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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...
Mostly agree. Miles isn't my favorite trumpeter, but his bands were generally tha shiznit. Also, Marsalis is not a Miles impersonator, he's a classical musician impersonating a jazz musician, who found out he could become a well-paid interpreter of what jazz "is" and "was" to non-jazz audiences, rather than keep woodshedding and improving his chops. He then started impersonating musicologists, historians, political scientists, talked more than he played, and seemed to forget to be a musician. Later, he then started impersonating Duke Ellington, writing sprawling, huge works, until he lost his recording contract.But it's true that we are all dealing with the loss of the heart, soul, and meaning of jazz as it's been gentrified in university halls, co-opted by audiophiles (rather than music lovers), lost its fan base and therefore new talent, and mostly dropped by labels.
I suppose its a particular STYLE of jazz that I really dislike, which Miles seems to be the epitome of. It's the "let the band play in the background, marking time, while I do my THING."
Miles probably had little time for actual music ( not that he could ever play at a high level of proficiency anyway...other players btw called it mouse music...) Cheers
I try all kinds of music, and if I find something I don't like/get I put it in the "give it to other GAS guys" pile. I hate Celine Dion. Solution? I don't listen to her or buy her stuff. What's the big deal?
Other musicians and/or composers who were panned by their contemporaries include Beethoven, Igor Stravinsky, and Thelonious Monk.
Coincidentally, yesterday I read an interview with Carlos Santana where he expressed a view about 'critics'. It fits in this thread like a hand in glove:"I never was really threatened by what anyone said.....I would look at those guys in the eyes and ask, "Can you play for 90 minutes and say something from your heart to captivate people? Oh, you can't? Than shut the fck up! Miles gave me an incredible sense of conviction. I'll take criticism maybe from another musician, but not from someone who can't play."'nuff said!;)
Miles was a genius excepting the very last period of his music.
....and if I may add a particularly cheap putdown of the late great Eric Dolphy by an especially vainglorious contemporary.....and then of course closer to our era there was the infamous slagging of Louis Armstrong by some latter day wanna-be........and btw having those other folks you mentioned take flack is understandable....they were ground breaking geniuses who challenged the status quo....and they wouldn't be doing their "job as break-thru artists" properly if they weren't taking flack....MB was nowhere close to their stature and to imply he was is verging very close to being disingenuous....Cheers
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. ....
You know, I've been mainly focused on the stuff he did after the quintet and quartet, so I will go back to those earlier albums. If I get something out of those albums, then this thread will have been worth it.
