Miles

I was skeptical when Miles - The Autobiography, by Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, was chosen for our book this month given what I had heard about his personal life and his horrible treatment of women. This book was about much more than Miles Davis. It was about much of the 20th Century timeframe in America history. It about survival in rural and urban America. It was about the development of America's only original artform - which was pioneered and developed by African Americans. It was about virtually every great jazz artist from 1940 through 1990 and their lifestyle. It was about how these musical artists like other artists found great success and far more personal acceptance beyond their race in Europe and other parts of the world - but despite this always eventually returned to the US. It was about a father's unconditional love that allowed a prodigy to develop despite personal flaws including drug addiction - when many of his contemporaries died very, very young tragic deaths. It was about a great musician and his relationship with and impact on other great musicians, their genre and more. It was about someone understanding that to grow professionally you have to continue be willing to change but who never seemed to apply the understanding consistently in his personal life. It was about a man who never dealt with his personal flaws and abusive nature in relationships with women who loved and nurtured him through the good and bad times in his life. It was about a father who did not provide for his children what his father provided for him. It was about a Black man who no matter how successful never felt accepted for his contributions to American music largely due to institutional racism that then and now haunts our society. It was about personal triumph and tragedy - and much, much more. Thank you Quincy Troup for writing this with Miles in his own voice!

I don’t think many would call this great literature. But it sure as heck is fascinating history. No doubt, this is Miles Davis’ voice, and the man has important things to say. He is flawed, but sincere and no one should question his musical virtuosity. Requisite if you are a fusion fan.

I loved this book as I am a long time Miles Davis fan. The book provided historic contract about Miles Davis, his family and life. I highly suggest this book. There are a lot of misconceptions and rumors about Miles Davis and this book puts most of them to rest!

This book was really awesome! I am a young, beginner jazz enthusiast so I started with the King of jazz and worked my way around. I made a great choice. Not only does Miles give a great account of his music, but also recollects other notable musicians in the process. Which makes it worth wild to study their music further too. I thought this book was going to read like a memoir, you know very tight and numerical and mostly personal, and I was wrong. But its in a good way Davis moves from person to person, place to place and it keeps readers (at least me) on their heels. The first thing I ever heard about Miles Davis (way before I discovered his music) was that he was mean, disrespectful, and cold. Miles confirms these personality traits but he also justifies them in an odd but believable way. He made me understand why he grew so cold and by the end of the book (the last few pages I'm on now) he makes me sympathize with him.I have read many reviews about the book and most are correct. He is bold in this book, holds no punches, tells no colorful stories (I still can't get the taxi cab story with Bird out of my head), and he remains upfront and personal throughout the read. Some say he is simply racist, contradictory, and hateful toward his musical peers, but those people fail to understand the story of black folk. The whole of this nation and the western world is one big contradiction and I think, indirectly, Davis displays this fact through his references to events and stuff in his life. And as for disrespecting other legends, he doesn't do this in a way that demonizes them. He gives Bird the worst time (second to maybe Coltrane or Monk) but at the same time he explains how he worshiped the jazz god. For the most part, everything Davis explains is true about the story of our people and our music and lifestyle. If you don't like it, you may find that you are apart of the problem, black or white. This book isn't a literacy masterpiece but I truly believe Davis put his feelings into this good read and that makes it a must read for music lovers.One final note about the read of the book: I like how Davis gives readers insight on how jazz slowly dies through progression of music and the emergence of Funk and "White Rock" and "Hillbilly music". He explains how the music (jazz) becomes white washed and another stolen item from the black experience. He also gives a great account of his own progression through the years of bebop, ballad, "cool", fusion, and free jazz forms. This book is cool, hip, and truthful.On the shape of the book: Seller described it as in good shape but a bit worn and it was. There was now notes or marks inside and that made me very happy. Came before it was scheduled to, but who complains about stuff like that? Not me!

