WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.879 Imagine like a massive, world -dominating tech 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:07.879 giant. OK, I'm with you. and they've just released 00:00:07.879 --> 00:00:10.240 this product that completely redefines their 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:12.099 industry. I mean, it is universally beloved, 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:14.320 it's printing unbelievable amounts of money, 00:00:14.500 --> 00:00:17.120 and it's basically become a cultural religion. 00:00:17.379 --> 00:00:19.679 Right. The absolute dream scenario for any company. 00:00:19.879 --> 00:00:23.079 Exactly. But then their executive board's immediate 00:00:23.079 --> 00:00:26.320 response to all this staggering success is to 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:29.039 just shut down the production lines. They alienate 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:31.239 their most loyal customer base and completely 00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:34.359 ruthlessly cannibalize their own product. Which 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:37.380 runs counter to literally every instinct we have 00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:40.600 about success. I mean, the natural human tendency, 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:43.420 especially in business or art, is to fiercely 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:46.659 protect a winning formula, not deliberately set 00:00:46.659 --> 00:00:48.899 it on fire. Yeah, but they destroy what they 00:00:48.899 --> 00:00:51.600 just built, deliberately, just to force themselves 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:54.600 to invent the next big thing. Right. But that 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:56.840 whole burn the ships mentality, that usually 00:00:56.840 --> 00:00:59.700 belongs to Silicon Valley disruptors. The wildly 00:00:59.700 --> 00:01:02.340 fascinating part here is that the greatest practitioner 00:01:02.340 --> 00:01:04.180 of this philosophy wasn't a software engineer 00:01:04.180 --> 00:01:07.079 at all. No, not at all. He was a jazz trumpeter. 00:01:07.540 --> 00:01:10.640 So today, welcome to the deep dive. We are pulling 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:13.239 from a comprehensive biographical profile of 00:01:13.239 --> 00:01:15.599 the legendary American artist, bandleader and 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:19.239 composer Miles Davis. It is such a dense, fascinating 00:01:19.239 --> 00:01:21.120 document. It really is. And we're doing this 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:23.459 deep dive not just to like recount a timeline 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:25.760 of jazz history for you. We want to dissect the 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:27.780 psychology of a man who stayed at the absolute 00:01:27.780 --> 00:01:31.879 vanguard of music for 50 years, precisely because 00:01:31.879 --> 00:01:34.200 he had this ruthless willingness to assassinate 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:37.450 his own past. Yeah, it's a staggering psychological 00:01:37.450 --> 00:01:39.930 profile. We're going to trace exactly how Davis 00:01:39.930 --> 00:01:42.909 engineered nearly every major stylistic earthquake 00:01:42.909 --> 00:01:46.310 in his field. I mean, bebop, cool jazz, hard 00:01:46.310 --> 00:01:49.329 bop, modal jazz, fusion. He spearheaded all of 00:01:49.329 --> 00:01:51.390 it. All of it. But to understand that level of 00:01:51.390 --> 00:01:53.390 forward velocity, we also have to look at the 00:01:53.390 --> 00:01:56.189 severe personal, physical, and moral toll that 00:01:56.189 --> 00:01:59.170 this unyielding momentum took on him, and crucially, 00:01:59.650 --> 00:02:01.700 on the people around him. Right. We have to look 00:02:01.700 --> 00:02:03.920 at the whole picture. And I think the journey 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:06.340 has to start with the environment he actively 00:02:06.340 --> 00:02:09.860 rejected, because he did not come from that stereotypical, 00:02:09.860 --> 00:02:12.500 you know, struggling, starving artist background 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:14.939 that gets romanticized so often. Not even close. 