He speaks frankly and openly about his drug problem and how he overcame it. He condemns the racism he has encountered in the music business and in American society generally. And he discusses the women in his life. But above all, Miles talks about music and musicians, including the legends he has played with over the years: Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Trane, Mingus, and many others.
The man who has given us some of the most exciting music of the past few decades has now given us a compelling and fascinating autobiography, featuring a concise discography and thirty-two pages of photographs.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing reading.......2007-07-30
Written with much candor and some bitterness, this book gives incredible insight into one of the greatest musical minds of modern jazz, but also gives valuable perspective on the lives and music of other giants, such as Parker, Gillespie, Coltrane, etc., with amusing anecdotes about older players - Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, etc.
Naturally, one might argue that there is a certain amount of pose in Miles- using of fowl language; see for example Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs) generated on this site (this is pasted from amazon, but I omitted letters in order not to offend the amazon policies...):
# modal thing, hip s--t, s--t off nobody, stupid bu----it, great trumpet player, bad m---------ker, working band, silly s--t, real hip, shooting heroin #
See how much music is there?
But, seriously, this sort of attitude goes with his lifestyle - he even mocks himself for being too much fashion conscious...
The problem is that the book is not edited well enough
< not only that certain tales are retold too many times (or in bad prose), the cuss words are boring because they are unimaginative. Add "he played his a.. off" and you covered nearly everything Miles said about some players who are very important not only for the history of jazz, but also for Miles- personal history.
Still, fascinating book, very useful for understanding significant aspects of American culture
(f. i. I get how he didn-t like Satchmo-s, Dizzy-s or Bird-s goofy monkying around and grinning, but I don-t for the life of me understand how can he put Prince and other figures of modern or contemporary popular music on the same level as Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and other giants of jazz he discusses).
Well, the controversial aspects never hurt a book...
Not a perfect piece of work (therefore only 4 stars), but compelling and therefore obligatory reading for all jazz fans.
This book is amazing.......2007-03-27
I use the present tense when I describe this book as a classic, because I could read this multiple times and never get bored, while gaining large amounts of knowledge. This book is brilliant because it is honest. It is a first hand account of his life that really cannot be explained by anyone else but himself, Miles Davis. Miles starts from his earliest memories all the way to the end in this book without holding anything back. He does not limit his speech to selective words that would hinder the actual situation. He tells everything truthfully with no fluff. This is definitely one of the most treasured jazz read in the history of literature. If you are a serious musician or an active listener of this music, I highly suggest you read it. Besides learning everything from Miles perspective and how his life was, you will also gain knowledge on the music himself and how the other players of his time were like. Buy this now, you will not regret!
My brother loved it........2007-03-14
I got this for my brother for Christmas and he really liked it.
gritty, raw inside look at the soul of a rare artist.. .......2007-02-27
Miles in his words, with all the raw emotion, anger, bitterness, of a man who changed the course of jazz at least 3 times in his life..this is one of my favorite bio's of all-time because I never felt pandered to or appeased..this is the way Miles viewed his life and art and if you don't like it, tough...but if you want to try to understand the grist of an artist's soul this is a book you do not want to miss.
A lot of motherfuckers.......2007-02-24
Miles tells it like it is in this book . You can tell its his voice and not his co-writer as he descibes in detail all of the people in his life, good and bad. The heroin addiction and the trumpet playing. The naems of the men around him present you with a history of jazz players that are iconic today. good book.
Book Description
Here is quite simply one of the most original books about a jazz musician ever published--a biography-cum-discography that focuses in turn on fourteen major albums recorded by Miles Davis, using them as a jumping off point for an illuminating discussion of the turbulent life and work of the "Evil Genius of Jazz." Richard Cook, a veteran writer respected throughout the jazz world, looks at such landmark recordings as Birth of the Cool, Miles Ahead, Kind of Blue, The Complete Live at The Plugged Nickel, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and Live at Montreux. Each of these recordings is considered in detail, illuminating their contribution to Davis's development as instrumentalist, group leader, and composer. But Cook goes well beyond these fourteen albums, evaluating all the trumpeter's recordings (official and bootleg), and relating them to events in Miles's life as well as to wider currents in contemporary music. Cook helps us disentangle Miles the legendary figure from the music itself, to re-hear and reconsider this marvelous body of work ranging over four exhilarating decades. The author also highlights the indispensable contributions of sidemen such as John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, John Scofield, and many others, as well as calling for a reassessment of the importance of such "satellite" figures as Gil Evans, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and Chick Corea in the development of Miles's music. A comprehensive and rigorous guide to the music and life of Miles Davis, It's About That Time is a stunning book that burns away the fog of myth that surrounds its complex and contrary subject.
