The many musical faces of Mr. Miles Davis?

Miles has as many facets as a brilliant diamond. It's not until after you have seen them all can you appreciate his genious.

You got to give it to the man. He was in perfect position to have done a more commercially viable thing, ala Wes Montgomery, during the 60's. Miles Davis could have easily out Botti'ed Chris Botti during those radical 60's producing hot cool commercially successful records, but no, Miles remained utterly honest and true to himself, whilst continually reinventing himself. And for many in the black community Miles was an Icon, especially throughout the radical 60's for he represented the face of an angry black man that took no gruff from no white folk. Well, that's simply how it was 50 years ago. It's almost impossible to speak about Miles or his music without recognizing his anger. No one messed with Miles. In any event, Miles Davis, and others deserve a lot of credit for having endured it all, without selling out.

My fave Miles is his work with the 2 great quintets he had.I'm leaning towards the prestige albums as my fave output from him, but can't get into Bitches Brew. I find it all over the shop and much prefer A Tribute To Jack Johnson to that work.

Chris

A little Miles Davis trivia: At the beginning of this thread, I mentioned an elderly lady who remembered Miles as "The little dark sinned kid who was always trying to blow the trumpet"

Miles grew up three block from where that lady lived in a large house with an extended family which included a music teacher and a musician.

Miles, from my "kid point of view", was strange; where ever he could learn something about music, that's where he went; consequently, that lady saw an awful lot of the little kid trying to blow the trumpet.

Believe it or not, she knew next to nothing about
"Miles the jazz giant".

More Miles trivia: that remark "I remember Miles, he was the little dark skinned kid who was always trying to blow the trumpet", it had absolutely no racial connotations, it was simply a fact of observation.

She would have seen Miles through the screen door when he knocked. "Hi Miles, come on in". After exchanging greetings, he would walk down the hallway to the kitchen where the musician was cleaning his horn, and the music teacher was possibly going over some music. They would welcome Miles and pick up where they left off. All of this was quite informal, Miles was like another member of the family; that neighborhood was one big family and he was a member.

If Miles were alive today, he would probably cherish this "reminiscence" over most others. This was at a time when he was free as a bird flitting from tree to tree, and he was loved; not because he was rich and famous, but simply because he was Miles.