00:02:15.099 --> 00:02:17.900 No. He grew up in a really affluent family in 00:02:17.900 --> 00:02:20.900 East St. Louis, Illinois. His father was a highly 00:02:20.900 --> 00:02:23.360 successful dental surgeon. They lived on a 200 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:26.020 acre estate with a profitable pig farm. They 00:02:26.020 --> 00:02:29.199 rode horses. It was this incredibly insulated, 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:32.639 comfortable middle -class existence. Highly comfortable. 00:02:33.219 --> 00:02:35.740 And that resistance to expectation, it shows 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:37.800 up the very moment he starts playing the trumpet 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:41.259 in his early teens. Well his primary teacher, 00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:44.300 a man named Elwood Buchanan, actively fought 00:02:44.300 --> 00:02:46.990 the prevailing musical trends of the era. So 00:02:46.990 --> 00:02:49.569 the fashionable style at the time demanded this 00:02:49.569 --> 00:02:52.509 heavy romantic vibrato. Lots of shaking on the 00:02:52.509 --> 00:02:54.689 notes. Right, that classic old school jazz sound. 00:02:54.909 --> 00:02:58.210 Exactly. But Buchanan aggressively trained that 00:02:58.210 --> 00:03:00.490 out of Davis. He forced him to play straight 00:03:00.490 --> 00:03:03.330 dead center tones with zero fluctuation. If Davis 00:03:03.330 --> 00:03:05.590 wavered even a little, Buchanan would literally 00:03:05.590 --> 00:03:09.389 slap his knuckles. Oh wow, literal physical reinforcement. 00:03:09.789 --> 00:03:12.750 Yeah. which fundamentally alters his sonic fingerprint 00:03:12.750 --> 00:03:15.469 before he even leaves home. And Davis later said 00:03:15.469 --> 00:03:18.330 he was looking for, I think the quote is, a round 00:03:18.330 --> 00:03:21.050 sound with no attitude. He wanted the note right 00:03:21.050 --> 00:03:22.810 in the middle, stripped of all that sentimental 00:03:22.810 --> 00:03:26.150 decoration. And that specific sonic pursuit, 00:03:26.169 --> 00:03:29.689 it explains what is otherwise a totally baffling 00:03:29.689 --> 00:03:32.310 life choice. The Juilliard decision. Right. So 00:03:32.310 --> 00:03:35.449 it's 1944. His family leverages their wealth 00:03:35.449 --> 00:03:37.330 to send him to the Juilliard School of Music 00:03:37.330 --> 00:03:40.050 in New York City. arguably the most prestigious 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:42.789 academic music institution on the planet. And 00:03:42.789 --> 00:03:45.389 he just throws it away. Just walks away. He drops 00:03:45.389 --> 00:03:48.289 out after just three semesters to live on a $40 00:03:48.289 --> 00:03:51.150 a week allowance, just tracking down his idol, 00:03:51.229 --> 00:03:53.729 the saxophonist Charlie Parter, and playing in 00:03:53.729 --> 00:03:57.150 these smoky Harlem dive bars. On paper, it looks 00:03:57.150 --> 00:03:59.750 like classic teenage self -sabotage. It definitely 00:03:59.750 --> 00:04:02.889 looks that way until you analyze the actual musical 00:04:02.889 --> 00:04:04.830 timeline. Because Juliet was teaching European 00:04:04.830 --> 00:04:07.469 classical theory, which to Davis was essentially 00:04:07.469 --> 00:04:09.490 a Museum of the Past. A museum, right, right. 00:04:09.610 --> 00:04:12.830 But the actual leading edge of American music, 00:04:13.389 --> 00:04:15.490 the laboratory where the future was being invented 00:04:15.490 --> 00:04:18.490 in real time, was in those Harlem Jam sessions 00:04:18.490 --> 00:04:21.550 at night. Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were engineering 00:04:21.550 --> 00:04:25.350 bebop. And bebop was wild. It was frantic, incredibly 00:04:25.350 --> 00:04:28.970 fast, just virtuosic music. Totally. So Davis 00:04:28.970 --> 00:04:32.170 didn't drop out to rebel. You know, he dropped 00:04:32.170 --> 00:04:34.310 out because traditional academia just couldn't 00:04:34.310 --> 00:04:36.850 teach him the future. But even inside that rebellion, 00:04:37.149 --> 00:04:40.269 he's playing this subversive game. He joins Parker's 00:04:40.269 --> 00:04:42.709 quintet. but he doesn't try to outplay them at 00:04:42.709 --> 00:04:44.889 their own frantic pace. I mean, he couldn't play 00:04:44.889 --> 00:04:47.490 as high or as fast as Gillespie anyway. A few 00:04:47.490 --> 00:04:50.670 people could. Right. So he uses his own cheat 00:04:50.670 --> 00:04:53.490 codes. He takes that mid -range vibrato -less 00:04:53.490 --> 00:04:55.490 tone he learned in Illinois and just plays the 00:04:55.490 --> 00:04:58.329 middle. He anchors all that manic energy. Exactly. 