WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.800 Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we take your 00:00:01.800 --> 00:00:03.740 source material, all the articles, books, and 00:00:03.740 --> 00:00:05.740 notes you've gathered, and we pull out the essential 00:00:05.740 --> 00:00:09.480 story just for you. And today we are diving into, 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:13.640 I mean, a true giant, a figure who wasn't just 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:16.640 influential, but was, you could argue, the primary 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:20.600 engine of change in modern music for 50 years, 00:00:20.780 --> 00:00:25.019 Miles Dewey Davis III. Miles Davis. Born in 1926, 00:00:25.100 --> 00:00:27.440 he passed away in 1991. And in that time, he 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:29.859 completely reshaped the landscape. His career 00:00:29.859 --> 00:00:33.020 is just this incredible story of relentless, 00:00:33.179 --> 00:00:34.679 and I think you said it perfectly, sometimes 00:00:34.679 --> 00:00:38.000 abrasive evolution. The list of genres is just 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:39.979 staggering. It's not like he dabbled in them. 00:00:40.060 --> 00:00:42.439 He was at the forefront of defining bebop, then 00:00:42.439 --> 00:00:44.899 cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, third stream, 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:46.700 and then, of course, jazz fusion, avant -garde, 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:49.039 even jazz funk. The man just would not stand 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:51.500 still. So our mission for you in this deep dive 00:00:51.500 --> 00:00:54.280 is to... out those five huge stylistic shifts 00:00:54.280 --> 00:00:56.799 that kept him right at the cutting edge. We're 00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:58.539 going to look at everything from his, well, his 00:00:58.539 --> 00:01:01.000 surprisingly privileged upbringing to the revolutionary 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:03.060 albums everyone knows, Kind of Blue, Bitches 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:04.579 Brew, and we also have to get into the really 00:01:04.579 --> 00:01:07.500 intense personal stuff. Oh, absolutely. The volatility, 00:01:07.939 --> 00:01:12.280 the addictions, the anger, and the defiance that 00:01:12.280 --> 00:01:16.420 really created that very dark and distinct public 00:01:16.420 --> 00:01:18.980 persona. Our sources give us a really comprehensive 00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:21.260 biographical look. We've got his career arc, 00:01:21.319 --> 00:01:24.340 his key collaborations, Gil Evans, John Coltrane, 00:01:24.379 --> 00:01:26.939 Herbie Hancock, and the critical reaction, which, 00:01:27.019 --> 00:01:29.480 as we'll see, was often fiercely divided. It's 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:31.340 a lot to unpack. It is a dense and challenging 00:01:31.340 --> 00:01:34.599 life. Yeah. But it's an essential story of a 00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:37.159 true American icon. Right. So let's start at 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:39.060 the beginning with a detail that I think really 00:01:39.060 --> 00:01:42.120 throws people. Miles Davis didn't come from poverty. 00:01:42.540 --> 00:01:44.840 Not at all. Not even close. He was born into 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:47.140 a very comfortable, affluent, upper middle class 00:01:47.140 --> 00:01:50.120 family. First in Alton, Illinois, and then they 00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:52.159 moved to East St. Louis. And this was significant 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:54.760 for a black family in the 1920s. His father was 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:57.140 a successful dentist, his mother a music teacher. 00:01:57.400 --> 00:01:59.739 The sources even mention his father owned a 200 00:01:59.739 --> 00:02:02.599 acre estate in Arkansas. That financial cushion 00:02:02.599 --> 00:02:05.799 is so important to understand. It's not to say 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:08.740 he didn't face hardship, especially racism, but 00:02:08.740 --> 00:02:11.080 he wasn't scrambling for survival in the way 00:02:11.080 --> 00:02:14.530 many of his peers were. It gave him this freedom 00:02:14.530 --> 00:02:17.990 to focus purely on the art. And maybe it fostered 00:02:17.990 --> 00:02:20.490 a bit of that famous arrogance later on. He always 00:02:20.490 --> 00:02:22.590 had a safety net. You could certainly make that 00:02:22.590 --> 00:02:25.629 argument. Now, his formal training really kicks 00:02:25.629 --> 00:02:28.490 off when he's 13. He gets a trumpet and he starts 00:02:28.490 --> 00:02:31.169 lessons with a man named Elwood Buchanan. In 00:02:31.169 --> 00:02:34.500 this single relationship, this one teacher. might 00:02:34.500 --> 00:02:37.099 be the most important in his entire musical life. 00:02:37.259 --> 00:02:40.180 Because of one specific instruction. One very 00:02:40.180 --> 00:02:43.300 specific, very contrarian instruction. Play without 00:02:43.300 --> 00:02:45.300 vibrato. Which is crazy when you think about 00:02:45.300 --> 00:02:47.460 it. I mean, at the time, all the big trumpeters, 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:50.439 they had this huge, wide, almost theatrical vibrato. 