Customer Reviews:
Miles & Miles.......2007-06-01
The author discusses the career of Miles by focusing on his huge legacy of recordings. The more traditional jazz of Miles was basically between 1945 and 1966. There are 65 record entries in that time frame. The total includes major label as well as bootlegs. From 1967 thru 1991, the year of his death, there are 66 more albums. Miles made his mark in the jazz world with his early playing with Charlie Parker, his Birth Of The Cool Album,Sonny Rollins, and then his band that included Coltrane,Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Later on he had sidemen such as Wynton Kelly, Hank Mobley, Sonny Stitt,Bill Evans,Jimmy Cobb and Cannonball Adderly. Of course his collaborations with Gil Evans were significant. Next was what I would call the transitional group comprised of George Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Personally, I lost interest in Miles Davis as he moved more and more into the rock area and seemed to be in search of a new musical identity. So, this book fills in that time period fairly well. I was amazed that so many of the later recordings basically consisted of engineering edits. A worthwhile, if somewhat tedious read. By the way, the author deserves some kind of a medal for listening to all the albums. Particularly, most of the later ones.
Enjoyable and generally well-informed. Maybe a little peccable........2007-05-15
I'm having fun reading this book. It's a pleasure to dwell on lots of my favorite Miles records in the company of a highly knowledgeable fan. Cook knows well lots that I don't, and he has interesting opinions on everything. Not that I always agree: He damns "Moon Dreams" with faint praise -- I've always felt it's one of the two strongest tunes from "Birth of the Cool," and he gives even shorter shrift to the ominous "Deception," which in my mind is the other one. Of course, sometimes I pound the table in agreement, as when he calls "Billy Boy" "an irritating distraction" (for all its acknowledged groove) on the "Milestones" record. That is of course what's fun about these kinds of books (or conversations). It's like comparing sports teams: everybody (i.e., nobody) wins the argument.
There are some less satisfying aspects to the book, such as when he neglects to include the French horn section in his listing of the instrumentation on "Sketches of Spain," surely one of the more important aspects of the sound of that record. Or when he puts the bridge in "Miles" (or "Milestones") as A Aeolean, when I've always heard it as A Dorian (the way the rhythm section treats it: scale on the 2nd degree of G Maj rather than on the 6th degree of C Maj). Maybe I'm being picky...or wrong. And maybe it makes a big difference in the feel of the song.
There's also a peculiar almostness to Cook's language, that recalls to me Mark Twain's statement that "The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." Once again, it's all a matter of opinion and connotation, of course.
Then, sometimes his word choice is thought-provoking: he more than once refers to Miles's sometime ballad approach as "preening." Not sure I agree, but I'm not sure I don't. It certainly asks me to relisten, carefully. Thanks for that.
All in all, an enjoyable trip through Miles's discography with a knowledgeable if not entirely impeccable guide.
Who is this for?.......2007-04-28
OK, the scholarship is impeccable, but who is this for? If you don't know the music, the descriptions of the bands and the albums don't do much for you. On the other hand, if you're such a Miles fan that you have all this stuff, why do you need Richard Cook telling you what you're hearing? You've probably read the liner notes to the CD's or boxes, and it doesn't seem to me that there is much that he adds. This seems to be mostly an expansion on Cook's writing on Miles's music in the Penguin Guide, and if you want to know his opinion as to which CD's to buy, I'd take a look at that instead. As good as this is, I'm not sure why you'd buy it.
one of the best miles davis books available.......2007-03-01
There are many books written about Miles Davis. Several of them are excellent (Ian Carr's, the auto-biography, etc). This book by Richard Cook ranks with the best.
This book's focus is the music. Although Cook uses some definitive Davis recordings as a device to divide chapters and time periods in his career, the author does not limit his analysis strictly to those recordings. The end of each chapter includes several other recordings from the period, including some European imports and common bootlegs.
As co-author of the Penguin Jazz Guide and his own encyclopedia of jazz, Richard Cook knows his jazz, his recordings, and his Miles Davis. His analysis is interesting and enlightening.
I highly recommend this book.
p.s. Don't miss the excellent professional reviews listed above.
Book Description
A complete musical analysis of one of the greatest jazz masters of all time. This comprehensive text studies and analyzes the works, provides transcriptions of the solos, and much more. For all music enthusiasts. Songs covered include: All Blues - Four - Freddie Freeloader - My Funny Valentine - Nardis - So What - Solar - Stella by Starlight - Tune Up - and more!
