miles davis anglais

8/14/2019 Miles Davis Anglais

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One thing I do know is that the year after I was

born a bad tornado hit St. Louis and tore it all up.

() Maybe thats why I have such a bad temper

sometimes; that tornado left some of its violentcreativity in me. Maybe it left some of its strong

winds. You know, you need wind to play trumpet.

I do believe in mystery and the supernatural and a

tornado sure enough is mysterious and supernatural

m D

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we want milesm D e: Jzz F F lgd

October 16, 2009 January 17, 2010Muse de la Musique/Cit de la MusiqueCurator: Vincent BessiresAssociated curator: ric de Visscher

Sixty years ater his rst trip to France to perorm at the Salle Pleyel, ty yearsater recording his masterpiece Kind of Blue (Grammy Award winning and mostbest selling jazz record o all time), ater the recording o Sketches of Spainand orty years ater the revolutionary Bitches Brew, the Muse de la Musiquepresents an ambitious retrospective devoted to one the greatest music makerso the twentieth century: Miles Davis (1926-1991). Organized with the supporto the Miles Davis Properties, LLC., this exhibition charts the jazzmans musicaltrajectory rom his childhood in East St. Louis to the retrospective concert hegave, actually at La Villette in Paris, just a ew weeks beore he passed away.

Following several years o silence out o the public eye, Miles Davis came backin 1981 with the album The Man with the Horn. Shortly ater, his come-back wasconrmed by a live album aptly named We Want Miles a title that remindsus how eagerly he had been awaited by his ans. In tribute to the passion themusician inspired throughout his whole career, the Muse de la Musiques rst

exhibition devoted to jazz bears the same title as the album that emphasized hisreturn on the oreront o the scene. Almost thirty years later, this title, acting likea slogan, is at once an invitation and a wish. An invitation to rediscover the musicand measure the immense talent o an artist who never ceased to question theboundaries o jazz. A wish to better understand the mans complexity as well ashis musical genius and mystery, a man who orged his own image throughout hislietime. We Want Miles: jazz ace to ace with its legend.

Covering a surace o 800 m2, the exhibition is divided into thematic sequencesarranged chronologically and presenting numerous artiacts, many o which arepresented to the public or the rst time: rare or previously unscreened ootage,original manuscript scores, an exceptional ensemble o trumpets and instrumentshis ellow-musicians played, original documents relating to his albums, stagecostumes, vintage pressings o his records, as well as numerous pictures taken bythe greatest photographers. The exhibition also displays works o art, that bear

witness to Miles Daviss aura beyond the mere sphere o music.

Conceived by the Projectiles team, the exhibition is entirely designed to acilitatethe appreciation o sound and ease o listening. It pays homage to the musicby displaying severalmutes throughout the itinerary. These so-called mutes coined in reerence to the very particular sound Miles Davis obtained rom suchdevices are oval-shaped spaces; small listening rooms designed to allow thepublic to discover the artists emblematic works in optimal conditions. Moreover,equipped with headphones either their own or ones lent by the museum visitorscan entertain themselves plugging into interactive audio and video stations thatcomplete the shows musical circuit.


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lkg f m D :

How do you show music? Imagining anexhibition on an artist with the stature o Miles

Davis poses a twoold objective: rst, to makethe most signicant aspects o his work heardand, secondly, to display the objects that bearwitness to his artistic development. Refectionon the quality o the sound was thereore animportant issue or this exhibition, which led theProjectiles team to produce an original solution:the mutes(see on page 18-19). Refection onhow to exhibit musical objects was an equallycomplex matter, given the absence o a realmuseographic institution anywhere in the worlddevoted to jazz in general or to Miles Davis inparticular.Very enthusiastic or this exhibition, MilesDaviss beneciaries had however no detailed

we want miles : Pgu eBy Vincent Bessires, the exhibitions curator

inventory o what was in their collections, andit was only by going to the relevant locationsand launching out on an exciting treasure trailand opening boxes and drawers oten let