00:04:58.629 --> 00:05:00.750 He realized early on that you don't compete with 00:05:00.750 --> 00:05:03.399 Charlie Parker on speed. You compete on space. 00:05:03.740 --> 00:05:07.699 Space! Wow, yeah! And that desire to create space 00:05:07.699 --> 00:05:11.279 leads Davis to actively dismantle the very bebop 00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:14.240 movement he just helped popularize. By the late 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:17.699 1940s, he deliberately slows the music down and 00:05:17.699 --> 00:05:20.720 forms a nine -piece band, the Miles Davis Snonet, 00:05:20.939 --> 00:05:22.959 to record what becomes known as Birth of the 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:25.139 Cool. And the orchestration on those sessions 00:05:25.139 --> 00:05:28.639 is just wild. Like, bringing a tuba and a French 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:31.660 horn into a bebop Jason Ensemble, it's like casting 00:05:31.660 --> 00:05:34.339 oddball character actors as the romantic leads 00:05:34.339 --> 00:05:36.959 in a movie. It shouldn't work. Right, but it 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:38.420 changes everything. It's like putting a heavy 00:05:38.420 --> 00:05:40.540 weighted blanket over a frantic nervous system. 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:42.980 Bebop was all sharp angles and adrenaline, but 00:05:42.980 --> 00:05:45.579 that tuba anchored the bottom end. It provided 00:05:45.579 --> 00:05:48.889 this thick... slow -moving foundation that practically 00:05:48.889 --> 00:05:51.170 forced the rest of the instruments to just relax 00:05:51.170 --> 00:05:53.709 and float over it. It engineered the entire concept 00:05:53.709 --> 00:05:56.389 of cool. The intent was to imitate the human 00:05:56.389 --> 00:05:59.189 voice with a thickly textured orchestral sound. 00:05:59.310 --> 00:06:01.709 Right. It was a complete departure from the aggressive 00:06:01.709 --> 00:06:04.470 individualism of bebop, shifting the focus to 00:06:04.470 --> 00:06:07.600 arranged melodic ensemble playing. But right 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:10.220 as he successfully bends the entire trajectory 00:06:10.220 --> 00:06:13.300 of American music, his psychological foundation 00:06:13.300 --> 00:06:17.519 crumbles. In 1949, he travels to Paris for a 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:19.879 jazz festival. This is a massive turning point. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:22.220 It is, because for the first time in his life, 00:06:22.360 --> 00:06:24.399 he is treated not just as an entertainer, but 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:28.379 as an intellectual peer, a genius and a respected 00:06:28.379 --> 00:06:31.480 black man. He's mingling with Picasso and Sartre. 00:06:31.860 --> 00:06:34.279 He has a romance with the French singer Juliette 00:06:34.279 --> 00:06:36.740 Greco. Sounds incredible. But then he has to 00:06:36.740 --> 00:06:39.240 board a plane and return to the deeply segregated, 00:06:39.699 --> 00:06:42.139 violently racist reality of Jim Crow America. 00:06:42.279 --> 00:06:44.579 The psychological whiplash was devastating. Going 00:06:44.579 --> 00:06:47.000 from being revered as an artist in Paris to being 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:49.019 treated as a second class citizen in New York, 00:06:49.259 --> 00:06:52.139 it plunged him into a severe depression. Understandably 00:06:52.139 --> 00:06:54.439 so. And like many jazz musicians of that specific 00:06:54.439 --> 00:06:57.279 era who were seeking a coping mechanism, he developed 00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:00.689 a crippling heroin addiction. By the early 1950s, 00:07:00.970 --> 00:07:03.129 his life was unrecognizable. Right, the sources 00:07:03.129 --> 00:07:05.449 get really dark here. He was skipping hotel rent, 00:07:05.610 --> 00:07:08.069 his car was repossessed, he abandoned his partner 00:07:08.069 --> 00:07:10.670 Irene and their three children, and he even resorted 00:07:10.670 --> 00:07:13.009 to street hustling and pimping just to fund his 00:07:13.009 --> 00:07:16.089 habit. It's a terrifying descent. But what's 00:07:16.089 --> 00:07:18.290 fascinating is the mechanism he uses to pull 00:07:18.290 --> 00:07:21.129 himself out of that abyss. He eventually kicks 00:07:21.129 --> 00:07:24.089 the habit cold turkey, which is agonizing. And 00:07:24.089 --> 00:07:26.589 he doesn't do it through therapy or a clinic. 