Book Description
Dark Magus is a warts-and-all look at the real Miles Davis. As told by his son, this book strips away the public perception of Davis and gets down to the realities of his personality, his relationships, and his many quirks. Dark Magus details this enigmatic superstar's Jekyll and Hyde behavior: his swings between sobriety and prodigious drug use; his tender family moments and his destructive selfishness; his search for marital stability and his obsession with young women; his exalted musical talent and his ever-present personal demons. The author also delves into Davis' relationships with artists such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane, as well as his role as a mentor to young musicians, his obsession with sports, the ups and downs of his career, and the family's turmoil over his final will. "This book is a brilliant and engaging revelation of Miles' character through the recollections of his oldest son. It's a book about a legendary musician who was one of my closest friends, and a book that's second to none." - Clark Terry
Customer Reviews:
Non-exsistant writing style .......2007-05-10
When I bought this book I was excited, cause I felt that the son that lived and worked among the man that is Miles Dewey Davis, could and would provide a great,colorful, sometimes wonderful, sometimes tragic insight into him. This son, who is a psychotherapist, had NO deep insight inside Miles. He was a very un-poetic author. Painful even. Typos are peppered throughout the whole book. Phrases, and stories are repeated, with no elaboration. This was a hard read, so hard that I stopped at page 126, and I cant seem to pick the book up again.The book is only 168 pages too. I can't believe i'm going to say this: it's a bore!! BORING. And because there is no elaboration on the stories he tells that he experienced with Miles, you never walk away with any surprises. Uh, is this Miles Davis's life we are talking here? No. It's the story of a son with a very limited writing ability.
I collect books written about Miles Davis, and I'd have to say that THIS book is the worst!!!!!
Like Miles, Gregory is not the least bit averse to tooting his own horn.......2007-01-12
After reading Miles' autobiography written with Quincy Troupe, I thought this book would offer some more insight into MILES' life. Unfortunately, after a scant 100 pages of Miles biography (all of which was covered in better detail in the Troupe book), Gregory takes the next 60 odd pages to whine about being cut out of the will and explain his personal struggle with not getting any of Miles' money.
Whining about the will wouldn't even take the full 60 pages if Gregory wasn't constantly repeating himself. Its as if he expects that anyone reading any portion of the book didn't read the rest of it. "I was my dads nurse and bodygaurd," is mentioned at least once every two or three pages. Yeah, we get it... now maybe you could boast about someone else... maybe MILES DAVIS?!?
For someone who is as educated as Gregory repeatedly claims to be, you would think he'd see how retarded he looks whining about how hurt he is not to have daddy's money and then turning around to call the members of the family who did get the money materialistic.
Then again, I consider myself educated and I wasn't smart enough to stop reading this drivel... I kept thinking there would be some tiny morsel of information about Miles that I didn't know hidden in there. There isn't, so don't waste your time reading this.
....and this guy has a degree............2006-12-29
GEEZ, the book is writ' like a 12 year old kid, yet this man claims to have a big degree--whats more is he adds NOTHING of substance to the stories we may have read in Miles' autobio., or other works...just a bunch of regurgitation of stories already in print--and boring too--nothing to capture your attention too long, and trust me, I've read all I can find on Miles....
His own writing has a "Jekyl and Hyde" of its own in that one minute he hails his dad and the next he nails him....so, perhaps this schizophrenic energy has rubbed off, who knows...
all I know is I am GLAD that I got it used....
another thing is the annoying fact that he skips around like a kid on a jump rope--one minute your lost in the haze of the 70's, the next your sitting in Birdland waiting for Miles to play alongside Bird....
the only thing I liked this book for is the few rare photos in color that it has....
finally, when it comes to Miles, I am not hard to please--JUST GIMME MILES! but here, its hard to believe it was writ' by his OWN SON--and I think this is the reason I am so taken aback by the lack of inspiration or content....
maybe Squeaky can do a better job heh?
falls apart quickly.......2006-12-04
The first few chapters of "Dark Magus" deliver on the book's promise: it's chocked full of interesting insights into Mile Davis' family in St. Louis, his first wife, and the years up to his move to New York/Julliard.
Sadly, after this great beginning, "Dark Magus" quickly disintegrates in both content and writing style. While the beginning progressed chronologically and was written with an appealing insider's language and perspective, the last two thirds of the book are mainly disorganized ramblings without any new insight into Miles the father, the man, or the music.
I've read all of the main biographies about Miles: Ian Carr, Jack Chambers, George Cole, Brian Morton, Philip Freeman, Ashley Kahn, and of course Miles himself with Quincey Troupe have given us well-organized information and insight into one of jazz's most influential and profound artists. Gregory Davis' additions to this body of work are footnotes at best.
This book promises to provide an insider's view of Miles and his "evil/beautiful" sides. As far as his "evil" side is concerned, Miles paints a much worse picture of himself in his autobiography than Gregory does in "Dark Magus". Gregory was left out of Miles will... he appears to have beeen a devoted assistant to his father and a great guy, but he repeats the facts and his frustrations with his family over Mile's estate several times throughout the book. If you've read Mile's autobiography or many of the other bios listed above, you know Miles used drugs througout his life (after kicking heroin at an early age),was despicable in the mid to late 70s, partially cleaned up in the 80s, but was never an angel. Gregory adds no new facts to this "side" of Miles.