untouched since the demise o the musician that we were able to bring to light numerousartiacts that would be shown to the publicor the rst time. Among these, there are aconsiderable number o manuscripts illustratingcertain key episodes o Miles Daviss career(original charts rom the Birth of the Cool nonet,orchestral scores o Porgy and Bess, hand-writtenthemes by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, JoeZawinul, Hermeto Pascoal) but also outtsand personal belongings. At the same time,our research led us to locate certain rare orpreviously unscreened ootage (Miles in therecording studio, Miles boxing) the presentationo which, in itsel, constitutes something o an

event. Consulting the archives o Teo Macero (aproducer who was to Miles Davis what GeorgeMartin was to the Beatles) kept at the NewYork Public Library, allowed us to nd workingdocuments o his and better understand theproduction o certain major albums. Finally,whilst it brings together an exceptional numbero trumpets that belonged to Miles Davis, theexhibition also includes several instrumentsused by his ellow musicians, who, in theirsupport or the project, were kind enough topart rom the instruments and lend them to themuseum. This body o exhibits, complementedwith works o art that bear witness to an aurathat goes beyond music itsel, constitutes a

documentary and aesthetic whole that is therst o its kind ever to be assembled on thesubject.

Among the numerous scores ound while preparing the exhibition, the

original manuscripts o the so-called orchestra o Birth of the Cool, datingrom 1948-49, are the oldest. Published under the title Deception, this

arrangement (on which the original title o the piece Conception can be

read), is one o the rare ones to be attributed to Miles Davis (let).Originalhandwritten musicsheet o Deception (adapted rom GeorgeShearingsConception )perormedby the Birth of the Coolnonet,1949.Miles Davis Properties LLC.collection.

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Paris has eatured in the destiny o many artistsand, among jazzmen, Miles Davis is one orwhom the City o Light played a decisive role.The exhibition at the Cit coincides with thesixtieth anniversary o his rst trip to Paris in1949. Invited to perorm at the International JazzFestival organized at the Salle Pleyel by a group

o jazz acionados, who were as enlightenedas they were dynamic (including Eddie Barclayand Charles Delaunay), the trumpeter wasconsidered, at the age o twenty-three, to beone o the rising stars o modern jazz. Theline-up also boasted the likes o Sidney Bechetand Charlie Parker. Not only was he greetedenthusiastically by the French public and warmlywelcomed by a certain intelligentsia o the time,Miles Davis realized that in Paris he was morethan just a musician, he was an artist. Boris Vianintroduced him to the Existentialist set whocongregated in the cellars o Saint-Germain-des-Prs, and it is there that his feeting, yethighly symbolic, romance with Juliette Grco

contributed to orging his attachment to Paris.When he returned in 1956, he would play withthe great saxophonist Lester Young, his idol asa teenager. The ollowing year, backed by theFrench musicians who accompanied him atthe Club Saint-Germain the hotspot or jazzon Pariss Let Bank Miles Davis recorded themusic or Ascenseur pour lchafaud (Lit to theScaold), Louis Malles rst ull-length lm,whose success owes a lot to the atmospherecreated by the soundtrack improvised in onenight. From then on, Miles would return to Paris

repeatedly, perorming at the Olympia, theSalle Pleyel, the TNP and, ater he retired, atthe Chtelet and the Znith, up until his greatretrospective concert Miles and Friends, thatwas held in the open-air just weeks beorehe passed away in 1991 on the grounds oLa Villette, in ront o the Grande Halle. Forthe rst time in his career (and because it wasin Paris, the rst city to have recognized histalent) Miles Davis agreed to perorm oncemore with his ormer partners, revisiting thepast. Symbolically, the exhibition closes withthe projection o the lm that was made o thishistoric concert, which took place just metersaway rom where the Cit de la Musique, whichhouses the Muse de la Musique and has takenover the management o the Salle Pleyel, wouldbe built in 1995.