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:29.819 He does it by channeling the psychology of a 00:07:29.819 --> 00:07:32.720 prize fighter. Specifically the boxer Sugar Ray 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:36.509 Robinson, right? Yes. Davis revered him. He adopted 00:07:36.509 --> 00:07:39.449 Robinson's arrogant, untouchable attitude and 00:07:39.449 --> 00:07:42.290 his extreme punishing physical discipline to 00:07:42.290 --> 00:07:45.009 beat the addiction. He retreated to his father's 00:07:45.009 --> 00:07:47.410 house in St. Louis, locked himself in a room 00:07:47.410 --> 00:07:49.689 and essentially fought the withdrawals like a 00:07:49.689 --> 00:07:52.610 grueling 12 round boxing match. And when he finally 00:07:52.610 --> 00:07:56.149 emerges, the music mirrors the man. He's physically 00:07:56.149 --> 00:07:58.250 hardened from working out at a boxing gym and 00:07:58.250 --> 00:08:01.110 his sound hardens up too. The cool era gives 00:08:01.110 --> 00:08:03.790 way to hard bop. Which brings back a heavier 00:08:03.790 --> 00:08:06.589 deeply rooted in the blues and gospel. And this 00:08:06.589 --> 00:08:09.110 is the era where he really starts utilizing the 00:08:09.110 --> 00:08:11.670 Harman Mutes, stripping away the excess. He brings 00:08:11.670 --> 00:08:13.810 the trumpet right up to the microphone, creating 00:08:13.810 --> 00:08:17.290 this iconic, piercing, intensely intimate whisper 00:08:17.290 --> 00:08:20.769 of a sound. And the tragic irony there is that... 00:08:20.540 --> 00:08:23.259 Right as he isolates that whispery tone on the 00:08:23.259 --> 00:08:26.779 horn, his own physical voice undergoes a traumatic 00:08:26.779 --> 00:08:29.620 mirroring of that exact sound. Oh man, this part 00:08:29.620 --> 00:08:33.559 is so crazy. It really is. In 1955, Davis underwent 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:36.580 surgery to remove polyps from his larynx. The 00:08:36.580 --> 00:08:38.259 absolute medical directive was that he could 00:08:38.259 --> 00:08:40.620 not speak for weeks while he recovered. Total 00:08:40.620 --> 00:08:43.779 vocal rest. Exactly. But a few days later, he 00:08:43.779 --> 00:08:46.360 got into a massive heated argument. He forced 00:08:46.360 --> 00:08:48.600 his voice, screamed, and permanently destroyed 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:51.360 his vocal cords. It's such a profound self -inflicted 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:53.480 wound, he literally screamed his voice away. 00:08:53.620 --> 00:08:56.340 He did. From that day forward, he could only 00:08:56.340 --> 00:08:58.759 speak in a raspy, croaking whisper. It earned 00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:01.100 him the nickname, the Prince of Darkness. Right. 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:03.320 But rather than retreat from public life because 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:05.620 of this vocal handicap, he completely leaned 00:09:05.620 --> 00:09:08.279 into it. He weaponized it. He turned that damaged 00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:10.580 whisper into a central pillar of his intimidating, 00:09:10.940 --> 00:09:13.740 untouchable mystique. That is the ultimate psychological 00:09:13.740 --> 00:09:16.139 reframe. He rebuilt his body, he reclaims his 00:09:16.139 --> 00:09:19.139 mind, and he forms this sextet featuring absolute 00:09:19.139 --> 00:09:22.500 titans like John Coltrane on tenor sax and Cannonball 00:09:22.500 --> 00:09:25.860 Adderley on alto. And this incredible momentum 00:09:25.860 --> 00:09:30.139 culminates in 1959. Columbia Records. Kind of 00:09:30.139 --> 00:09:33.059 Blue? Yes. It remains the zenith. Kind of Blue 00:09:33.059 --> 00:09:35.259 is widely considered the greatest jazz album 00:09:35.259 --> 00:09:37.860 ever recorded, eventually selling over five million 00:09:37.860 --> 00:09:40.580 copies. The U .S. House of Representatives even 00:09:40.580 --> 00:09:43.120 passed a resolution honoring it as a national 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:46.240 treasure. Which is mind -blowing. But structurally, 00:09:46.340 --> 00:09:48.659 it was another radical departure. He abandoned 00:09:48.659 --> 00:09:51.460 the complex, rapid -fire chord changes of hard 00:09:51.460 --> 00:09:54.120 bop and fully embraced modal jazz. We should 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:55.519 probably explain the mechanics of