As far as Miles' beauty (which is why he achieved so much), Gregory frequently gives us little new insight into the positive side of his father, aside from a touching story of Miles running half naked carrying Gregory to the local hospital on a bitter winter night to save him from choking to death. Gregory's references to Miles music are tainted by chronological and factual inaccuracies. He lived with Miles and Fran in NYC, but the most we learn about this period is that when Miles was around, he expected the family to maintain some of the "traditional" manners Miles' father had insisted upon... we get no great new insight into Miles. Likewise for any time that Gregory spent with Miles in the 70s or 80s.
While I appreciate that Gregory pursued an advanced degree in psychology, "made it on his own", and shares his father's love of expressing himself through music, I'm afraid his book doesn't live up to its promises.
Pot holders required.......2006-11-28
Miles Davis was more than just a great jazz trumpeter. He was a man who lived his life at full speed, often with reckless abandon that could lead to powerful improvisations but could just as easily lead to painful family and love relationships. This book takes a new look at Miles, from a son's perspective. Love, hate, jealousy- the story is so lurid you'll need pot-holders to handle the material. A fun read.
Average customer rating:
- Enlightening and Infuriating at the Same Time
- Definitive book on Miles
- fine book, but . . .
- Bravo Chambers!
- The definitve biography of Miles Davis written thus far
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Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis
J. K. Chambers
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
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ASIN: 0306808498 |
Customer Reviews:
Enlightening and Infuriating at the Same Time.......2007-03-12
Yes, this is THE source for information on Miles Davis' career. It should get five stars but there is a major sticking point for me. The book pretty much sticks to the musical aspects of Miles' life and it is chock-full of great information about line-ups, tours, recording dates.
I love all of Miles' work from his days with Parker until the day he died. It ALL has its place. Given that, I have a very serious problem with this book. Chambers is incredibly biased against Miles work from In a Silent Way onwards. He delivers many judgments about some recorded performances a "failures". He has very few positive things to say about this period. His comments about Big Fun and On the Corner (now considered far ahead of its time and a masterpiece) are inexcusable. He claims any listener to the music on Big Fun will find it frustratingly boring. Speak for yourself Chambers, Big Fun was the very record that got me into Miles Davis. If it's so lousy, why is it still in print in both a 24 bit remaster AND SACD? Chambers describes "He Loved Him Madly" from "Get Up With It" as "monochratic" and asserts it is incapable of sustaining the listener's interest. What? Again, if it's so boring, why is "Get Up With It" still in print and beautifully remastered 27 years after its initial release? SOMEbody is buying this stuff. We know who we are ;-)
I believe most folks don't read a book like this because they want a critique, they want information and perhaps insights from the folks who were there, playing the music, producing the music, etc. The information is here in this book, but the reader has to put up with Chamber's shallow opinions about Miles' later work. His comments about the Cellar Door gig with McLaughlin are ridiculous - especially given we can now actually hear much of those performances on the Cellar Door Sessions and that this was an incredibly good band with or without McLaughlin.
Chambers also prefaced this new edition with a long diatribe about Miles' last decade, calling him "Freaky Deaky" and making lots of plagerism complaints, i.e. Miles ripped off many of Chambers accounts and stories to create his autobiography. That may be a very valid point but I didn't buy this book to read about that sort of thing. So what, Chambers is upset that an old man who always claimed to have a poor memory used his book to recall some of the instances of his own life? Pathetic. Chambers forgets that he's made a handsome profit off of the life of Miles Dewey Davis. If Chambers felt he just HAD to include it, then it should have appeared as an epilogue not as a prologue full of sour grapes.
If you want to learn a lot about Miles, this is definitely THE book to purchase, but ya sure have to endure a lot of the author's sour grapes and subjective, snotty criticism to get the goods.
Definitive book on Miles.......2005-12-26
The best book on Miles Davis and one of the best jazz books ever written. Originally published in two volumes, the first half covers Miles from his birth up to 1960, the second half since 1960. The book is a bio-discography and centers around Miles's recording sessions. Full session details are given along with excellent commentary by Chambers.
Chambers knows what he's talking about when it comes to the music (a lot of jazz biographers are shaky when dealing with the actual music involved). Additional biographical detail is related as the book proceeds chronologically - club dates, personnel changes, business deals, troubles. It's a fascinating, detailed, and authoritative account of the life and career of Miles Davis. Definitive and a must-have book for anyone at all interested in Davis or modern jazz in general.
fine book, but . . ........2004-03-15
A fine book.
But Chambers is also slightly upset, I think, that Quincy Troupe got to work with Miles on his autobiography and not he -- and what Chambers' book is missing is exactly the kind of personal material (and voice) you find in Miles' autiobiograpy ("Miles").