D mu:m Jzz m

Miles Davis (1926-1991) is one o the mostascinating characters in the history o jazz.Whilst the majority o jazzs great namesdeveloped a musical language they spenttheir whole lives exploring (Thelonious Monk,Charlie Parker) be it in the most absolute oways (John Coltrane) or in a way that couldbe seen as orming one cohesive body (DukeEllington) Miles Davis never stopped callinghis music into question and, in what was oten avisionary move, provoking his own revolutions ata startling pace (almost every ve years). Fromhis rst contact with bebop in the middle o the1940s right up to his experimenting with rap atthe twilight o his lie, the trumpeter continued

to work with dierent musicians, scouting upuncharted sounds, sometimes at the risk oalienating a portion o his ans. At the very hearto the history o jazz, where his path crossedthose o so many major musicians, Miles Davisis one o the great architects o the genre byvirtue o the essential monuments he built up;milestones in the course o twentieth centurypopular music. Miles Davis had a fair ornew trends and his ability in integrating them,eeding the nest contemporary sounds into hisown creativity, thanks to an acute awareness ohis environment.

Boris Vian,Miles Davis andMichle LgliseVian,Paris, 1949. DR.


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the end o the sixties marked by electricinstruments, conceptual albums, and theinfuence o Jimi Hendrix, along with all theuture heroes o jazz rock (Joe Zawinul, JohnMcLaughlin, Chick Corea); the invention o arounk based on obsessivebeats, and a saturated electric sound withstrange undercurrents resulting rom hiscollaboration with Indian musicians a style

with its nger on the pulse o popular music(Motown, James Brown and Sly Stone); the rise o pop jazz, marked by new productiontechniques and synthesizers, his ascinationwith Prince, his covers o hits, and his closecollaboration with Marcus Miller, who composedan entire album or him, Tutu, as a showcase orwhat had truly become his signature sound.All these directions in music to use a phraseMiles put on his album covers in the middleo the 1960s bear witness to an incrediblecreativity and a ully fedged commitment thatthe exhibition aims to translate the richness,making the most emblematic recordings heard.

Over almost hal a century Miles Daviss careerthus underwent an impressive number operiods that structure the break-down o theexhibition into the ollowing sections: the infuence o the St. Louis musicians who,rom New Orleans to Chicago to Kansas City,developed a school o trumpet playing thatwould leave its mark on his own sound; his aliation to the vanguard o the 1940s,bebop, with the blessing o its mentors DizzyGillespie and Charlie Parker, whose regularsideman he became; the novelty o the arrangements and sotquality o sound put out by his rst orchestra,that opened the way to a new jazz cool jazz rom which Miles would then turn away inorder to go back to the basics o aro-americanjazz, the expressiveness o blues, the lyricism ostandards, along with the main perpetrators ohard bop (Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, JackieMcLean, Art Blakey, and John Coltrane); the rst years with Columbia marked by theorchestral works o Gil Evans, his ambitiousadaptations o Porgy and Bess and Sketches of

Spain, as well as his modal exploration with thesextet, culminating in the masterpiece Kind ofBlue; the so-called Second Quintet with which,in the middle o the 1960s infuenced as hewas by young guns (Wayne Shorter, HerbieHancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams) heshook the very structure o jazz, ushering in acertain rhythmic reedom, while never losingcontrol over his music;

Miles Davis,Los Angeles,1950. BobWilloughby,1960.

inextricably bound to his music a dismissal ourgency, a sense o less-is-more, a containedlyricism and to his attitude. On stage, in thestudio, while socializing, or in ront o journalists,Miles Davis made his presence elt without evergiving much away. Beneath the cool exterior,there was a volcanic temperament; he had a waywith words and a dry sense o humor, mixingcolorul language and pithy retorts to providesome classic repartee. This multi-aceted man isone o the most ascinating heroes in the wholehistory o music. It is impossible to discuss hisart without evoking the aura that emanatedrom him, because that aura is part and parcelo how he went down in history. Photographysgreatest names tried to capture this impressionhe gave rom all angles and, rom the inventorso the black and white imagery o jazz (HermanLeonard, William Gottlieb, Bob Willoughby, Edvan Der Elsken), to the leading photographerso the 1960s (Dennis Stock, Lee Friedlander,Amalie Rothschild, Baron Wolman), to thejazzmen o the proession (Guy Le Querrec,),and the greatest contemporary portrait artists