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:52.800 It was the sound of the era. It was. And Buchanan 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:54.599 would literally slap his knuckles if he used 00:02:54.599 --> 00:02:58.199 it. He wanted a pure, straight tone. Miles later 00:02:58.199 --> 00:03:00.439 said he was aiming for a round sound with no 00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:02.580 attitude in it. Just right in the middle. So 00:03:02.580 --> 00:03:04.659 his foundational sound, the one that would define 00:03:04.659 --> 00:03:07.780 him for 50 years, was an act of rebellion from 00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:10.300 the very beginning. He defined himself by what 00:03:10.300 --> 00:03:12.879 he eliminated. That's a perfect way to put it. 00:03:12.939 --> 00:03:15.400 And he was a serious student. The sources tell 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:17.759 this story about him in his high school marching 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.400 band, where a drummer basically called him out 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:22.780 on not knowing music theory. So what did he do? 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.060 He went out and bought every book I could get 00:03:25.060 --> 00:03:28.080 to learn about theory. He saw a weakness and 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:29.860 he just attacked it with this incredible discipline. 00:03:30.300 --> 00:03:33.360 By 15, he's not just in a band, Eddie Randall's 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:35.520 Blue Devils, he's the musical director. He's 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:37.939 hiring people, scheduling rehearsals. He said 00:03:37.939 --> 00:03:39.400 it was one of the most important jobs he ever 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:42.280 had. It gave him structure. But the real lightning 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:46.180 strike was in 1944. Billy Eckstein's band came 00:03:46.180 --> 00:03:49.020 to St. Louis. And that band had Dizzy Gillespie 00:03:49.020 --> 00:03:51.860 and Charlie Parker, the architects of bebop. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:54.960 Exactly. The band's trumpeter got sick, so Miles 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:57.740 filled in for two weeks. He's on stage night 00:03:57.740 --> 00:04:00.520 after night with The Future of Music. And that 00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:02.819 was it. He knew he had to get to New York. He 00:04:02.819 --> 00:04:04.780 said that's where the action was. His mother 00:04:04.780 --> 00:04:07.039 wasn't happy about it, but his father helped 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:09.180 him work out a deal. He'd go to New York, but 00:04:09.180 --> 00:04:11.419 he'd enroll in the prestigious Juilliard School 00:04:11.419 --> 00:04:13.819 of Music. Which was, you know, mostly a cover 00:04:13.819 --> 00:04:17.040 story. He lasted all of three semesters. He later 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:19.699 complained that the curriculum was way too focused 00:04:19.699 --> 00:04:23.339 on white European classical music and completely 00:04:23.339 --> 00:04:26.300 ignored jazz. Though he did credit it for teaching 00:04:26.300 --> 00:04:29.220 him theory. Right. But the real school was in 00:04:29.220 --> 00:04:32.879 the clubs of Harlem and 52nd Street. He drops 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:36.060 out and finds his hero, Charlie Parker. He basically 00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:38.720 becomes Gillespie's replacement in Parker's quintet 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:42.100 in 1945. This is his apprenticeship. And even 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:44.259 then, you can hear his own style starting to 00:04:44.259 --> 00:04:46.740 emerge. He couldn't always keep up with the frantic 00:04:46.740 --> 00:04:49.899 pace of bebop, but his solo on Parker's Now's 00:04:49.899 --> 00:04:53.079 the Time in 45, it's more lyrical, more spacious. 00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:55.139 It's the beginning of cool jazz, right there 00:04:55.139 --> 00:04:57.250 in the middle of a bebop record. you can already 00:04:57.250 --> 00:04:59.610 hear him thinking differently. And at this point, 00:04:59.629 --> 00:05:02.009 his famous discipline is still there. The sources 00:05:02.009 --> 00:05:04.009 say he was a vegetarian, didn't do drugs, while 00:05:04.009 --> 00:05:06.250 everyone around him, especially Parker, was deep 00:05:06.250 --> 00:05:09.550 into it. Yeah, but that didn't last. By 1947, 00:05:10.050 --> 00:05:12.829 he was using alcohol and cocaine. The relationship 00:05:12.829 --> 00:05:16.470 with Parker got toxic. Parker was erratic, unreliable 00:05:16.470 --> 00:05:20.350 with money. So in late 1948, Miles quit. He's 00:05:20.350 --> 00:05:22.350 stepping away from the bebop revolution he just 00:05:22.350 --> 00:05:25.269 helped codify, ready for his first major reinvention. 00:05:25.610 --> 00:05:27.370 And that reinvention happens almost immediately. 00:05:27.629 --> 00:05:30.629 He leaves Parker, leaves the frantic energy of 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:34.209 bebop, and basically invents cool jazz. Well, 00:05:34.230 --> 00:05:36.230 he co -founds the Miles Davis Nonet with the 00:05:36.230 --> 00:05:39.189 brilliant ranger Gil Evans. Evans' apartment 00:05:39.189 --> 00:05:42.930 becomes this laboratory for a new sound. They 00:05:42.930 --> 00:05:44.970 brought in guys like John Lewis and Jerry Mulligan, 00:05:45.009 --> 00:05:46.529 and they were all kind of tired of the competitive 00:05:46.529 --> 00:05:49.470 nature of bebop. They wanted something more controlled. 