{"id":28665,"date":"2019-11-26T20:28:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T03:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/?p=28665"},"modified":"2019-11-28T11:01:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T18:01:01","slug":"miles-davis-birth-of-the-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/2019\/11\/miles-davis-birth-of-the-cool\/","title":{"rendered":"Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Film (2019)
\nDocumentary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Directed by Stanley Nelson
\nFilm Editing by Lewis Erskine, Yusuf Kapadia, Natasha Mottola
\nReleased: August 23, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Alfred Clemente, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Miles<\/div>\n
A recent documentary about one of the greatest masters of the jazz trumpet who, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, gave the instrument a whole new sound.<\/div>\n

Director Stanley Nelson\u2019s film, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool<\/em>, at times blazes with intensity. Miles was a genius, his music profound, the film an extended documentation of his artistic brilliance, spiritual purity, and human weakness.<\/p>\n

Apart from the occasional voice-over imitating Miles\u2019s signature raspy voice, there is no acting here, no actor pretending to be the incomparable Miles Davis. After all, how can one successfully fake being Miles? Nelson supplies the real evidence: countless clippings — both stills and films \u2013 of the shy son anxious to please strict parents; the teenaged musician talented beyond his years; the obsessive searcher of the meaning and mystery of sound; the poet of the mystique of coolness; the complex human being whose angers could sully his artistic sanctity.<\/p>\n

Miles was unique. He became a leader of jazz musicians whom he urged not to play what was printed on the page, but rather what they were feeling. Even more than that, working with John Coltrane, or Cannonball Adderley, among others, he often supplied no music at all. \u201cJust play,\u201d he instructed the gifted sidemen whom he had chosen to join him precisely because he had already recognized their magically creative gifts.<\/p>\n

Feted for his music, he became famous for his attitudes and demeanor as well — his suspicion of those he saw as wishing to exploit him; his utter impatience with anyone who might attempt to compromise his art; his disinclination to charm audiences other than by his music. Nelson\u2019s film is an encyclopedia of the life and art of this brilliant but besieged musician.<\/p>\n

By the late forties, other gifted Jazz musicians, such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, were capturing the spotlight. Miles was particularly smitten by Parker\u2019s unique genius, choosing to play with Bird when he could have earned much more elsewhere. Enamored of the new and challenging in music, Miles idolized Bird\u2019s rococo jazz notations and his breakneck speed. Miles compared Charlie Parker to Salvatore Dali — describing their art as \u201ca new way of looking at things.\u201d Yet Miles\u2019s own mystique was no less a thing of wonder than Bird\u2019s, as is shown, for example, in Miles\u2019s incomparable Kind of Blue, an insistent and haunting quietude that mesmerizes, and that equally challenges description.<\/p>\n

Miles\u2019s own mystique was no less a thing of wonder than Bird\u2019s, as is shown, for example, in Miles\u2019s incomparable Kind of Blue<\/em>, an insistent and haunting quietude that mesmerizes, and that equally challenges description.<\/div>\n

Nelson\u2019s film highlights the judgments of many jazz musicians who played with Miles—or who dreamed of playing with the master. The acclaimed bassist, Ron Carter, describes playing nightly in a Miles group: \u201cIt was like going to a laboratory, and Miles was the chief chemist.\u201d Discerning Miles\u2019s seriousness, impresario Quincy Jones describes Miles as wanting to be an artist \u201cjust like Stravinsky.\u201d Referring to Miles\u2019s seductive tone, the promoter George Wein says, \u201cHe put the bell right into his trumpet and changed the whole world of jazz.\u201d One young musician in Nelson\u2019s film admits, \u201cI didn\u2019t just want to play like Miles Davis. I wanted to be Miles Davis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Miles<\/p>\n

And fame and fortune followed. Nelson\u2019s film limns the contours of Miles\u2019 success, his persona becoming as gravitational as his music. Miles became the epitome of cool. His was a \u201cnew way of doing everything.\u201d He was the archetypal \u201ccoolster.\u201d At clubs where he played, the audiences often included the likes of Ava Gardner, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, and Marlon Brando. Women described him as \u201cour black superman.\u201d<\/p>\n

His was a \u201cnew way of doing everything.\u201d<\/div>\n

At the same time, the film does not evade some of the darker realities of Miles\u2019 relationships with women, touching upon the complexities of his three marriages, their joys and sorrows. The film makes perfectly clear that Miles, attractive to so many women, could be petty and selfish to the women he ostensibly loved. His first wife, Frances Davis, plays an outsized role in the documentary. A talented and acclaimed dancer, she starred in the cast of Leonard Bernstein\u2019s West Side Story, but Miles, witnessing the extent of her popularity, forced her to quit. Her place was at home, he insisted, \u201cin the kitchen.\u201d Inexplicably, Frances relented, essentially destroying a promising career—and, years later, a marriage. The tale of a man of genius corroded within by simple jealousy? By other, profounder shadows? The film leaves us pondering and saddened.<\/p>\n

At another point in the film, Miles, whose angers for the most part lay submerged beneath the brilliance of his musical genius, endures an experience which he openly says embittered him forever. Playing at Birdland and stepping outside during a break to smoke a cigarette, Miles is confronted by a club-wielding policeman who tells him to move on. Miles tries to explain that he is a musician whose band is playing inside, at Birdland, and that he is simply taking a smoke break. The cop insists, Miles refuses to move and is viciously struck in the head by the officer\u2019s club, Miles\u2019s face suddenly battered and bloody. The scene is unforgettable, volumes of racial history captured on Miles Davis\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Miles\u2019s art and celebrity continued to be boundless until new kinds of music began to insinuate themselves in American culture—e.g., rock, punk, as well as non-Western modalities—and Miles, always tantalized by music\u2019s variegated splendors, pursued the new sounds. Even his dress and demeanor became outlandish, reflecting more pop and rock than jazz. The avatar of \u201ccool\u201d was leaving it all behind. When erstwhile fans asked him to play \u201cthe old stuff,\u201d Miles\u2019 standard response was to \u201cbuy the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, most of the magic disappeared. Miles quit playing for about five years. His explanation was that it was mostly for health reasons — and he did have his illnesses — but he was also spiritually exhausted. He stopped playing and became, in effect, a recluse, although he was eventually to return to the music scene, still searching for the mystical sound—this time, more difficult to locate.<\/p>\n

Stanley Nelson\u2019s perceptive documentary paints a caring and attentive portrait of an often tormented American master whose musical magic still enchants the world.<\/p>\n

Alfred Clemente teaches American literature at Fordham University. He writes academic materials, arts criticism, poetry, and fiction. He has recently completed a novel and has begun work on a study of Emily Dickinson\u2019s poetry.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film (2019)
\nDocumentary<\/strong>
\nDirected by Stanley Nelson
\nReleased: August 23, 2019<\/strong>
\nReviewed by Alfred Clemente, Ph.D.<\/strong>
\nA recent documentary about one of the greatest masters of the jazz trumpet who, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, gave the instrument a whole new sound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-movies","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28665"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28675,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28665\/revisions\/28675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}