(Anton Corbijn, Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn),the exhibition shows these pictures.

t au f lgd

A womans man, an enigmatic character,oscillating between strokes o genius andurious outbursts, a glamorous gure in somerespects, Miles Davis spun his own legend. Theauthor o a surprisingly rank autobiography,whose opening pages are presented in theexhibition, he orged his image in much the

same way he crated his music, becoming a starbeore rock stars made it an obligation to be one.At each stage in his artistic development, MilesDavis enriched his biography with anecdotesand episodes that make his lie one o the mostcolorul in the history o jazz. His relationshipswith leading ladies, his escapades, his detachedattitude, his provocative declarations, his badreputation linked to drugs, his taste or the nerthings in lie including sports cars, his various and sometimes extravagant image changes,as well as his demanding nature, all ueled themyth that ascinated the public. He turned thebandstand into a new kind o stage.The archetypal jazzman in dark shades, as

inaccessible as he was elegant, Miles Daviswas, in the eyes o the twentieth century, theembodiment o coolness. The word cool is both

Miles andBetty Davis,1969 Baron Wolman.


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t b w r iu

The racial issue was present as an undercurrentthroughout Miles Davis career, regularlyprovoking tensions that infuenced his music.Marked by the context o segregation and astrong sense o pride inherited rom his ather,Miles Daviss attitude is that o an artist who

reused to be considered just by the color ohis skin. Deying any kind o ghettoization,surrounding himsel with white musicians(oten European) who played a decisive role inthe evolution o his work, he also celebrated acertain genius in black music, hitting back atthe irreverence o those who saw jazz as mereentertainment. Similarly, he was erocious inhis criticism o black musicians he deemed tooservile toward white society.The exhibition includes this dimension o thepersona as it overlaps on the developmento his music and his relationship to jazz. Hiswhole lie Miles Davis was caught betweenhis roots in the music o his kin and his ear o

ever getting trapped in that genre; torn betweenthe undamentals o jazz (in particular blues)and his reusal to consider it a nite musicallanguage. From Walkin(1954), which resoundslike a wake-up call or the black community, toYoure Under Arrest (1985), in which he play-actshis control by the police at the wheel o a Ferrari,and rom the Arican undertones o Kind of Blue(1959) to On the Corner (1972), which seeks toreconnect with the ghetto, a black theme runsthrough Miles Daviss work; which is not to sayit could be mistaken or a kind o negro chant.It constantly goes beyond that, transcendingmusical boundaries and racial issues (even ithe latter sometimes suraced uninvited). The

assault the musician suered at the hands opolicemen in 1959, in ront o a club where hewas working, and the resulting scandal, arepainul episodes the exhibition evokes.A black artist in an industry dominated by whitemen, Miles Davis reused to be considered asa second rate musician. He made Columbiaput his women in his lie beautiul blackwomen who were a picture o artistic success(the dancer Frances Taylor, the actress Cicely

Tyson, the singer Betty Davis) on his recordcovers instead o vulgar white playmates. Thenancial conditions he posed were the objecto heated debate, in which the racial questionwas never not an issue. His passion or boxing a sport in which Arican Americans were at thetop o the game and that he himsel practiced culminated with him signing, in 1970, thesoundtrack o a documentary on Jack Johnson,the rst black man in history to become worldheavy-weight champion. He was urious whenColumbia didnt promote it properly.Thats how Miles was: he never missed a beat,he was in the ring, his wits about him, ready togive as good as he got and with no small doseo ambiguity, as can be seen rom BaronessPannonicas notebooks, which are presented atthe exhibition. A patron o jazzmen, she took toasking them what their three wishes would beregarding their situation in lie. Miles gave thisindividual, laconic and cynical answer: to bewhite.

Miles Davis with handcus on his wrists,shortlyater the assault bypolicemen in ront oBirdland,NewYork,August 26, 1959. Ullstein Bild/ Roger-Viollet.