Strap yourself in for a no holds barred, from the horse's mouth, trip down the scarred drug-addled memory of a bitter, eventually fabulously wealthy, genius: a (very) black man's trip through the latter half of the 20th century. This is a printed edition, and so it is impossible to remove two words which populate every page many, many, many times, like a 'riff' in jazz, which is, after all, an interest explaining why you would buy this book. In his own words "I changed the course of music five or six times". Pity that his vocabulary does not stretch past describing "good, bad, a body of work, a stylistic approach, personality, habits, marvellous, awful, shameful, horrendous, magnificent, sad, happy, beautiful, ugly" as just ‘fecal matter’ (but expressed more profanely).Similarly, every random happening, bad luck thing, superb playing by a contemporary artist, admirable work of art, is not described so that one might appreciate why Miles has so decreed it but merely, lazily in my view, as if the recipient might (theoretically) be engaged in procreation practice with a maternal relation. Ahem. Wiki quotes this occasion (also in the book. “Use of the term as a compliment is frequent in the jazz community, for example when Miles Davis addressed his future percussionist Mino Cinelu: "Miles...grabbed his arm and said, “you’re a (that word)”. Cinelu thanked Miles for the compliment. “Frequent in the jazz community”? – well, it’s certainly frequent in this book – half a dozen times on every page, except, endearingly in the early chapters where he describes his privileged childhood as a time “before I had even learned to cuss”!Prospective purchasers might also be warned that, with the exception of his mother, sister and aunt, every other female is described – referred to as – a (insert canine female term).So that’s it – it’s a slog sometimes, offensive certainly, non-stop racist, bitterly anti-white “they stole our music”, co-written two years before his death from numerous ailments in 1991. That he lived as a junkie in the 1940s and 1950s to survive another 40-odd years is remarkable. As is this unforgettable story.

Miles Davis' autobiography, which was written in collaboration with Quincy Troupe and published in 1989 (two years before Miles' death), is a brilliant and uncompromising account of the life of this hugely important musician, providing a detailed account of his near 50-year music career, and of his views on politics, race, drugs and women (amongst other things). Obviously, as something of a novice writer of prose, Davis' writing style is fairly basic, and indeed is liberally sprinkled with expletives (no doubt, generally reflecting his use of language), but Davis is certainly very capable of communicating his story with energy, passion and more than a little insight.There are numerous themes running through Davis' story but perhaps the most prominent (behind that of Davis' obsession with the music) is that of race. Born in 1926 near St Louis, Illinois, the son of a professional man (a dentist), Davis' life view was heavily influenced by the racism he experienced, both as a youngster growing up, and then as an upcoming musician in New York. Interestingly, Davis came to the view later in life that the most virulent racism he came across was in the US - his experience was that Europe and the wider world were quite tolerant, by comparison.But, of course, the real heart of Davis' story is the music. His musical career reads as a virtual who's who of everyone who was anyone in jazz music, with his early experiences with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, through his classic groups of the 1950s and 1960s featuring the likes of John Coltrane, Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers and Cannonball Adderley, and then later, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams. Davis includes many hilarious, but also tragic (most often relating to drug addiction), anecdotes of his time with the likes of Monk, Trane, Bud Powell and Bird - tales which are often uncompromisingly vindictive in nature, but always with an afterword that Davis truly loved and respected his fellow musicians. The other theme arising from Davis' musical experiences is how he was forever wishing to move forward in terms of his musical style (e.g. his move into jazz/fusion in the late 1960s) and his near unique skill of picking the right musicians for the job - whom he would typically nurture into becoming star musicians in their own right.Towards the end of the book Davis recounts a number of particularly significant (and powerful) anecdotes. Having slogged his guts out for 40 years (admittedly gaining a good deal of recognition during this period) he expresses a degree of ironic frustration that he achieved his highest degree of public notoriety via a Honda TV commercial he made in around 1986 (I think). Then he also recounts a couple of powerful (and brilliant) stories about race - one when he attended a Ray Charles Lifetime Achievement dinner and was quizzed by a white woman as to the significance of jazz (and Miles' role in it) and then when he confronted white comedian Milton Berle on an aeroplane, nearly 40 years after Berle had made a racist comment about Davis' band at a New York gig.However, you certainly should not get the impression that Davis paints an unblemished picture of himself, even though this was clearly a man with a big attitude, and ego to match. He expresses a good deal of regret over the way he treated his many women and the way he let his drug addiction rule his life to the detriment of his personal relationships.Overall, an essential read for anyone interested in the man and/or his music.

Having recently read Ian Carrs in depth biography; which I would certainly recommend for all Davis enthusiasts, this book gives a very personal perspective on a jazz musicians life. Miles talks eloquently about his thought processes toward composing music, his contemporaries, and also his preference for listening to classical music. His battles with ill health,and particularly drug addiction, makes his musical achievements all the more remarkable. He speaks candidly about his sex life and numerous relationships and most disturbingly about race relations and his confrontations with the police. Be prepared for some rich use of language; get some of his CDs at the ready and enjoy.

Instantly gripping. The first few pages of this book will grip you immediately. The writing style allows you to read in the spirit of Miles Davis, to be able to read how it is spoken is a great factor about this book. Well written and so far, extremely gripping.

I'm amazed that Amazon can send out such a small very poorly printed copy of this book to its customers. The pictures look like 300dpi xerox copies and the printed text is tiny and blurred. Avoid this book not for its content but for the printed version amazon are peddling, its beyond poor.