00:05:49.569 --> 00:05:51.470 More controlled, more textural. And the key was 00:05:51.470 --> 00:05:53.699 the instrumentation. They added instruments you 00:05:53.699 --> 00:05:55.540 just didn't hear in a modern jazz group at the 00:05:55.540 --> 00:05:57.800 time. A French horn, a tuba. It created a much 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:00.480 richer, thicker sound, almost like a small orchestra. 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:03.259 The sources say they were trying to imitate the 00:06:03.259 --> 00:06:05.819 human voice with the arrangements. Precisely. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.939 And the tracks they recorded between 1949 and 00:06:08.939 --> 00:06:11.680 1950, which were later collected on the album 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:14.079 Birth of the Cool, they literally become the 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:17.160 blueprint for the entire West Coast cool jazz 00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:19.600 movement. But even this intellectual project, 00:06:19.879 --> 00:06:23.699 it wasn't without controversy, specifically around 00:06:23.699 --> 00:06:26.939 race. It wasn't. The nonet included several white 00:06:26.939 --> 00:06:29.500 musicians, like Mulligan, and that angered some 00:06:29.500 --> 00:06:31.399 of the unemployed black musicians in New York. 00:06:31.500 --> 00:06:34.360 They felt Miles was overlooking his own. And 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:36.860 his response was typically Miles. He basically 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:39.029 dismissed it. For him, it was about... the music, 00:06:39.089 --> 00:06:40.930 not the race of the players. He was going to 00:06:40.930 --> 00:06:42.730 work with whoever could get the sound he heard 00:06:42.730 --> 00:06:45.569 in his head. Then in 1949, he goes to Paris for 00:06:45.569 --> 00:06:47.889 the first time. This seems to be a huge turning 00:06:47.889 --> 00:06:50.529 point personally. Massive. He gets to Paris and 00:06:50.529 --> 00:06:52.990 he's treated like a king, like a true artist. 00:06:53.089 --> 00:06:55.670 He realized that black musicians had a level 00:06:55.670 --> 00:06:58.620 of respect there that was just. unimaginable 00:06:58.620 --> 00:07:00.480 back in the United States. He had an affair with 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:02.180 the actress Juliet Greco. He was celebrated. 00:07:02.459 --> 00:07:04.920 He said, the trip changed the way I looked at 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:07.699 things forever. And that's what makes what happened 00:07:07.699 --> 00:07:11.379 next so tragic. He comes back to the U .S. and 00:07:11.379 --> 00:07:14.379 that feeling just evaporates. He's back in a 00:07:14.379 --> 00:07:16.899 segregated country. The work dries up and he 00:07:16.899 --> 00:07:20.100 gets depressed. And his drug use spirals. This 00:07:20.100 --> 00:07:22.540 is what the sources call the dark period. It 00:07:22.540 --> 00:07:25.720 was incredibly dark. His casual heroin use became 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:29.519 a full -blown expensive addiction. He talks about 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:32.079 losing all discipline, all control. He was hustling, 00:07:32.120 --> 00:07:34.680 living off women, anything to support the habit. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:36.540 And it became public, didn't it? There was an 00:07:36.540 --> 00:07:38.740 interview in Downbeat magazine. Yeah, with Cab 00:07:38.740 --> 00:07:41.240 Calloway, who basically outed him. That was a 00:07:41.240 --> 00:07:43.439 huge betrayal for Miles. It made it even harder 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:45.699 to get work. And it just created this vicious 00:07:45.699 --> 00:07:48.579 cycle of addiction and marginalization. The lowest 00:07:48.579 --> 00:07:51.120 point, really. He's physically and mentally a 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:53.759 wreck. But then that same discipline that made 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:55.639 him learn theory, that made him play without 00:07:55.639 --> 00:07:58.800 vibrato, it kicks back in. It's an incredible 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:00.620 turnaround. He goes home to his father's house 00:08:00.620 --> 00:08:03.240 to get clean. Then he moves to Detroit for six 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:05.939 months, specifically to get away from the temptation 00:08:05.939 --> 00:08:09.100 in New York. And it works. He comes back in early 00:08:09.100 --> 00:08:11.860 1954 completely renewed. He's hitting the gym. 00:08:12.019 --> 00:08:14.620 He's focused. And his music changes with him. 00:08:14.699 --> 00:08:17.720 He abandons the complexity of his old work. and 00:08:17.720 --> 00:08:20.079 moves towards something earthier, more blues 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:23.120 -based. He moves toward hard bop. A more direct, 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:25.519 rhythmic style. You can hear the blues and gospel 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:28.120 roots in it. Absolutely. And he gets really influenced 00:08:28.120 --> 00:08:30.939 by the pianist Ahmad Jamal, who is famous for 00:08:30.939 --> 00:08:33.580 using space and silence in his playing. This 00:08:33.580 --> 00:08:36.000 is also when Miles perfects his use of the harmon 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:38.940 mute. But not just any mute. He put it right 00:08:38.940 --> 00:08:40.700 up close to the microphone. Which created that 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:43.480 iconic sound, that crisp, compressed, almost 00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:46.799 whispered tone. It's so intimate and yet so detached 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:49.259 at the same time. It's the sound of a man who 00:08:49.259 --> 00:08:51.120 has been through hell and has come out the other 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:53.639 side with this incredible steely control. His 00:08:53.639 --> 00:08:56.820 album Walkin' from 1954 is often cited as, I 00:08:56.820 --> 00:08:58.799 mean, the birth of hard bop. You could say that. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.080 And his public persona is solidifying at the 00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:03.480 same time. The coldness, the aloof attitude. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:05.919 He starts turning his back on the audience. He 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:07.799 called it the Prince of Darkness. And then the 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:11.080 voice, the famous raspy voice. A total accident. 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:14.679 He has surgery on his larynx in 1955, and the 00:09:14.679 --> 00:09:17.360 doctors tell him not to speak for 10 days. But 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:19.580 he gets into an argument and just yells. And 00:09:19.580 --> 00:09:21.980 that's it. He permanently damages his vocal cords. 00:09:22.220 --> 00:09:24.980 And ironically, it just added to the mystique. 00:09:25.139 --> 00:09:28.379 This gravelly whisper that became as much a part 00:09:28.379 --> 00:09:30.720 of his identity as the trumpet. So he's clean. 00:09:30.820 --> 00:09:33.700 He's created hard bop. And then in July 1955, 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:36.960 he has this triumphant comeback performance at 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:39.340 the Newport Jazz Festival. That performance was 00:09:39.340 --> 00:09:41.919 everything. It put him back on the map in a huge 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:44.960 way, especially with with more affluent white 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:47.299 audiences. A producer from Columbia Records, 00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:49.559 George Vakian, was in the audience and signed 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:51.100 him almost immediately. But there was a catch. 00:09:51.240 --> 00:09:53.620 He still owed his old label prestige four more 00:09:53.620 --> 00:09:55.919 albums. Right. So he assembles what we now call 00:09:55.919 --> 00:09:59.029 his first great quintet. An unbelievable lineup. 00:09:59.210 --> 00:10:01.809 Just legendary. John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red 00:10:01.809 --> 00:10:04.309 Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and 00:10:04.309 --> 00:10:06.549 Philly Joe Jones on drums. And to get out of 00:10:06.549 --> 00:10:09.210 the prestige contract, he marches this legendary 00:10:09.210 --> 00:10:12.210 band into the studio for two marathon recording 00:10:12.210 --> 00:10:15.250 sessions in 1956. And they knock out four full 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:18.379 albums, which is... just insane it's incredible 00:10:18.379 --> 00:10:21.220 the album's cooking relaxing working and steaming 00:10:21.220 --> 00:10:24.019 all classics and you can really hear the dynamic 00:10:24.019 --> 00:10:26.840 that defined that group miles playing these cool 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:30.320 long lyrical lines and then coltrane just exploding 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:33.460 with these dense searching solos he called sheets 00:10:33.460 --> 00:10:36.620 of sound but even with this incredible band the 00:10:36.620 --> 00:10:40.000 old problems resurfaced he briefly fired both 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.429 jones and coltrane for their drug use He was 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:45.850 demanding a level of discipline that he now had, 00:10:45.970 --> 00:10:48.750 but they didn't yet. And musically, he was already 00:10:48.750 --> 00:10:51.409 getting restless again. The sources point to 00:10:51.409 --> 00:10:53.529 a really interesting influence, a performance 00:10:53.529 --> 00:10:56.450 he saw by an African dance troupe, Les Ballet 00:10:56.450 --> 00:10:58.669 African. What did he take from that? He was fascinated 00:10:58.669 --> 00:11:01.029 by the music. It was built on these slow, simmering 00:11:01.029 --> 00:11:04.149 rhythms and simple, static harmonies rather than 00:11:04.149 --> 00:11:06.610 constantly changing chords. It was all about 00:11:06.610 --> 00:11:09.029 creating tension and mood over a simple foundation. 00:11:09.370 --> 00:11:11.909 And this leads him to modal jazz. It's a huge 00:11:11.909 --> 00:11:14.049 shift. It's a fundamental shift in the architecture 00:11:14.049 --> 00:11:17.059 of the music. B -bop and hard bop are all about 00:11:17.059 --> 00:11:19.139 navigating these complex, fast -moving chord 00:11:19.139 --> 00:11:21.860 changes. As a soloist, you're constantly thinking 00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:24.940 about the next chord. But modal jazz just sits 00:11:24.940 --> 00:11:28.419 on one chord or one scale, one mode for a long 00:11:28.419 --> 00:11:31.299 time. For minutes at a time. It completely frees 00:11:31.299 --> 00:11:32.919 up the soloist. You're not worried about the 00:11:32.919 --> 00:11:34.720 harmony, so you can focus entirely on melody, 00:11:34.860 --> 00:11:37.360 rhythm, and texture. It's a much more open canvas. 00:11:37.559 --> 00:11:40.460 You hear it first on his 1958 album Milestones. 