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By the way in which he embraced his times,his capacity to reinvent himsel and his art, thedensity and prousion o his work, the unalteringand resounding infuence o his music on therest o jazz, and his ingenious intuition, andbecause o the legend o his own lie and all thephases that marked his creative itinerary, we are

tempted to think o Miles Davis as the Picassoo jazz an exceptional artist, without whomthe ace o twentieth century art would not bethe same. We speak o Miles like we speak oPicasso and a whole oeuvre is beore us.Almost twenty years ater his death, Miles is abenchmark not just or jazz, but or music, andhe commands not only respect, but prooundadmiration. An icon or our age, annexed byadvertising already during his lietime, MilesDavis shines on, just as his records have becomeclassics. He was a precursor o contemporaryjazz, but more than that: he has been an exampleor musicians as diverse as Santana, Brian Eno,Laurent Garnier, and Q-Tip, and an inspiration to

artists such as the lm-maker Dennis Hopper,the choreographer Anna Teresa de Keermaeker,and the painter Jean-Michel BasquiatWho isnt a an o Miles Davis? Who doesntnd a piece that moves him in a body o work sovaried and so vast? Everyone has their avoritealbum, and not least Barack Obama, whoserise to power in the United States casts newlight on an anecdote Miles Davis recountedin his biography. In 1987, Miles was invited toa dinner held at the White House by RonaldReagan. When an old goat asked him, rathercondescendingly, what he had done with his lieto get invited to Washington, Miles answeredsomewhat icily: Ive changed music ve or six

times.This alone calls or an exhibition We Want Miles !

vbBorn in Toulouse in 1974, Vincent Bessires is aholder o the French Agregration o Literature. Aswell as teaching, he started out as a journalist in2000 with the magazine Jazzman, o which hebecame associate editor-in-chie in 2007. As well asa regular slot on the showJazz de Cur, Jazz de Pique on the French radio station France Musique rom2002 to 2008, he is also artistic advisor to Studio 5,a daily music program on t he channel France 5.

He is responsible or the editorial coordination o

the content o the jazz section o the Mdiathquesportal or the education department o the Cit de laMusique, and since 2006 he has been in charge othe departments workshop on contemporary jazz.

The author o numerous liner notes or jazz albums,including those o the label B Flat Recordings, createdby the Belmondo brothers, he signed a chapter in thebook On Jazz, celebrating the twentieth anniversaryo lOrchestre National de Jazz. He has also workedor several years on the biography o the trumpeterLee Morgan. He is a member o the FrenchlAcadmie du Jazz.


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F s-lu 52ds: f bd (1926-1948)

Born into the black middle class,Miles Davis was brought up inEast St. Louis (Illinois) by a ather,

a dental surgeon, who drummed asense o racial pride and individualsuccess into him, and a mother,who extolled integration into whitesociety and its values. Going againsthis mothers wishes, he did notplay the violin but the trumpet, theking o jazz instruments. At rstinfuenced by the St. Louis Sound,a school o trumpeting originatingrom St. Louis, and to which hismentors belonged, he developed aascination or bebop, the vanguard jazz o the time, whose leadingstars, Dizzy Gillespie and CharlieParker, he met there in 1944. Fromthen on, his mind was made up:he would join them in New York.Using study at the Juilliard Schoolas a pretext, it wasnt long beorehe joined Parker in Manhattan,becoming his regular sideman. Byhis side, Miles Davis perormed inthe jazz-clubs on 52nd Street, madehis rst records, invented his ownstyle (that set him apart rom othertrumpeters) and made a name orhimsel in the world o music, wherehe was regarded as a modernist

or the times.

e Dp

MilesDavisaged8or9.

CourtesyoAnthonyBarbozaCollection.

Miles Davis, his sister DorothyMae, his brother Vernon,and his mother Cleota H. Henry

Davis.Courtesyo AnthonyBarboza Collection.

Miles Davis within CharlieParkers quintet at theThree Deuces Club, 52nd Street, NewYork,toward1945. Frank Driggs collection.

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Jean-MichelBasquiat,Horn Players,1983.The Broad Art Foundation Collection, Santa Monica.Photoby DouglasM.ParkerStudio,LosAngeles TheEstateoJean-MichelBasquiat Adagp,Paris,2009.

