The Miles Davis Story

Very complete biography of Miles Davis through the eyes of his family, band member, influences etc..

To me Miles Davis is modern jazz. He's the scientific doctor who invented this new science in music. His legacy is so obvious, but there wasn't a complete biographical movie done about him until this one. Miles was different in many ways from other black musicians. He was from a middle class family, he was very smart, and started his musical career at a school brass band.

To me he is the first "intellectual" jazz musician. He constructed his music from an idea perspective that nobody else have done. Often this approach is too cold for me, but it's clean and beautiful like no one else's music.

This is a great documentary on life of Miles Davis. It shows the many sides of the complex man. Although how he was able to create his music remains elusive, we do get to see the path Miles have taken as a musician, and that's a worthwhile addition to anyone's musical library.

Somehow, this documentary about Miles manages to include very little music and no complete tunes. Though Miles appears in the film, 95% of the interviews are other folks, not Miles. There are huge chronological gaps, many aspects of his life (his childhood prodigy, his drug addiction) are skipped or glossed over, and you'll learn little about what made the man and his contribution to music so groundbreaking. Skip it.

One of Miles Davis ex-wifes puts it like this: "The genius of Miles lies in his music, not in his streetways." The sound of Miles' trumpet is eerie and so beautiful, it hasn't and can't be produced by any other. His personal life was influenced by his drug-abuse and for a little while he even pimped. Maybe Miles was not a nice man, but he was the greatest musician of the 20th century. This is not weird, even the great classical composers like Chopin and Schubert had their drug-abuse and/or sex-addictions. They were not holy men themselves as the classical world portraits them so often. I don't give a damn about his wrongdoings, his music enriches peoples lives.

If I couldn't stand this man before seeing this film, this is the coup de grace to my revulsion of the "Miles Industry", and the man(this is a "man"?) it represents. Miles Davis was a good bebop trumpet player in the 50's, when he played with Charley Parker. Although he knew that technically he couldn't handle Parker's blistering tempi, and tried to quit the band, Parker spurred him on and Miles sounded beautiful, especially on "Bird Gets the Worm", which was based on "Lover Come Back To Me". Then, I guess Miles started reading the critics about his "genius", and creativity. What followed from the 70's on, was the "fusion", rock influenced, synthisized, no chords, modal mishmash that almost killed jazz. The chief cuplrits and abbetors were Keith Jarret, and Chick Corea. I'll say they were young, and maybe they were in awe of Miles, but those endless concerts of "noodling" around their instruments are there on record for you to make up you own mind. The film is very watchable because it puts many people we've read about for years to tell their own "Miles" stories. And the women!! THE POOR SUFFERING WOMEN!! I'm going to be a good boy and softly say, to conclude, this was not a nice man.

before i talk about the documentary i just want to understand how can anyone say chik corea and keith jarrett "nearly ruined jazz", and were just noodling around? what they were doing was exploring and evolving the music to further realms. hasn't the backbone of jazz always been innovation and exploration? didn't charlie parker himself break rules? what about monk? jazz isn't about staying within certain boundaries (besides miles never claimed what he was playing in his "electric" era was jazz). i just feel that before people start in on the whole "miles sold out when he went electric" routine, they should remember that jazz changes, music changes, it changed from scott joplin to louie armstrong to charlie parker to miles davis, etc. now as far as the DVD goes, i don't understand why someone would spend more time on showing the man's personal life than his musical. if it wasn't for his music no one would even know who he was. i understand that things around him, in his personal life might have reflected in his music, but to spend the majority of the time highlighting his romances, etc., i feel is missing the point of making a documentary about him in the first place. however there is some great (and unfortunately incomplete) footage of some of his live performances. i do appreciate the fact that someone wanted to make a documentary to such a GREAT musician, but i would rather recommend the documentary: Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue, because it is truly about the music.