that, because 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:59.360 the shift is monumental. Go for it. So, in bebop, 00:09:59.580 --> 00:10:01.980 the chords might change every two beats. The 00:10:01.980 --> 00:10:04.440 soloist is running this frantic obstacle course, 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:07.019 constantly calculating the next harmonic turn, 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:10.480 but modal jazz is like stepping out of a claustrophobic 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:13.480 city street onto an open desert highway. a great 00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:16.039 way to put it. Instead of changing chords, the 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:19.080 musicians are given one static scale, a mode, 00:10:19.799 --> 00:10:22.899 and told to improvise over it for 16 or 32 bars 00:10:22.899 --> 00:10:25.720 at a time. Exactly. Because the harmony isn't 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:28.679 moving, the soloist is forced to rely entirely 00:10:28.679 --> 00:10:32.279 on pure melodic invention in space. Leaning heavily 00:10:32.279 --> 00:10:34.340 on the brilliant impressionistic piano playing 00:10:34.340 --> 00:10:37.059 of Bill Evans, Davis created an atmosphere that 00:10:37.059 --> 00:10:41.299 was incredibly spacious, moody, and deeply contemplative. 00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:43.620 It was a masterpiece of restraint. Absolutely. 00:10:43.700 --> 00:10:45.740 But the universe has a brutal sense of timing. 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:49.090 It's August 1959. Kind of Blue has just been 00:10:49.090 --> 00:10:51.590 released. Davis is headlining at the legendary 00:10:51.590 --> 00:10:53.809 Birdland Mike Club in New York City. Right at 00:10:53.809 --> 00:10:56.450 the peak of his career. Exactly. He steps outside 00:10:56.450 --> 00:10:58.870 during an intermission to smoke a cigarette and 00:10:58.870 --> 00:11:01.809 escort a blonde woman to a taxi. A white police 00:11:01.809 --> 00:11:04.169 officer approaches and tells him to move on. 00:11:04.450 --> 00:11:06.470 Davis explains he's working there. He points 00:11:06.470 --> 00:11:08.870 to his name on the marquee and he refuses to 00:11:08.870 --> 00:11:10.950 move. And the situation escalates instantly. 00:11:11.149 --> 00:11:14.169 Yeah, the police immediately brutalize him. They 00:11:14.169 --> 00:11:15.490 strike him in the stomach with a nightstick. 00:11:16.049 --> 00:11:18.110 Detectives swarm him and they beat him over the 00:11:18.110 --> 00:11:21.470 head, leaving him bleeding on the sidewalk. He's 00:11:21.470 --> 00:11:23.889 arrested, taken to the hospital for stitches, 00:11:24.529 --> 00:11:27.269 and charged with assault. I mean, he was eventually 00:11:27.269 --> 00:11:29.730 acquitted, of course, but the psychological damage 00:11:29.730 --> 00:11:32.889 was permanent. Just weeks after delivering America 00:11:32.889 --> 00:11:35.370 one of its crowning cultural achievements, he 00:11:35.370 --> 00:11:37.889 was violently reminded that in the eyes of systemic 00:11:37.889 --> 00:11:40.429 authority, his genius offered him absolutely 00:11:40.429 --> 00:11:43.149 zero protection. How does an artist even begin 00:11:43.149 --> 00:11:46.129 to process that level of betrayal? By his own 00:11:46.129 --> 00:11:49.350 admission, it destroyed him emotionally. Davis 00:11:49.350 --> 00:11:51.490 stated that the horrific incident completely 00:11:51.490 --> 00:11:54.370 shattered the renewed optimism he had painstakingly 00:11:54.370 --> 00:11:56.629 built after getting clean. It just broke him 00:11:56.629 --> 00:11:58.730 all over again. It replaced that hope with a 00:11:58.730 --> 00:12:01.750 profound hardened cynicism. Many cultural historians 00:12:01.750 --> 00:12:04.490 view that specific beating at Birdland as the 00:12:04.490 --> 00:12:07.009 emotional catalyst for the aggressive, radical, 00:12:07.409 --> 00:12:09.429 and almost confrontational musical shifts he 00:12:09.429 --> 00:12:11.789 would make in the decade that followed. Right, 00:12:11.889 --> 00:12:13.950 the quiet contemplation of Kind of Blue was over. 00:12:14.129 --> 00:12:16.909 He was entirely done being polite. Completely 00:12:16.909 --> 00:12:20.850 done. So, by the late 1960s, the acoustic jazz 00:12:20.850 --> 00:12:23.549 world treats him as royalty. He could have played 00:12:23.549 --> 00:12:26.330 concert halls for the rest of his life. But Davis 00:12:26.330 --> 00:12:28.950 is looking at the cultural tectonic plates shifting. 