A star painter o the 1980s, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) admired jazz in general and bebop

in particular. An emblematic gure o the black music vanguard o the 1940s, Charlie Parker was a

source o inspiration to him in a number o his works: they suggest a true ascination, not unlike that

experienced by Miles Davis our decades earlier and, at the same age, or bebop musicians. Two

paintings by Basquiat on display in the exhibition illustrate this: the immense triptych Horn Players,

which portrays his two idols, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and Bird of Paradise, the title o a 10-inch record by Charlie Parker in 1947 with Miles Davis (eatured in the detail o the work) by his side.

Jean-MichelBasquiat, Notitle (BirdofParadise),1984.StphaneSamuelandRobertM.RubinCollection.Photoby RobertMckeever. TheEstateo Jean-MichelBasquiat Adagp,Paris,2009.

ou f c: f dud f (1949-1954)

Collaborating with the arrangersGerry Mulligan and Gil Evans, MilesDavis directed, rom 1948, a group

o nine musicians with an unusualinstrumentation that paved theway or the next step ater bebop.Brought together later under thetitle Birth of the Cool, these piecesocused on orchestration and gaverise to cool jazz, that would comeinto its own in Caliornia underthe banner West Coast Jazz. In1949, invited to the jazz estival inParis, Miles Davis had a fing withJuliette Grco and discovered in theintelligentsia o Saint-Germain-des-Prs an appreciation o his musicthat went well beyond what he hadknown in the United States. Upon hisreturn, he ound the ghetto, in whichmodern jazz remained conned,hard to bear and, like so many others,he spiralled down into drugs. As areaction to the vogue or cool jazz,considered unexciting and white, hedelved back into bebop and blues,while drawing together the newrising generation o hard bop artists.Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, MiltJackson, Thelonious Monk, ArtBlakey, Horace Silver to name buta ew took part in the recordings

he made or the independent labelsPrestige and Blue Note. Magniyinghis sound with a Harmon mute, heorged his style.

Program o the Paris International Jazz Festival, 1949. Bibliothque Nationale de

France, Dpartement de laudiovisuel, Charles Delaunay archive.

Collection o albums published by the label Prestige between 1951 and 1956. DR.

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m ad : ud f cu (1955-1962)

In 1954, aware o being caughtup in a circle o sel-destruction,Miles Davis quit drugs and took hiscareer back in hand. Following histriumph on stage at the NewportFestival the ollowing year, he

convinced Columbia to sign himup and he set up a stable quintet,including John Coltrane, who wasthen largely unknown. Despite itsscandalous reputation, the groupmade a name or itsel as one othe best o its time in just a ewmonths. The musician played othe contrasting personalities ohis band-mates and, inspired bythe pianist Ahmad Jamal, he ne-tuned its approach, dramatized itsrenditions, and developed the modalimprovisation epitomized in 1959with the masterpiece Kind of Blue. Atthe same time, joining orces oncemore with Gil Evans, he producedambitious albums in which henotably revisited Gershwins Porgyand Bess and Joaquim RodrigosConcierto de Aranjuez. His new-oundstatus as a jazz star conveying acertain elegance and seeminglysuperior attitude rom behind hisdark shades couldnt have sethim urther apart rom the imageo the genial entertainer, associatedwith jazz musicians until then.Nevertheless, in 1959, he was

assaulted in ront o New YorksBirdland Club, by policemen aterreusing to walk away. In Europe,where he recorded the soundtracko Ascenseur pour lchafaud in 1957,he was unanimously applauded onthe greatest stages.

Louis Malleand Miles Davis whilerecordingthe music or theflmAscenseur pour lchafaud Vincent Rossell / CinmathqueFranaise.

Poster or Ascenseur pour lchafaudbyLouis Malle, 1958. Cinmathque FranaiseCollection.WillyMucha ADAGP,2008.

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Miles Davis duringthe recordingo Porgy and Bess,1958.Photo by Don Hunstein Sony MusicEntertainment. Collection oorchestralscores oGone

Gone Gone arranged by Gil Evans,taken rom the album Porgy andBess (1958). Miles Davis Properties,LLC Collection.

