Miles On Miles: Interviews and Encounters with Miles Davis

by Paul Maher Jr. (Editor), Michael K. Dorr (Editor)

Miles on Miles collects the thirty most vital Miles Davis interviews. Essential reading for anyone who wants to know what Miles Davis thought about his music, life, and philosophy, Miles on Miles reveals the jazz icon as a complex and contradictory man, secretive at times but extraordinarily revealing at others.

 

Miles was not only a musical genius, but an enigma, and nowhere else was he so compelling, exasperating, and entertaining as in his interviews, which vary from polite to outrageous, from straight-ahead to contrarian. Even his autobiography lacks the immediacy of the dialogues collected here. Many were conducted by leading journalists like Leonard Feather, Stephen Davis, Ben Sidran, Mike Zwerin, and Nat Hentoff. Others have never before seen print, are newly transcribed from radio and television shows, or appeared in long-forgotten magazines.

 

Since Miles Davis’s 1991 death, his influence has continued to grow. But until now, no book has brought back to life his inimitable voice--contemplative, defiant, elegant, uncompromising, and humorous. Miles on Miles will long remain the definitive source for anyone wanting to really encounter the legend in print.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

352 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

Maher was born in Amarillo, Texas, where his father was stationed in the Air Force. Shortly afterwards the family moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, where Maher remained through childhood. Upon graduating from Dracut High School, he joined the United States Navy where he served in the Persian Gulf aboard the USS Ramsey. Upon discharge, Maher returned to Lowell. He attended Middlesex Community College and the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he obtained an undergraduate degree in American studies. He later completed a master's degree in Education with a concentration in English.

From 2004 through the present, Maher authored and edited seven books for publication. He has been translated and published in five countries.

Reviews

[Randall Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dizzy suggested to Miles that he also play piano to understand chords. Monk told Miles to get his own not so Dizzy-esque voice. Before Dizzy, Miles copied Eldridge. Miles learned from Bird by listening to him play, rarely by listening to him talk theory. Miles tells how Louis Armstrong had Nixon personally walk his marijuana stash through customs in Russia. “Too play soft, you have to relax.” Coltrane said Miles was using so few chords at one point that he could play three chords at the same time or think melodically. Miles said, “In my group we play a lot of polyrhythms and everything. You know, a lot of different keys off of keys and scales off of scales. You ought to study it.” “…Then the last set they start playing what they don’t know; which is out of sight! They start thinking.” “How is my audience gonna move me? I know that if I don’t move myself, then it’s no good. I don’t ever think of that audience shit.” “I want the new stuff all the time.” “I always try to have a good tone.” Pretty notes! If you play a sound you have to pick it out… You have to pick out the most important note that fertilizes the sound. It makes the sound grow. The thing is to bring it out (like a chef with flavors in a recipe)” “So, I also got a soprano sax for Trane. And he never put it down. He played soprano sax in the bus, in the hotel, every day, all day. 24 hours a day. And he got that sound.” “I was put here to play music, and interpret music. That’s what I do.” Guitarist Foley on Miles records tunes a Steinberger headless bass tuned up a full seventh to D, G, C and F and plays it like a guitar. “Use the drum machine like a metronome. When you put a drummer with it, it starts to breathe.” “I can’t wait to wake up the next morning to see what’s happening.” “Yeah. Practice every day. Got to keep my sound. Practicing is like praying. You don’t just pray once a week. “The first piano music Art Tatum ever heard was two boogie-woogie piano players on a cylinder. He didn’t know there were two of them. He thought that is the way a piano should sound and learned to play like two piano players at the same time.” Great story, great book.

[Karah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miles Davis had me laughing on more than a few pages. A man who placed no opinion higher than himself. I don't interpret him as arrogant. He possessed refined taste and often that quality demands more from oneself and others. I may reread his autobiography. I love the warmth and candor from Mr. Davis in his later years.

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 some interviews/articles better than others.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good collection of interviews and such. Presents one with the dilemma of what to do when the artist is amazing but the person is not. I guess you just realize we all are flawed.

[Philk81 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miles is great in this format - very insightful and obviously he had no patience for certain interviewers (pity the student phoning it in and getting a few choice
phrases tossed his way almost immediately). Adds a lot of color to Miles' rep, esp. late in his career. His ongoing disdain for Columbia's inept handling of his work (in his view) is pretty hilarious. One of a kind!

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. Can really see Miles transition through his interviews. Interesting guy, if polarizing figure. Gets a bit tedious toward the end, but an interesting way to watch him through time. Some of that 60's music writing is high comedy.

[Christian]

so far, it's a great compilation of the difficult interviews conducted with one of the greats in jazz...great insite to who he really was and felt about society.

[Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of inteviews with Miles. I've read quite a few of them previously, but it's nice to have them all in one volume.

[Brendan Forward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miles Davis is a multifarious individual and the collection of interviews shows a fiery, controversial, and insightful musician from so many angles.

Worthwhile for any lover of Miles Davis