Miles Davis Paris 1949

[The Jazz Aficionado]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1294294120655060&set=a.207776745973475.51022.100002234540944&type=3&theater

Edited October 29, 2016 by The Jazz Aficionado

[bichos]

Keep boppin´

marcel

[Big Beat Steve]

Yurpeens have had their fingers on this pic ever since they bought this (well-done) anniversary special published by JAZZ HOT magazine in 1986.

Incidentally, I am inclined to believe that the photo credit given by Jazz Hot that dates this pic at November, 1956 (backstage at Salle Pleyel after attending an MJQ concert as a visitor), is quite correct. Miles Davis DID look different in 1949, not least of all his hair which was a bit longer and visibly slickened/greased back.

 

 

 

[ArtSalt]

The suit jacket is mid 1950s and although button-downs were being sported by Fred Astaire in 1949 and before, I am not sure Miles had moved to the Ivy style in '49. It is definitely Jean-Pierre Leloir though. A quick Google search and I see on someone else's blog they have that photo dated as 1946!

[The Jazz Aficionado]

12 hours ago, The Jazz Aficionado said:

http://ow.ly/jeu6305EdU3

http://ow.ly/jeu6305EdU3

@ ArtSalt, but Miles did not go to France until 1949, so the Google search was incorrect, I saw that post as well. 

@Big Beat Steve , I think that they were using the image for advertisement purposes. 

[ArtSalt]

Yes, the 1946 designation was totally wrong, I didn't explore any further once I saw they had got this detail wrong.

When Miles was in Paris in 1949 his suits were more structured and his hair slightly longer and slicked back as Big Beat Steve pointed out. Miles does look young in that photo, but the sartorial style gives the circa period away as being mid-1950s, no later and not much earlier.

[Big Beat Steve]

3 hours ago, The Jazz Aficionado said:

, I think that they were using the image for advertisement purposes. 

As it happens, the January, 1957 issue of JAZZ HOT had Miles on the cover (photo by J.P. Leloir too). With a pic evidently taken at the same occasion that the one above we're talking about was taken (look at that shirt! And the tie!).

Coincidence? Only in the sense that this pic was fairly new and therefore "up to date" in January, 1957. One more indicator that the November, 1956 date must be correct.

I have a complete run of Jazz Hot from 1945 to 1961 but though I really do not have the time to thumb through the 1949 (and later) issues now I am inclined to bet you a dime that I will NOT be able to find "your" pic in any of those mag up to that 1957 date (which - top put it mildly - would be surprising, given its quality, if that photo had existed before November, 1956).

 

[JSngry]

I think Miles' skin tone looks unnaturally lightened in that 1956 pic. Whether that's a result of real-time flash or after-market processing, who knows, but the effect is to soften his features and make him look younger than he was, almost weirdly so.

[ArtSalt]

Equally the flash and the hand in the dark room.