
The Sorcerer of Jazz - tintinnabula
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/09/29/miles-davis-sorcerer-of-jazz/
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gotofritz
Fantastic, legendary musician, but a monster as a person; a man who turned
some of his female fans into prostitutes and beat them when they didn't make
enough money to sustain his heroin habit.

This is common with a lot of figures from the past, of course, from Picasso
the wifebeater to Wagner the antisemite, Washington the slave owner, to Gary
Glitter the child abuser.

~~~
nicolas_t
To be fair to Washington, he was also the only slave-holding founding father
to free his slave in his will and spoke against slavery. And this in an era
when owning slave was considered normal.

It's different from Picasso for example who abused women in an era when it was
not considered ok to do so by society.

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Avshalom
'course, he beat women too...

[http://connectnyc.globat.com/documents/Mad%20At%20Miles%20by...](http://connectnyc.globat.com/documents/Mad%20At%20Miles%20by%20Pearl%20Cleage%20version%202.pdf)

~~~
andrepd
It doesn't prevent me from enjoying his music though. I'm a proponent of
decoupling the person and the ouvre. I can delight in his music and at the
same time think he is a violent shitbag. It's not mutually exclusive.

~~~
posterboy
If you appropriate the music you shouldn't call it his. And I agree to the
extent that it was never his to begin with, standing on the shoulder of giants
etc.

> It's not mutually exclusive.

Some would think it is. Death of the Author is a modern perspective. And again
I agree, because concrete music is not as ephemeral as history, if that's the
right word. I mean, history is unreliable, vague, abstracted, imaginary,
indirect, something like that.

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memonkey
There are some purists left who are equated with Miles Davis. Christian Scott
comes to mind as one of the modern greats for sure:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I73T9yLdoH0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I73T9yLdoH0)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6u8UdpVsKM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6u8UdpVsKM)

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topogios
Anyone know of a reference for "The keyboardist Joe Zawinul was aghast at
Davis’s ruthless arrangement of “In a Silent Way,”... " part?

It is difficult to prove a statement like "..he pioneered hard bop.." wrong,
but it is definitely a new view on the history of jazz in the post bop era.

~~~
rhizome
_Anyone know of a reference for "The keyboardist Joe Zawinul was aghast at
Davis’s ruthless arrangement of “In a Silent Way,”... " part?_

NYRB might be sharpening the rhetoric a bit, but there's a good interview with
the personnel where they go over this:

[http://www.miles-beyond.com/iaswbitchesbrew.htm](http://www.miles-
beyond.com/iaswbitchesbrew.htm) ('bout halfway down the page)

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matchagaucho
I was drawn into _electric_ Miles, much like Brian Eno, in the 80's. But
ultimately became a bigger fan of his _acoustic_ 1959-1963 sound.

Amazing career. Can't wait to see the movie.

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Graham24
I was just listening to Milestone when I found this as it happens.