00:12:29.470 --> 00:12:31.769 The civil rights movement is evolving into the 00:12:31.769 --> 00:12:33.929 black power movement. And he's paying close attention 00:12:33.929 --> 00:12:36.450 to the youth. Exactly. He notices that young 00:12:36.450 --> 00:12:38.590 black audiences aren't listening to acoustic 00:12:38.590 --> 00:12:40.970 jazz anymore. It feels like music for their parents 00:12:40.970 --> 00:12:43.830 in suits. They are listening to the raw electric 00:12:43.830 --> 00:12:47.210 energy of James Brown, Sly Stone, and Jimi Hendrix. 00:12:47.529 --> 00:12:50.370 And this sparks his most controversial reinvention. 00:12:50.750 --> 00:12:53.049 Heavily influenced by his new wife, the funk 00:12:53.049 --> 00:12:56.039 singer, Betty Mabry, Davis immerses himself in 00:12:56.039 --> 00:12:59.059 rock and funk. He brings electric pianos, electric 00:12:59.059 --> 00:13:01.700 bass, and heavily distorted electric guitars 00:13:01.700 --> 00:13:04.539 into the recording studio. He literally burns 00:13:04.539 --> 00:13:07.299 the bridge to acoustic jazz entirely, and the 00:13:07.299 --> 00:13:09.379 purists absolutely lose their minds. Oh, they 00:13:09.379 --> 00:13:11.879 hated it. Later figures like Wynton Marsalis 00:13:11.879 --> 00:13:15.039 and Stanley Crouch openly blasted this era. They 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:16.899 essentially accused him of selling out to chase 00:13:16.899 --> 00:13:18.860 pop trends, claiming it wasn't even jazz anymore. 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:22.360 But if you look at the studio process for albums 00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:25.440 like In A Silent Way and the massive double album 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:29.139 Bitches Brew, it was far more avant -garde than 00:13:29.139 --> 00:13:32.720 simple pop music. Davis and his producer, Keo 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:35.659 Machero, revolutionized how records were made. 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:37.519 And this is where the mechanics are so critical. 00:13:37.720 --> 00:13:40.240 Because Machero wasn't just hitting record and 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:42.860 editing for length, he was using the studio tape 00:13:42.860 --> 00:13:45.259 itself as an instrument. Like a physical tool. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:47.779 Right. They would record a wandering, chaotic, 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:50.879 20 -minute jam session. Then Machero would extract 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:53.700 the most hypnotic 10 -second bass groove, cut 00:13:53.700 --> 00:13:56.220 the physical tape with a razor blade, and splice 00:13:56.220 --> 00:13:58.419 it into a literal loop that repeated endlessly. 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:00.500 It's incredible. Davis wasn't just playing over 00:14:00.500 --> 00:14:03.299 a live band anymore. He was soloing over an artificial 00:14:03.299 --> 00:14:06.340 manufactured trance. It is the exact mechanical 00:14:06.340 --> 00:14:08.779 precursor to modern hip -hop sampling. He was 00:14:08.779 --> 00:14:11.480 undeniably pioneering jazz fusion and ambient 00:14:11.480 --> 00:14:14.200 music simultaneously. And to the criticisms from 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:17.340 the purists, Davis's stance was clear. He believed 00:14:17.340 --> 00:14:19.659 acoustic jazz had become a museum piece. Right 00:14:19.659 --> 00:14:22.460 back to the Ulyard mindset. Exactly. He wasn't 00:14:22.460 --> 00:14:25.379 abandoning his culture. He was fiercely chasing 00:14:25.379 --> 00:14:28.610 its evolution. He proved that a true innovator 00:14:28.610 --> 00:14:31.710 must possess the absolute willingness to alienate 00:14:31.710 --> 00:14:34.230 their core fan base in order to find a new one. 00:14:34.549 --> 00:14:36.990 Which he did. He started opening for rock acts 00:14:36.990 --> 00:14:39.389 like Neil Young and the Steve Miller Band. He 00:14:39.389 --> 00:14:41.909 was playing to massive crowds, including like 00:14:41.909 --> 00:14:44.210 600 ,000 people at the Isle of Wight festival. 