Miles

Today is the 86th anniversary of the birth of Miles Davis, the badass king of jazz, and a musical hero of mine.  Admittedly, I only started to get into Miles, and jazz in general, a few years ago.  I started off with Coltrane, Monk, Tatum, Brubeck, Corea and Getz.  But when I got around to Miles, that was it.  I'm still learning much about the man and his music.  His career was a long and winding road, from the bebop of Charlie Parker, through hard bop, cool jazz, his great quintets, his work with Gil Evans and Teo Marceo, his amazing electric period, to the fusion and pop of the eighties.  Miles was restless, ever pushing his music out into new directions and leaving a stunning collection of recorded works.  The most immediate for me is the electric period, paricularly In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew and Tribute to Jack Johnson.  These albums offer a somewhat smooth transition to the jazz world for a jam band fan.  Davis in fact opened for the Grateful Dead in 1970 which, if I could time-travel, would probably make my head explode.  From there I worked backwards, not entirely in a straight line, to experience his 50s and 60s output.  As I become more a fan of this period of jazz in general I find my appreciation for Miles growing even greater.  The combination of his consistantly beautiful music, his knack for surrounding himself with talented collaborators, and his tone on the trumpet put him in the rarified company of Jerry Garcia in my personal musical pantheon.

My favorite Miles album?  Well, I mentioned a few choices earlier.  In a Silent Way has a real grip on my psyche, and Jack Johnson is hard to beat with it's driving rock and immediacy.  Lisa Simpson went way back to the Birth of the Cool compilation album for her pick.  But, I'm going to go to 1959 and one of the most celebrated jazz albums all time, Kind of Blue, which is just about perfect.

Happy Birthday, Miles.