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Never a fan of the man or his trumpet playing. But I liked his bands and the stars he used to climb his personal ladder of success - outer success, that is. He was not content with his musical accomplishments and craved more fame, but rock left him in the dust. His personal lust for fame led him to electric, and confused a lot of young jazz fans into thinking electric Miles WAS the new jazz and that rang the death bell for the high art of jazz. Electric musicians without humility flourished for a while, playing for ignorant rock audiences that knew nothing of jazz history, but loved the chaotic atonal, contrived hyper emotional music, and the artists and record companies loved the rock money. Jazz became the Miles Davis industry. New jazz artists were used up like pop stars. It finally snuffed after Miles impersonator Marsalis failed to live up to the hype and sucked what little life remained out of the art. Now it's just a museum art, kept alive by government grants and dreamers wasting their savings recording themselves. To be fair to Miles, he was just a symptom of the loss of the need for nutritious music by the public. Life grew too easy, people forgot why high art music was needed. When life grows difficult again as it always does, the demand for stronger music will return, and the geniuses will create fresh new music to humbly serve us, once again.
I keep listening to all of his records, hoping, PRAYING, that, someday I will "get it". But I never do. I mourn the time lost on this endeavor. If only I could connect with it the way I do with Charlie Parker or Coltrane. But alas, every time I listen to Miles I just feel like it's so much note spinning. I've gone from ignorance to exposure to questing to apathy to hatred. If Miles was my only exposure to Jazz, I'd hate Jazz. Why do people love him so much? I don't know. But he's (IMO) the epitome of ego jazz. Just have the band play in the background while I "genius solo" out front. Bleh, sux azz.
Oh, he's an Icon, a pillar, a reference, a genius. You are right, sometimes it takes time to learn to appreciate a particular artist. But for me that time (so far) has been wasted.
There are musicians I respect because of their significance even though I may not be moved by their work. I am NOT a fan of the late "fusion" work of Miles Davis, but much of his earlier work, especially "Kind of Blue", is great stuff. I guess all jazz fans, who made that album the biggest selling jazz album over a period of fifty years, must be idiots. You don't have to like it, but you should at least respect it. I guess all jazz fans, who made that album the biggest selling jazz album over a period of fifty years, must be idiots. If you don't like it, there's plenty of other music to listen to.Intergalactic Wastebin, here we come...