00:11:40.460 --> 00:11:42.899 And while he's developing this, he also reconnects 00:11:42.899 --> 00:11:45.220 with his old collaborator, Gil Evans. A hugely 00:11:45.220 --> 00:11:47.740 important partnership. They did five albums together 00:11:47.740 --> 00:11:50.039 that basically created the third stream genre. 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:53.580 This fusion of jazz improvisation with classical 00:11:53.580 --> 00:11:55.620 orchestration. Miles Ahead was the first one, 00:11:55.639 --> 00:11:57.840 right? Where Evans wrote these lush orchestral 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:00.559 parts and Miles played flugelhorn over them. 00:12:00.700 --> 00:12:02.740 Yes, and they became huge commercial successes. 00:12:03.179 --> 00:12:06.700 The albums Porti and Bass, and especially Sketches 00:12:06.700 --> 00:12:08.600 of Spain, which was influenced by Spanish folk 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:10.899 music, sold incredibly well for jazz records 00:12:10.899 --> 00:12:13.820 at the time. Which all leads to 1959. To the 00:12:13.820 --> 00:12:16.620 masterpiece. To kind of blue. Often called the 00:12:16.620 --> 00:12:19.519 greatest jazz album ever made. And it's the ultimate 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:22.659 expression of modal jazz. He brought back the 00:12:22.659 --> 00:12:24.879 pianist Bill Evans for these sessions specifically 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:27.360 because Evans had this beautiful impressionistic 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:30.399 touch that was perfect for this music. And the 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:32.809 most amazing part is how it was created. They 00:12:32.809 --> 00:12:35.490 basically didn't rehearse. No. Miles brought 00:12:35.490 --> 00:12:37.870 in these sketches of compositions, and the band 00:12:37.870 --> 00:12:40.190 saw them for the first time in the studio. The 00:12:40.190 --> 00:12:43.710 entire thing is built on this incredibly relaxed, 00:12:44.009 --> 00:12:46.850 spontaneous improvisation. And the result is 00:12:46.850 --> 00:12:49.769 transcendent. It was a huge hit, commercially 00:12:49.769 --> 00:12:52.970 and critically. It sold over 5 million copies 00:12:52.970 --> 00:12:55.549 in the U .S. alone. The government literally 00:12:55.549 --> 00:12:57.769 declared it a national treasure. It's one of 00:12:57.769 --> 00:13:00.750 those rare, perfect artistic statements. But 00:13:00.750 --> 00:13:02.629 just a few months after making this beautiful, 00:13:02.789 --> 00:13:05.370 serene music, his life is violently interrupted. 00:13:05.690 --> 00:13:07.509 The incident outside the Birdland Jazz Club, 00:13:07.669 --> 00:13:10.629 August 1959. He's taking a break outside the 00:13:10.629 --> 00:13:12.889 club, standing on the sidewalk, escorting a white 00:13:12.889 --> 00:13:15.190 woman to a cab. A police officer tells him to 00:13:15.190 --> 00:13:17.570 move on. Miles points to the marquee and says 00:13:17.570 --> 00:13:19.730 his name is on it, that he works there. And the 00:13:19.730 --> 00:13:21.929 officer attacks him. Beats him with a nightstick. 00:13:22.299 --> 00:13:25.019 Another detective joins in. He was arrested for 00:13:25.019 --> 00:13:27.360 assaulting an officer, needed five stitches in 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:29.759 his head. He was eventually acquitted, but the 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:32.779 damage was done. He said that incident made me 00:13:32.779 --> 00:13:34.980 feel bitter and cynical again. It's like no matter 00:13:34.980 --> 00:13:37.639 how famous or successful he became, he was still 00:13:37.639 --> 00:13:39.820 just a black man to that cop. That bitterness 00:13:39.820 --> 00:13:42.940 really hardened his public persona from that 00:13:42.940 --> 00:13:45.159 point on. Now, after Coltrane leaves the band, 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:48.919 Miles struggles for a bit. But by 1963, he's 00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:51.509 put together his second great quintet. Another 00:13:51.509 --> 00:13:54.629 legendary lineup. Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron 00:13:54.629 --> 00:13:57.269 Carter on bass, and this 17 -year -old drumming 00:13:57.269 --> 00:14:00.090 prodigy, Tony Williams. Just unbelievable talent. 00:14:00.330 --> 00:14:03.929 And then in 1964, Wayne Shorter joins on saxophone 00:14:03.929 --> 00:14:06.370 and becomes the group's main composer. This band 00:14:06.370 --> 00:14:08.899 pioneered what we call post -bop. So what's the 00:14:08.899 --> 00:14:11.059 difference? How did they move beyond modal jazz? 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:13.720 They called it time no changes. The rhythm section 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:15.600 was liberated. They weren't just keeping time 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:17.700 anymore. Tony Williams wasn't just playing a 00:14:17.700 --> 00:14:19.559 beat. He was interacting with a soloist, adding 00:14:19.559 --> 00:14:22.159 splashes of color. Herbie Hancock wasn't just 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:24.899 playing chords. He was responding to the melodic 00:14:24.899 --> 00:14:29.039 lines. It sounds almost telepathic. It was. Incredibly 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:31.799 fluid and interactive. But the audience wasn't 00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:33.940 always following. The sources show his album 00:14:33.940 --> 00:14:36.019 sales were dropping by the mid -60s. And his 00:14:36.019 --> 00:14:37.879 health was starting to fail him too. He was in 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:40.840 constant pain. Just brutal. He had a hip replacement 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:43.360 surgery that failed. He needed a plastic one 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:45.879 put in. He was hospitalized for a liver infection. 