00:14:44.590 --> 00:14:47.340 But human physiology has limits. You cannot run 00:14:47.340 --> 00:14:49.919 at that velocity, constantly tearing down and 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:52.340 rebuilding your artistic identity without the 00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:55.019 engine eventually blowing out. Yeah, and by 1975, 00:14:55.460 --> 00:14:57.620 endless touring and the relentless pressure of 00:14:57.620 --> 00:15:00.100 being at the Vanguard completely break him. We 00:15:00.100 --> 00:15:02.460 enter this five -year hiatus, and this is the 00:15:02.460 --> 00:15:04.480 point in the source material where we are forced 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:07.299 to look unflinchingly at the deeply flawed man 00:15:07.299 --> 00:15:10.000 behind the myth. The biographical record is really 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.639 stark regarding the periods from 1975 to 1980. 00:15:13.379 --> 00:15:15.740 Davis retreated entirely into his New York brownstone. 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:18.000 And his body was failing him, right? Completely. 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:21.139 He suffered from ulcers, hernias, and eventually 00:15:21.139 --> 00:15:24.120 required multiple hip replacements. He admitted 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:26.580 in his own autobiography that his days became 00:15:26.580 --> 00:15:29.919 entirely consumed by a heavy reliance on cocaine, 00:15:30.279 --> 00:15:32.899 alcohol, codeine, and morphine. He literally 00:15:32.899 --> 00:15:35.799 wrote that sex and drugs took the place music 00:15:35.799 --> 00:15:38.679 had occupied. Yes. And the darkness of that period 00:15:38.679 --> 00:15:42.000 wasn't just internal self -destruction. The texts 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:45.340 detail severe documented physical abuse toward 00:15:45.340 --> 00:15:47.740 the women in his life, including his wives and 00:15:47.740 --> 00:15:50.500 partners like Francis Taylor and Joe Gelbard. 00:15:50.659 --> 00:15:52.480 The accounts are harrowing. They really are. 00:15:52.899 --> 00:15:55.440 Francis Taylor ultimately fled for her life after 00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:57.399 he hallucinated and chased her through their 00:15:57.399 --> 00:16:00.220 home with a kitchen knife. And later in his life, 00:16:00.340 --> 00:16:03.259 the familial fractures were so deep that he excluded 00:16:03.259 --> 00:16:06.399 two of his own sons from his will. We have to 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:09.000 confront this. You can't just brush past it as 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:11.600 the collateral damage of a, you know, a tortured 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:14.500 artist. He inflicted profound trauma on the people 00:16:14.500 --> 00:16:17.279 closest to him. It demands that we hold two conflicting 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:19.700 truths simultaneously, which is often the most 00:16:19.700 --> 00:16:21.879 difficult task when analyzing historical figures. 00:16:22.440 --> 00:16:25.299 Miles Davis was an unparalleled musical visionary 00:16:25.299 --> 00:16:29.070 who fundamentally altered the 20th century. And 00:16:29.070 --> 00:16:31.669 concurrently, he was a deeply troubled, violent 00:16:31.669 --> 00:16:35.370 partner who caused immense suffering. As observers 00:16:35.370 --> 00:16:38.230 relying on the historical record, we cannot gloss 00:16:38.230 --> 00:16:40.730 over the abuse in the name of his art. It is 00:16:40.730 --> 00:16:43.350 a permanent part of his ledger. It is a stark 00:16:43.350 --> 00:16:45.750 reminder that genius does not grant you a pass 00:16:45.750 --> 00:16:48.990 on basic human decency, Rawl said. But eventually, 00:16:49.230 --> 00:16:52.389 the hiatus ends. He emerges in the early 1980s. 00:16:52.429 --> 00:16:55.049 He's in his late 50s. And let's be honest, the 00:16:55.049 --> 00:16:57.149 playbook for an aging legend coming out of a 00:16:57.149 --> 00:16:59.350 five -year retirement is pretty well established. 00:16:59.429 --> 00:17:02.169 Oh, totally. You launch a massive stadium nostalgia 00:17:02.169 --> 00:17:04.710 tour. You play the acoustic hits from the 50s. 00:17:04.869 --> 00:17:07.230 You print money and soak in the applause. But 00:17:07.230 --> 00:17:09.410 to do that would violate his fundamental artistic 00:17:09.410 --> 00:17:12.289 ethos. Even with his physical deterioration and 00:17:12.289 --> 00:17:15.430 his moral failings, his core philosophy, never, 00:17:15.589 --> 00:17:18.180 ever look backward. remain totally intact until 00:17:18.180 --> 00:17:20.920 his death in 1991. He absolutely refused to be 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:22.980 a legacy act. Absolutely refused. He teams up 00:17:22.980 --> 00:17:25.319 with young musicians. He starts playing covers 00:17:25.319 --> 00:17:27.819 of pop songs by Cyndi Lauper and Michael Jackson. 