The best thing about this book is the discussion of the wider context of Miles' music and performance ("the times"), but without Miles own voice it degenerates through the end of Part Two into a kind of annotated discography (mind you -- that's not all bad -- it is accurate and gave me a few ideas for out of the way purchases).
So, I recommend reading both this book and "Miles", for a complete picture.
Bravo Chambers!.......2003-02-04
This is probably the best book about the life of Miles Davis I have found. I have read his autobiography, the biography by Carr, and So What along with a couple of other Miles books. This one simply gives the best detail and most interesting about the artists life. If you want to read a book about Miles Davis start with this one. It is quite lenghty but there weren't many dull moments in Davis's life.
The definitve biography of Miles Davis written thus far.......2001-01-09
Jack Chambers has done a very hard task and that is to present the life of the legendary Miles Davis to readers in a very interesting, yet complex style which was reflective of the way Miles Davis led his life and music.
Miles Davis was the premiere jazz musician of his time along with John Coltrane, Charlie "Bird" Parker, Herbie Hancock, etc, yet while you can love Davis's music, to know the man was very hard to do, since Miles Davis was a standoffish and sullen individual. Chambers describes Davis's behavior as being sullen and hard to know because Davis's was a very shy man. I am sure that Davis lived a tough life because of injustice, yet it is sad that he didn't trust his fans and those who cared for him. Davis certainly lived the life of a "star", he over-indulged in sex, was an abuser of drugs, and had split personalities later on in life, yet his musical vision was almost always focused and clear, whether it be in the pinnacle of his talent (1950-1962), or his creating fusion (1967-1973), or the later part of his life.
Chambers does an excellent job of detailing the relationship Miles had with his fellow musicians such as the love-hate relationship with Theolonius Monk, the admiration and jealousy between Coltrane and Miles, as well as Miles being a mentor to such jazz greats as Herbie Hancock, John McGlaughlin, Chick Corea, etc.
I am a tremendous fan of Miles Davis jazz visions, I love his music and his musical style, yet after reading this book I feel sadness because I don't know if I pity Davis or just not liking him altogether, or admiring him no matter what, his final years were spent in paranoia, suspicion and feeding his ego, that is sad because if he would of just relaxed and enjoy his fans admiration I believe he might have lived longer. Anyways, this is an outstanding book and is highly recommended to all jazz lovers and fans of the immortal Miles Davis.
Book Description
15 jazzy solo guitar arrangements of Davis classics, including: All Blues * All of You * Blue in Green * Bye Bye Blackbird * Four * Freddie Freeloader * I Could Write a Book * Milestones * Nardis * Nefertiti * Seven Steps to Heaven * So What * Solar * There Is No Greater Love * When I Fall in Love. The CD includes full demos of each piece by Jamie Findlay.
Customer Reviews:
Miles Davis for Solo Guitar.......2007-09-11
The cover of this book contains a picture of an an electric guitar. Accordingly, I assumed that that both the music cd and guitar notation/tablature would pertain to an electric guitar. However, the music and tablature pertains to an accousitic guitar only - not an electric guitar. I was diappointed. This seems to border on false advertising.
Play it all the time!!!.......2007-08-14
I am very busy getting ready, rehearsing for a concert and then a record date after that. Between my performance schedule, my day job, and teaching privately, I have not had much time to study the book!! There were few nights when I took it to bed with me to read thru the pieces and a few of the techniques have found their way into my hands. I love Miles and will love to finaly get these solo tunes into my sets; in the meantime...I have the CD in my car and listen to it constantly!! So buy it just for the CD!! The CD is great!!!
Ron in SLC
Great for any jazz (Miles Davis) fan.......2007-06-21
Great book but not for a beginner. This product and I would say most jazz books should be for only for an experienced guitar player unless you really have the desire to sit down and spend alot of time learning the songs. The companion CD is great and I actually listen to it on it's own.
Very sweet indeed!.......2007-01-13
For all you guitar players who are Miles Davis fans (who isn't?), this is a gold mine. Be forewarned: these arrangements encompass some fairly advanced technique. The arrangements are well done and true to the spirit of the original Miles pieces themselves (IMHO). Both music notation and TAB are provided, with chord names as well. The best part of this book is the CD that comes with it. Jamie Findley plays each track in real time and the recordings are clear and well executed. Songs are in the same order as they are presented in the book. The amount of effort that Mr. Lindley put into this is apparent and definitely paid off. This work succeeds on several levels: as a guitar technique learning tool, as a Miles learning tool and as a theory tool. Exceptionally well done. Buy it and you will not regret it. Maybe someday Mr. Lindley will do Coltrane's "Love Supreme"??