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:48.779 He was a physical wreck. And we have to mention, 00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:50.659 because the sources are very frank about it, 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:52.700 this is also a period where his personal life 00:14:52.700 --> 00:14:55.759 is marred by violence. He was physically abusive 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:58.659 to his wives, Frances Taylor and Betty Mabry. 00:14:58.779 --> 00:15:01.240 He admitted as much in his autobiography. It's 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:03.500 this dark, contemptible part of his story that's 00:15:03.500 --> 00:15:06.440 impossible to ignore. The genius who created 00:15:06.440 --> 00:15:09.490 this sublime music. was also capable of this 00:15:09.490 --> 00:15:11.909 terrible cruelty it's the central contradiction 00:15:11.909 --> 00:15:14.590 of the man so by the late 60s album sales are 00:15:14.590 --> 00:15:17.370 down he's in physical pain and he's seen these 00:15:17.370 --> 00:15:21.009 huge crowds for rock artists like jimi hendrix 00:15:21.009 --> 00:15:23.669 and sly and the family stone he wants a piece 00:15:23.669 --> 00:15:26.309 of that energy he absolutely does and that leads 00:15:26.309 --> 00:15:28.350 to the most controversial and for some the most 00:15:28.350 --> 00:15:31.509 exciting phase of his career the electric period 00:15:31.509 --> 00:15:34.850 it starts tentatively on albums like Miles in 00:15:34.850 --> 00:15:37.389 the Sky and Phil's De Kilimanjaro, where you 00:15:37.389 --> 00:15:39.649 start to hear an electric piano, an electric 00:15:39.649 --> 00:15:44.110 bass. But the full leap happens with In a Silent 00:15:44.110 --> 00:15:48.110 Way in 1969. It's this beautiful, atmospheric, 00:15:48.330 --> 00:15:51.090 ambient record. He has multiple keyboardists, 00:15:51.269 --> 00:15:55.250 Herbie Hancock. Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, and 00:15:55.250 --> 00:15:57.289 the English guitarist John McLaughlin. And this 00:15:57.289 --> 00:15:59.789 is where his producer, Taro Mero, becomes almost 00:15:59.789 --> 00:16:02.110 like a member of the band. Completely. Mishiro 00:16:02.110 --> 00:16:04.169 took the long, improvised jams they recorded 00:16:04.169 --> 00:16:06.769 in the studio and used tape splicing and editing 00:16:06.769 --> 00:16:09.450 to construct the final tracks. He was composing 00:16:09.450 --> 00:16:11.490 with the recorded material. It was a revolutionary 00:16:11.490 --> 00:16:14.210 approach to making a record. But the jazz purists, 00:16:14.350 --> 00:16:16.789 they hated it. Oh, they were outraged. The accusations 00:16:16.789 --> 00:16:18.970 of selling out started immediately. They felt 00:16:18.970 --> 00:16:21.070 he was dumbing down the music for a rots audience. 00:16:21.409 --> 00:16:22.559 But he dumbed down the music. Doubles down, the 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:24.960 real earthquake, as you put it, is Bitches Brew 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:28.120 in 1970. It's a double album. It's dense, it's 00:16:28.120 --> 00:16:30.679 dark, it's psychedelic. The compositions are 00:16:30.679 --> 00:16:33.299 these long, sprawling 20 -minute -plus epics 00:16:33.299 --> 00:16:35.600 that Mashro pieced together from hours and hours 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:38.059 of tape. And commercially, it was a monster. 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:41.340 It hit number 35 on the Billboard chart, which 00:16:41.340 --> 00:16:44.470 was unheard of for a jazz album. It sold over 00:16:44.470 --> 00:16:47.230 a million copies. It basically launched the entire 00:16:47.230 --> 00:16:50.129 jazz fusion movement into the mainstream. And 00:16:50.129 --> 00:16:53.850 to promote it, Miles did something no jazz artist 00:16:53.850 --> 00:16:55.870 had done before. He started opening for rock 00:16:55.870 --> 00:16:57.809 bands. He's playing with the Steve Miller Band, 00:16:58.009 --> 00:17:01.009 with Neil Young. He played the Isle of Wight 00:17:01.009 --> 00:17:03.950 Festival to an audience of 600 ,000 people. Which 00:17:03.950 --> 00:17:06.509 just fueled the criticism from the jazz world. 00:17:06.630 --> 00:17:09.329 They said he was genuflecting to white culture. 00:17:09.740 --> 00:17:11.940 But here's the contradiction, because Miles himself 00:17:11.940 --> 00:17:13.599 said he was trying to reconnect with a young 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:16.079 black audience that was listening to funk and 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:19.059 R &B, not to the old jazz standards. That's the 00:17:19.059 --> 00:17:22.140 core of it. He felt jazz had become too intellectual, 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:24.920 too disconnected from the black community. He 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:27.039 wanted to make music that had the groove and 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:29.920 the power of James Brown. You hear that on albums 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:31.839 like Jack Johnson and especially on The Corner. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:33.940 Which was so far out, people called it space 00:17:33.940 --> 00:17:36.619 music. It was influenced by funk, but also by 00:17:36.619 --> 00:17:39.289 avant -garde composers like Stockhausen. It was 00:17:39.289 --> 00:17:42.170 incredibly dense and rhythmic. And Miles was 00:17:42.170 --> 00:17:44.910 furious because Columbia Records had no idea 00:17:44.910 --> 00:17:47.150 how to market it. They sent it to jazz radio, 00:17:47.289 --> 00:17:50.269 and he wanted it on R &B stations. But this creative 00:17:50.269 --> 00:17:52.609 explosion was happening while his personal life 00:17:52.609 --> 00:17:55.289 was just completely falling apart. Totally. In 00:17:55.289 --> 00:17:58.109 1972, he breaks both ankles in a car crash. He 00:17:58.109 --> 00:18:00.430 becomes heavily dependent on painkillers, on 00:18:00.430 --> 00:18:03.529 top of already serious cocaine addiction. He 00:18:03.529 --> 00:18:05.509 said in his book, Everything started to blur. 00:18:05.690 --> 00:18:07.750 His live shows became erratic. He'd play with 00:18:07.750 --> 00:18:10.150 his back to the audience. The music was dense, 00:18:10.309 --> 00:18:13.190 aggressive, and for many, impenetrable. And then 00:18:13.190 --> 00:18:16.750 in 1975, he just stopped. He was in constant 00:18:16.750 --> 00:18:20.049 pain from his hips, ulcers, a hernia. He was 00:18:20.049 --> 00:18:22.130 just physically and mentally exhausted. He dropped 00:18:22.130 --> 00:18:25.430 out of music entirely for five years. The hiatus. 00:18:25.589 --> 00:18:28.390 He described his New York apartment as a wreck. 00:18:28.839 --> 00:18:31.900 and said, chillingly, sex and drugs took the 00:18:31.900 --> 00:18:34.380 place music had occupied in my life. A complete 00:18:34.380 --> 00:18:36.599 void. But what's fascinating is that even though 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:38.839 he was completely inactive, Columbia Records 00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:41.920 knew how important he was. In 1976, they renewed 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:43.880 his contract and set up something called the 00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:46.460 Miles Davis Fund. What was that? It was a fund 00:18:46.460 --> 00:18:48.619 that gave him regular payments, whether he produced 00:18:48.619 --> 00:18:51.279 anything or not. The only other artist on their 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:54.019 roster who had that kind of deal was the classical 00:18:54.019 --> 00:18:57.220 pianist Vladimir Horowitz. That's the level of 00:18:57.220 --> 00:18:59.700 respect they had for his legacy, even when he 00:18:59.700 --> 00:19:02.140 couldn't play a note. So after five years of 00:19:02.140 --> 00:19:05.779 silence in 1980, he decides to come back. But 00:19:05.779 --> 00:19:08.319 it wasn't easy. Not at all. He said he had a 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:10.039 really hard time getting his Zamboucheur back, 00:19:10.220 --> 00:19:12.240 the muscle control you need to play the trumpet. 00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:15.019 His first album back, The Man with the Horn, 00:19:15.220 --> 00:19:17.710 was not well received by critics. even though 00:19:17.710 --> 00:19:19.890 it sold okay. And the health problems just kept 00:19:19.890 --> 00:19:23.250 coming. In 1982, he has a stroke that paralyzes 00:19:23.250 --> 00:19:25.670 his right hand. Yeah, and the sources really 00:19:25.670 --> 00:19:28.190 treaded his wife at the time, the actress Cicely 00:19:28.190 --> 00:19:31.089 Tyson, with helping him recover. She pushed him 00:19:31.089 --> 00:19:33.150 into physical therapy and also encouraged him 00:19:33.150 --> 00:19:35.289 to take up drawing and painting. And that became 00:19:35.289 --> 00:19:37.869 a whole new passion for him. It did. He saw a 00:19:37.869 --> 00:19:40.170 direct connection between his art and his music. 00:19:40.509 --> 00:19:43.430 He said, line is like phrase and coding colors 00:19:43.430 --> 00:19:46.170 is like code. My paintings are the same as my 00:19:46.170 --> 00:19:48.539 music. It was another outlet for that minimalist, 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:51.380 expressive style. Meanwhile, the music itself 00:19:51.380 --> 00:19:54.299 was changing again. He leaves Columbia in 1985 00:19:54.299 --> 00:19:57.579 and signs with Warner Bros. And his last Columbia 00:19:57.579 --> 00:20:00.660 album, You're Under Arrest, points to the new 00:20:00.660 --> 00:20:03.619 direction. Pop covers. Polished 80 -sounding 00:20:03.619 --> 00:20:06.220 pop covers. He did Cyndi Lauper's Time After 00:20:06.220 --> 00:20:09.180 Time and Michael Jackson's Human Nature. And 00:20:09.180 --> 00:20:11.460 he defended it. He said, you know, all the old 00:20:11.460 --> 00:20:13.500 jazz standards were just the pop songs of their 00:20:13.500 --> 00:20:16.470 day from Broadway shows. He argued he was just 00:20:16.470 --> 00:20:18.470 doing the same thing, updating the repertoire 00:20:18.470 --> 00:20:21.150 for a new generation. which really comes to fruition 00:20:21.150 --> 00:20:24.430 on the 1986 album Tutu. It's a collaboration 00:20:24.430 --> 00:20:26.630 with the bassist Marcus Miller, and it sounds 00:20:26.630 --> 00:20:29.549 very, very 80s. Oh, yeah. It's full of program 00:20:29.549 --> 00:20:32.569 synthesizers, drum machines, sampling. It's sleek. 00:20:32.710 --> 00:20:34.970 It's atmospheric. It's highly produced. And it 00:20:34.970 --> 00:20:36.990 was a huge commercial success. He won a Grammy 00:20:36.990 --> 00:20:39.869 for it. It kind of cemented his status as a crossover 00:20:39.869 --> 00:20:42.670 icon beyond just jazz. He was everywhere for 00:20:42.670 --> 00:20:44.829 a while. He played on the Sun City Protest song. 00:20:45.029 --> 00:20:47.250 He did a solo on a Toto album. He even worked 00:20:47.250 --> 00:20:49.069 with Prince, though that material was never released. 