Miles: 'Coltrane was a very greedy man. Bird was, too.

[Larry Kart]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/nov/06/miles-davis-interview-rocks-backpages

Some interesting stuff here, if you trust Richard Cook, though in this instance I think I do.

[fasstrack]

Didn't knock me out. He sounded awfully anxious to be accepted as a pop star, with the references to Prince and whatnot. I do agree with his idea of trying to move ahead and not backwards artistically, but probably no one will ever know all the motives behind a lot of his statements. A complex and fascinating person all the same.

Also, the interviewer seemed ill-equipped or unwilling to either ask challenging questions or challenge Miles's answers...

Edited August 20, 2016 by fasstrack

[paul secor]

Richard Cook probably knew that to get and keep access to Miles, he had to kiss some butt.

[JSngry]

I lol at any thought that the butt-kissing was not mutual, not consensual, and not eyes-wide-open.

How do you sell mystique? By allowing access to it. And what access sells better towards the end of a life's arc than direct access?

Like it or not, Vincent Wellburn, family, is in charge of the legacy now, not Bobby Bookkeeper, and/or Lewis Lawyer. That did not happen by accident, and it also happens less often than it does.

So, yeah, more power to Miles for playing the game, leveraging his assets, and going out with something real to leave behind to his family, not something token. Not just raw assets, but the power to run with them.

[Larry Kart]

14 hours ago, paul secor said:

Richard Cook probably knew that to get and keep access to Miles, he had to kiss some butt.

I don't think Cook needs any particular practical motive to kiss some butt. His lips are permanently pursed.

OTOH, Miles' irritation, bitchiness, or what you will sounds pretty genuine to me. The details of what he says about Bird and Trane  and Wayne are not the sort of things one just makes up late in the game or because Richard Cook is there with his ears wide open -- whether they're true to the "truth," they strike me as long-nurtured feelings.

[fasstrack]

Sometimes I wonder if he said certain things for shock value, or to see how far he could push people. Other times he said things that betrayed a cavalier attitude that I wonder if he really had. For instance, I've heard him say about practicing: 'I never practice. That way when I play (perform) it's fresh'. Personally, I think he knew better.

Maybe he was cultivating an image in interviews in later years. Some of the earlier ones were great...

[Guy Berger]

3 hours ago, fasstrack said:

Sometimes I wonder if he said certain things for shock value, or to see how far he could push people. Other times he said things that betrayed a cavalier attitude that I wonder if he really had. For instance, I've heard him say about practicing: 'I never practice. That way when I play (perform) it's fresh'. Personally, I think he knew better.

Maybe he was cultivating an image in interviews in later years. Some of the earlier ones were great...

I agree with fasstrack.  In general his interviews could be interesting/enlightening but probably not intended to be taken 100% literally.

[JSngry]

Cultivating an image? Miles? What is this, 1953? 1949?

[David Ayers]

I guess Miles knew that trumpet-tootling is not that interesting to most people and that it was necessary to appear 'interesting' in some other and, as it turns out, even less interesting way.

[fasstrack]

5 hours ago, David Ayers said:

I guess Miles knew that trumpet-tootling is not that interesting to most people and that it was necessary to appear 'interesting' in some other and, as it turns out, even less interesting way.

Exactly. You nailed it...

[JSngry]

So...as he became less interesting, more people became interested in him.

[7/4]

11 hours ago, JSngry said:

So...as he became less interesting, more people became interested in him.

Intetesting.

[CJ Shearn]

On 8/25/2016 at 7:38 AM, 7/4 said:

Intetesting.

I'll say

[ArtSalt]

Miles memory was failing him there, he states he did not play The Lighthouse, well he did with Howard Rumsey's All Stars and a young Chet Baker.

My missus would go along with Human Nature as a standard, she loves the versions at Montreaux, probably the only music of Miles she will listen to by choice.

Miles became the 80s: hiding behind brash video culture and shiny fashion to hide his frailty. His playing of the archetypal pimp in Miami Vice puts his criticism of Marsalis into perspective IMCO.