Very nice collection - fills a void.......2006-06-11
This is a very nice collection of advanced solo pieces for jazz guitar. The selection is very solid, and the arrangments are really top notch. Jamie clearly put a lot of effort into this project and the outcome is apparant. There is virtually no pedagogy here - just the raw arrangments and a well recorded CD of jamie playing each tune at a performance level at normal speed. The CD alone is worth the cost of the package just as a listening CD. But be warned: although the arrangments are clean and sensibly voiced, the pieces are complex and will take considerable effort to master - but they are well worth it.
Book Description
"Very moving, emotional material."
-Gordon Meltzer, Miles's last road manager and executive producer of the Doo-Bop album
"An important book."
-Brian Priestley, jazz pianist, critic, reviewer, and co-author of The Rough Guide to Jazz
"Bravo! Thank you for telling it like it was!"
-Randy Hall, singer/guitarist
"George Cole's writing, his choice of references, his descriptions of many incidents---it is all so clear and respectful, and shows a deep understanding."
-Palle Mikkelborg, composer, arranger, and producer of the Aura album
The Last Miles is the first book to center exclusively on the music Miles Davis made in the last decade of his life.
Author George Cole spotlights the final period of Davis's career, when Davis emerged from a five-year hiatus. The focus is on the music Davis recorded and played and how it evolved in the eyes of the musicians with whom he played.
Thousands of new facts are uncovered, including a lost Miles Davis album, how Miles got into hip-hop, and how he worked in the studio and on stage. Cole devotes at least one chapter to each album Davis recorded during this period, and the full track-by-track descriptions contain the stories behind the songs.
Sure to satisfy the most serious Miles Davis fans, The Last Miles offers nearly 100 interviews with some of Davis's closest associates and musical friends, including Paul Buckmaster, George Duke, Chaka Khan, Branford Marsalis, Easy Mo Bee, Steve Porcaro, Wallace Roney, David Sanborn, and many more, as well as interviews with thirty-one of the thirty-six band members Miles had in this period, including Bob Berg, Robben Ford, Darryl Jones, Marcus Miller, John Scofield, and Mike Stern, among others.
In addition, the book includes new photos of Miles, a discography, details of unreleased material, Davis's guest recordings, soundtrack recordings, tribute albums, artists who covered Davis's 1980s music, compilations, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Lots and lots of first-hand perspectives.......2006-02-05
Cole really went all out to get interviews with the band members and other key people in this phase of Miles' life. If you don't like the music of the period covered (1976-1991), this book isn't going to change your mind about the records. But you will still get a great deal of insight about Miles as a person from many voices (I think 31 band members, road crew members, producers, and others). In cases where memories have dimmed and conflicting accounts have been given by different interviewees, Cole puts those quotes together and makes a best guess about what really happened in the instance being discussed. It's extremely thorough writing--Cole also cross references his interview material with published accounts from magazines and other books on Miles. It's worth a look, and isn't a second rate rehash of the other books on the electric Miles period.
Enthralling Must Read for all Miles Davis and Music Lovers.......2005-11-07
The music covering the period 1980-1991 of Miles Davis tour de force career is perhaps the most overlooked and least documented of them all. In his book "The Last Miles", author George Cole meticulously documents this controversial period through countless interviews with the thiry-plus musicians of the period as well as producers, engineers and nearly anyone else who had a hand in the music of this time. Also included are interviews with members of Miles family as well as close friends.
I call it controversial because many critics didn't give Miles the respect he was due and much of the music was just immediately dismissed without further review. Cole writes the book in direct chronological order from recording session to recording session and from the shifting perspectives of the ever changing members of Miles Davis' bands throughout this period. Much insight is given to not only the music that was created and released, i.e., "Tutu", "Amandla" and "Doo Bop", but also all of the wonderful gems that are setting in the Warner Brothers vault mind-numbingly unreleased. Cole also goes in depth about the unreleased materials that are out there from this period available through imports and previously unreleased.
It's quite obvious that Cole is a writer that took his subject matter very seriously and was careful to be accurate with the facts and all quotations. I have read nearly every book written on Miles Davis in various states of his career including his famous autobiography written with Poet/Author Quincy Troupe. It is my opinion as an avid reader and jazz afficianado that Cole's book is the most objective look into this much neglected final phase of Miles brilliant career ever written. Cole gives detailed insight to each band member, the recordings, the tours and even details leading up to Miles' premature death with compassion, objectivity and accuracy.
I would recommend listening to each of the recordings which are broken down cut by cut as you read the book. I found this method of reading the book enjoyable and I listened to some recordings that I've heard a hundred times in a brand new light.
If you don't take my word for it, read some of the reviews that the reputable members of Miles last bands have written at www.thelastmiles.com
From John Scofield, to Kenny Garrett, Adam Holzman, Darryl "The Munch" Jones, Bill Evans and Mike Stern, just to name a few. This is a MUST read for all Miles historians and music lovers alike. Don't hesitate, order this book today!