00:20:49.069 --> 00:20:50.930 released. But his health was still a constant 00:20:50.930 --> 00:20:53.789 issue. There were rumors he had AIDS, which he 00:20:53.789 --> 00:20:57.130 furiously denied. But he kept working, kept receiving 00:20:57.130 --> 00:21:00.349 awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 00:21:00.349 --> 00:21:03.440 1990. And his final performances were. Really 00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:07.140 powerful full circle moments. Yeah. In 1991 at 00:21:07.140 --> 00:21:09.380 the Montreux Jazz Festival, he did something 00:21:09.380 --> 00:21:12.220 he hadn't done in 30 years. He looked back. He 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:14.339 looked back. He performed the music from his 00:21:14.339 --> 00:21:16.819 old collaborations with Gil Evans, Miles Ahead, 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:19.140 Sketches of Spain with an orchestra conducted 00:21:19.140 --> 00:21:22.240 by Quincy Jones. A beautiful nostalgic moment 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:24.619 from a man who famously hated nostalgia. That 00:21:24.619 --> 00:21:26.720 same summer, France awarded him their highest 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:29.259 cultural honor, calling him the Picasso of jazz. 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:31.799 And his final concert was at the Hollywood Bowl 00:21:31.799 --> 00:21:34.500 in August of 1991. He died just a month later, 00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:38.480 on September 28, 1991. He was 65. The official 00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:40.460 cause was a combination of a stroke, pneumonia, 00:21:40.700 --> 00:21:43.500 and respiratory failure. The sources do note 00:21:43.500 --> 00:21:46.960 he was taking AZT, the antiretroviral drug. during 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:48.660 his treatment. He was buried with his trumpet 00:21:48.660 --> 00:21:50.599 in New York. His gravestone has the first few 00:21:50.599 --> 00:21:53.000 notes of his song Solar on it. And so we're left 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:56.119 with this massive, complicated legacy. You have 00:21:56.119 --> 00:21:58.559 this artist who was completely committed to moving 00:21:58.559 --> 00:22:01.359 forward, who called his own classic work warmed 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:03.779 over Turkey. And you have his old friends like 00:22:03.779 --> 00:22:06.140 Bill Evans, who kind of lamented that he let 00:22:06.140 --> 00:22:09.079 commercial pressures push him too far into rock 00:22:09.079 --> 00:22:11.400 and pop. The critical world is still divided. 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:14.210 Absolutely. Stanley Crouch famously called his 00:22:14.210 --> 00:22:16.190 electric period the most brilliant sellout in 00:22:16.190 --> 00:22:18.470 the history of jazz. Wynton Marsalis said his 00:22:18.470 --> 00:22:21.490 later stuff was not jazz, man. And Miles' response? 00:22:21.869 --> 00:22:26.309 His response was, jazz is dead. It's over. He 00:22:26.309 --> 00:22:28.289 was always going to have the last most defiant 00:22:28.289 --> 00:22:30.750 word. It's his constant battle in his career 00:22:30.750 --> 00:22:33.869 between innovation and tradition, between art 00:22:33.869 --> 00:22:36.809 and commerce. And you can't talk about his legacy 00:22:36.809 --> 00:22:39.819 without also acknowledging... the dark side, 00:22:40.019 --> 00:22:42.460 the personal turmoil, the abuse that's detailed 00:22:42.460 --> 00:22:45.440 in the sources. You can't. He was a man of profound 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:47.880 contradictions. Incredible discipline on one 00:22:47.880 --> 00:22:49.940 hand, the discipline to quit heroin cold turkey, 00:22:50.099 --> 00:22:52.400 and this uncontrollable destructive volatility 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:55.220 on the other. His genius and his cruelty are, 00:22:55.319 --> 00:22:58.410 unfortunately, completely intertwined so when 00:22:58.410 --> 00:23:00.730 you look at the whole arc of the steep dive you 00:23:00.730 --> 00:23:04.170 see this career of really calculated rebellion 00:23:04.170 --> 00:23:07.289 it starts with the simple stark rebellion of 00:23:07.289 --> 00:23:09.630 playing without vibrato moves to the intellectual 00:23:09.630 --> 00:23:13.150 rebellion of cool jazz then reaches this sublime 00:23:13.150 --> 00:23:17.049 universally loved peak with kind of blue an album 00:23:17.049 --> 00:23:20.569 that sold five million copies a peak most artists 00:23:20.569 --> 00:23:22.250 would have happily stayed on for the rest of 00:23:22.250 --> 00:23:24.690 their lives but he couldn't he had to dive into 00:23:24.690 --> 00:23:43.789 the sonic cave Which brings us to the final thought 00:23:43.789 --> 00:23:46.390 for you to consider. Miles Davis' most commercially 00:23:46.390 --> 00:23:49.029 and culturally enduring work is Kind of Blue, 00:23:49.170 --> 00:23:51.269 the very music he later dismissed and refused 00:23:51.269 --> 00:23:54.410 to play. So... Does his career prove that true 00:23:54.410 --> 00:23:57.369 lifelong artistic innovation demands that you 00:23:57.369 --> 00:23:59.910 constantly and aggressively alienate the very 00:23:59.910 --> 00:24:02.369 audience and critics who love you? Or was his 00:24:02.369 --> 00:24:06.069 constant forward motion just unnecessary, maybe 00:24:06.069 --> 00:24:09.609 even a desperate rebellion against the monumental 00:24:09.609 --> 00:24:12.250 expectations that his own genius had created 00:24:12.250 --> 00:24:14.069 for him? Something to think about the next time 00:24:14.069 --> 00:24:15.589 you put on one of his records. Thank you for 00:24:15.589 --> 00:24:16.849 joining us for this deep dive.