The Summer of Miles Davis

This summer could very well be the Summer of Miles Davis...not just at The Song Is...  This year is the ninetieth anniversary of Miles' birth.  Some of you may have seen Don Cheadle's movie about him as well.    Tonight I'd like to post Bill Cushing's tribute to this giant of jazz.  It was previously published in Stories of Music, Vol. 1.


 “Music isn’t about standing still and being safe.”

— Miles Davis (1926 - 1991)

listen

two weeks after you died

a quarter-million thronged

by the St. Johns River

to hear the music you had spawned

hoping to see you

but

even in death

you never looked back

           

they were all there

            Hannibal                      Bird                

            Chick                           Jo-Jo   

            Red                             Jaco

            Bean                            Dizzy

            my favorite      Freddie Freeloader     

isolated

you

were a beacon

            a flagship for messages

                        of the heart

back to the crowd       unbowed

that proud dance-walk

announced by muted horn

that spoke

and broke

through all the bull

and told us about a place

Miles

ahead of everyone else

you spent a lifetime

            thinking for yourself

            speaking to every generation

playing it all:

            jazz                  blues

            funk                 rock

            fusion 

categories took

a backseat

to creativity

            and rhythm

            space

            and feeling

                        spirit

I remember fourth grade

picking up a horn

then laying it down

rock and roll was my world

what did I know

seven years later I heard

it was in the Garden

where you brought me back

to music

I walked all the way home

Miles

from that train station

my head pounding with sounds

frantic-fast as the subway

I spent the night on

            those African rhythms

            you used decades

            before anyone else

            even thought to

filling my head

letting me know

I’d have it all down cold

if I could walk

as cool as the notes you heard

            coming from

Miles

you had that thing

            that style

that spark that was

a blue flame

            jumping

            off a gas stove

igniting everything                  everywhere

touching the genetic

resonant

frequency

in all

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Let's listen to some of Miles' music as well, starting with "Freddie Freeloader."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-nuaBFF1PQ

I'll include his "All Blues":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFuHKvEuFbU

Here is a live version of "On Green Dolphin Street":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TMpMX7sBb4

"Bags' Groove" also features Sonny Rollins and Milt Jackson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUGkPo2N7jM

Let's skip a few years to Bitches Brew.

Here is "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a1Ph-ioxoA

"Sanctuary" follows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV4FiRb19ZY

I'll finish with a live version of his "Time After Time":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OvPcItS6WE