00:17:28.539 --> 00:17:31.480 On his album Tutu, he's heavily utilizing program 00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:33.759 synthesizers and drum machines. And there is 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:36.740 this incredibly revealing anecdote in the text 00:17:36.740 --> 00:17:40.019 about this exact era. Oh, of the interview. Yeah. 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:42.539 Someone asks him to play those gorgeous classic 00:17:42.539 --> 00:17:45.480 ballads from Kind of Blue, and he f - He flatly 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:48.160 refuses. He calls playing his old music, warmed 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:51.619 over turkey. Warmed over turkey? That is amazing. 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:54.339 He says, it hurts my lip. He literally tells 00:17:54.339 --> 00:17:56.720 an interviewer, jazz is dead. There's no point 00:17:56.720 --> 00:17:59.700 ape in the shit. He was completely relentlessly 00:17:59.700 --> 00:18:02.319 unsentimental about his own legacy. To date us, 00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:05.140 jazz was strictly the present tense. Capturing 00:18:05.140 --> 00:18:07.680 a recording like Kind of Blue was about channeling 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:09.759 the energy of the right hour on the right day. 00:18:09.980 --> 00:18:13.220 Once it was recorded, it was over. Right. Replaying 00:18:13.220 --> 00:18:15.299 a 30 -year -old hit just to please an audience 00:18:15.299 --> 00:18:17.599 was fundamentally opposed to the definition of 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:20.180 the art form he helped invent. The wild audacity 00:18:20.180 --> 00:18:22.420 of that mindset. I mean, it really is like demanding 00:18:22.420 --> 00:18:25.579 that a visionary tech CEO go back to manufacturing 00:18:25.579 --> 00:18:28.200 rotary phones because the public felt really 00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:30.819 nostalgic about them. He just wouldn't do it. 00:18:30.940 --> 00:18:33.740 Playing So What in 1985 would have been an artistic 00:18:33.740 --> 00:18:36.579 lie to him. Exactly. He believed you can't discover 00:18:36.579 --> 00:18:38.960 the future if you're constantly looking over 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:40.619 your shoulder at what you've already done. And 00:18:40.619 --> 00:18:43.279 that is exactly where this deep dive connects 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:45.619 back to you. Because while none of us should 00:18:45.619 --> 00:18:48.960 ever seek to emulate Miles Davis's personal demons, 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:52.779 his destructive coping mechanisms, or his abhorrent 00:18:52.779 --> 00:18:56.259 treatment of his partners, his professional creative 00:18:56.259 --> 00:18:59.500 ethos is staggering. Staggering. He proves that 00:18:59.500 --> 00:19:02.339 true world -altering innovation requires the 00:19:02.339 --> 00:19:04.640 absolute courage to abandon your past successes. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:06.839 You literally cannot build tomorrow if you are 00:19:06.839 --> 00:19:08.539 using all your energy to protect what you built 00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:11.599 yesterday. Which leaves you with one final provocative 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:14.599 thought to maul over long after this audio stops. 00:19:15.339 --> 00:19:18.009 Think about Davis's concept of warmed over turkey. 00:19:18.990 --> 00:19:21.769 Look closely at your own life, your career trajectory, 00:19:22.190 --> 00:19:24.789 or your creative projects. What past success, 00:19:25.269 --> 00:19:27.890 what comfortable proven routine are you desperately 00:19:27.890 --> 00:19:29.789 clinging to right now that might actually be 00:19:29.789 --> 00:19:31.509 the exact thing preventing you from discovering 00:19:31.509 --> 00:19:33.930 your next major breakthrough? Are you brave enough 00:19:33.930 --> 00:19:36.150 to kill your best product just to see what you 00:19:36.150 --> 00:19:38.589 might invent next? That is the challenge. Thanks 00:19:38.589 --> 00:19:39.710 for joining us on this deep dive.