The Last Miles.......2005-08-02
Well written and well researched book about the last years of Miles Davis. Typically, critics and listeners have downplayed the music of Miles after his comeback in the early 1980's. This book argues that the music of this period was of a high standard and should not be overlooked.
One interesting note - friends and colleagues of Miles Davis have some drastically different views of his retirement years - 1975-1980.
Miles Davis's music in the last phase of his career.......2005-05-01
Not a biography, "The Last Miles" rather concentrates on the music Miles Davis created and recorded in the last decade of his career as one of America's leading jazz musicians. Cole is interested especially in the sources of the music Davis produced in this last period of his prolific and influential career and how each piece was recorded. Such interests are related to Cole's writings as a journalist in the fields of music and technology. The author's keen interest in Davis's place in these fields extends to answering how Davis came up with the titles for each of his recordings. To answer this and other questions, Cole went to musicians who worked with Miles Davis and also the technicians who recorded his pieces. The business of promoting Davis's albums by Columbia and Warner is also covered. A singular look into the last stage of Davis's long, somewhat checkered career gained from varied sources; which at the same time gives a picture of the modern music business.
We want Miles - and this book!.......2005-05-01
Back when I was a kid of about 20 years old living in Copenhagen in the mid 80ties, I bought Miles Davis "We Want Miles" on the same day as I bought "Kind Of Blue". The last album is obviously universally acclaimed as THE defining small group jazz album, which I didn't know at the time, I just listened to both of them with open ears.
I was equally blown away with the 2 albums when I first heard them, but more than anything I was blown away by the fact that the same artist could create 2 such different sounding albums, yet make them equally compelling. I decided to buy every single Miles Davis album I could get a hold of, and I have NEVER been disappointed in any of them.
What led me to go buy both of these albums in the first place were having caught Miles & his band in Copenhagen in 1987. Attending this concert turned out to be a life-altering event for me, actually it completely changed the direction of my life. I devoted my life almost entirely to music since that day, and always with Miles as my guiding light.
Now, if Miles music in the 80ties had sucked really badly as Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Crouch and their cohorts claim, would it have had that capacity to influence a young kid from Copenhagen this way? I am only one of many, many human beings whose lives have been positively influenced by the power of Miles Davis and his wonderful music.
If you want to get backstage and discover how Miles worked his magic - no need to go elsewhere. This is by far the best book on Miles I've ever read, as it has much more involvement from Miles musical partners than any of the others, and remains compassionate and objective at the same time.
And for those that would be interested to understand Miles working methods, you won't get any closer - even for those that prefer what Miles did in the 50ties, 60ties & 70ties, this book probably sheds a lot of indirect light on those periods as well, as it would be difficult to imagine that Miles would radically alter his working style.
Because this book gets us so close to one of the greatest musicians that ever lived, I believe it will be considered an important historical document, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any music lover.
P.S: Buy the DVD Miles Davis "Live In Montreal" from 1985 as your companion disc - catches Miles on a great night with Scofield, Darryl Jones, Bob Berg etc.
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Annual Review of Nursing Research 2003: Research on Child Health and Pediatric Issues (Annual Review of Nursing Research)
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Book Description
This 21st volume of the Annual Review synthesizes nursing research to date on child health and illness, including family issues. Ages range from pre-term babies to adolescents, with a focus on chronic illness. A special final chapter reviews the highlights of the past 10 volumes of the Annual Review of Nursing Research, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Review.
Product Description
In preparation for over two years, this landmark publication presents the music of the Miles Davis Nonet in concert score format, restored from as many of the original composer/arrangers' autograph parts as still exist. Includes an extensive introduction, notes on the restoration process, bios of the composers and arrangers, and note-for-note transcriptions of these classic jazz tunes: Birth of the Cool Theme Boplicity (Be Bop Lives) Budo Deception Godchild Israel Jeru Joost at the Roost Moon Dreams Move Rock Salt a/k/a Rocker Rouge Venus De Milo.
Customer Reviews:
I'm prejudiced.......2002-08-21
I edited this folio. For years, musicians had to transcribe this important music so it could be played, and hoped that the original materials would turn up. The wait is now over.
All of the original parts known to exist of this legendary music were utilized to create corrected, clear, edited scores in concert. There are several pages of notes, including bios, a history of the music and the ensemble, and information on the restoration of this music. Also included is a composition that was never recorded.
Both the estates of Miles Davis and Gerry Mulligan made this music available to me to prepare this folio, and Keith Mardak, CEO of Hal Leonard, deserves credit for making this music available.
For me, this was a challenge and a labor of love. A more detailed article on the editing process will be published by the Journal of the Institute of Jazz Studies in the near future.
Product Description
Regarded by experts as the best jazz recording of all time, the 1959 release Kind of Blue is one of the most influential albums in the history of jazz. The new hardcover deluxe edition of this exceptional book features transcriptions of all the improvised solos as well as sketch scores for all the songs from this landmark release; this includes Miles' trumpet parts, the brilliant sax work of John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly, a full transcription of Wynton Kelly's piano solo on Freddie Freeloader, and Paul Chambers' and Jimmy Cobb's rhythm section parts to use as guides for the feel of each composition. , including an alternate take. Also includes fabulous photos and an essay written specifically for this edition by composer Bill Kirchner, who won a Grammy for his notes on Sony's Miles Davis/Gil Evans boxed set, and edited The Miles Davis Reader for Smithsonian Institution Press. For musicians in the know, this book can only enhance one's ardor for the album Quincy Jones calls his 'orange juice' and Donald Fagen hails as 'The Bible.' -Ashley Kahn, author of Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece Put on the recording, take out the score, and you'll learn a lot and hear things you hadn't noticed before. -Lewis Porter, Director of the MA in Jazz History & Research, Rutgers University at Newark.
Customer Reviews:
Can one map out the heavens?.......2006-08-05
This is an unfortunately poor attempt to transcribe the music of "Kind of Blue", the world's favourite jazz album. Full of incredibly careless and basic errors, this edition of transcriptions really marrs the celestial and transcendent glory of the recordings.
Many of the melodic transcriptions of the horn solos are passable (although based much around what is likely to have been played rather than what was) but the piano transcriptions are pretty useless. On the whole, the score is pretty minimal on the page: the piano and bass parts are often omitted, even at the head of a piece: this is extremely counter-productive to the purpose of the book - to provide the music in a form as "study scores for small group jazz" (thus the horns are all notated as transposing instruments to this purpose), even if such performances would produce as erroneous a rendition that these scores would inevitably instigate.
Despite all of this, a substantial introduction by Bill Kirchner, the author of "A Miles Davis Reader", is the redemption to this ill-fated endeavour: a thouroughly interesting and illuminating insight is given here to the album that this edition fails to capture on paper. Even down to a contribution to the debate on the authorship of "Blue in Green" does this discourse fathom.
However, this has failed to distract me from the fact that good, solid transcriptions are not difficult to make these days, and that a lot more care could have been injected into the production of this book. Do not buy this if you can help it - make your own transcriptions if you really want them.
But, with all this said, can one really put such a beautiful masterpiece into notated form? Can one effectively render poetry into prose? Can one map out the heavens?
Horn Centric, Not as Useful as it Could Be.......2006-08-04
Sure, we're glad to have this, but -- please note, it is not a complete transcription as claimed; the drum part is not transcribed. Instead the transcribers fink out by writing "Drums play time" -- uh, yeah, that's what jazz drummers do all right. But there's a good reason why jazz drummers spend a lot of time with this recording. The transcribers don't know about that, apparently.
The bass part also gets neglected in some areas with a just "bass walks." Again, yes, but serious students of these instruments and of ensemble interaction would like to see the actual notes and rhythms. There are many different ways to walk a bass, and there can be genius in this too. What a horn player plays can be affected by what the bass player is doing.
My other beef with this book is that it is not in concert pitch, except for the piano and bass parts (when provided, see above). Sure hope you're good at sight-transposing from Bb and Eb, or perhaps you play saxes in various keys. For the rest of us it's a big bother. It would have been much better to put the whole thing in C, as most serious instrumentalists who play a transposing instrument can read C music.
Overall accuracy seems solid.
So, better than nothing but somewhat disappointing.
Good resource, but far from perfect.......2005-11-10
This is the whole Kind of Blue album, transcribed.
I've (painstakingly) transcribed all the horn solos on So What, and I can safely say there are a lot of mistakes in the book. The Davis solo is accurate, being slower, I suppose, but the others have wrong notes and missing notes. Maybe not a tremendous amount, perhaps 5% of the notes or less, but still, when you pay the money for someone else to transcribe it ...
But it is a good starting point for your own transcriptions, if nothing else. And maybe 95% accuracy is close enough for you.
Not Kind of Good, Really Good.......2002-10-20
This book is really great. It's in-depth, and even has the heads for all the songs for all the parts. Because all the parts for the songs are there (drums, trumpet, saxes, piano, and bass) we were able to perform some of the songs, even using some of the solos from them. Great book! Also includes some background info from the songs too.
miles davis- kind of blue.......2001-01-26
this is a great book for the advanced jazz student to learn about the best selling jazz albumn of all time.
understand the melodies and thier relationship to the chords from this monumental recording.
learn about miles, coltranes and the gangs improvisational techniques...
a m ust have for the serious student...
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