Trumpetbelongingto MilesDavisattheendo the1950s.ChrisEnglish,UNCG.MilesDavisJazzStudies ProgramCollection, Universityo NorthCarolina, Greensboro.

Handwritten noteby theproducer IrvingTownsendlistingthe musicians o Kind of Blue andthe order in which theyappear on therecordsleeve,1959.Teo Macero Archives,New York PublicLibrary or PerormingArts.

John Coltrane,CannonballAdderley,Miles Davis et BillEvans pendant lenregistrement de Kind of Blue,1959.Photoby Don Hunstein SonyMusicEntertainment.

A masterpiece in the history o music and, to this day, the best-selling jazz album ever in the world,

Kind of Blue is in many respects regarded as a model o perection. Recorded in 1959 with his groupo that time in which the saxophonists John Coltrane et Cannonball Adderley shone the album

owes part o its originality to the pianist Bill Evans who penned the album notes on the sleeve.

The original handwritten version o these as well as the notes taken by the producer during the

recording sessions are on display in the exhibition.

The adaptation o Gershwins Porgy and Bess opera as a version or orchestra and jazz soloist

under the direction o Gil Evanswas among the ambitious projects rom the label Columbia

designed to make Miles Daviss better known beyond jazz acionados. The exhibition presents a

collection o original orchestral scores as well as Miles Daviss sole part in the emblematic record

Gone, Gone, Gone.

m s:d fd (1963-1967)

At the beginning o the 1960s, MilesDavis was aced with a new situation:his musicians began leaving himto pursue solo careers. Forced tond new blood, the trumpeter,showing his characteristic fair,

brought in highly gited, youngerinstrumentalists, with whom hewould chart out new territories.The pianist Herbie Hancock, thedrummer Tony Williams, the double-bass player, Ron Carter, and, nally,the saxophonist, Wayne Shortertranscended the rules o ensembleplaying, and spurred on by thetrumpeters directing abandonedthe traditional repertoire in order toinvent a jazz that was at once ree,intuitive, controlled and edgy; a jazzthat diered rom the ree jazzthat was developing at the sametime. The individual and collectiveinfuence o this group would beconsiderable and act as a precursorto contemporary jazz. While hismusic brought him internationalaccolade rom Tokyo, to Antibes,and Berlin Miles Daviss love liesaw him living with beautiul blackwomen artists, he made his labelput on his record covers. He drove aFerrari, and distinguished himsel aspart o show businesss black elite,whose limits went well beyond themere spheres o jazz.

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Miles Davis at the wheel o his Ferrari 275 GTB Baron Wolman.

Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter in Berlin, 1964 JazzSign/Lebrecht Music & Arts.

Handwritten score o E.S.P. by Wayne

Shorter dedicated to Miles Davis, 1965.

Miles Davis Properties, LLC Collection.

Miles Davis and his wie Frances on the

album cover o E.S.P. , Columbia, 1965.

All rights reserved.


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e m:ud k d(1968-1971)

1968 brought its air share osocial unrest, racial tensions, andmusical innovation. The musicianssurrounding Miles Davis becameinterested in the new electrickeyboards; and he himsel began

thinking about how to incorporatethe rhythms o rock music into hisown music, aware as he was othe way in which artists such asJimi Hendrix, James Brown andSly Stone were mobilizing wholecrowds, while jazz seemed connedto a more limited audience. Alwayssurrounded by the best, (JoeZawinul, Wayne Shorter, JohnMcLaughlin), Miles plugged intothis movement, contributing to theemergence o what would becomeknown as jazz rock, with recordsthat had sleeves bearing psychedelicillustrations and that are, in theirway, concept albums. The recordingstudio became the den in whichhe elaborated his music, in closecollaboration with the producer TeoMacero, who availed himsel o allthe editing and mixing techniquesimaginable. Bitches Brew went gold,marking its time, and Miles Davisplayed at all the major venues othe rock circuit, like the Fillmore,and the colossal Isle o WightFestival. In 1968, he married oneo the gureheads o the time, the

famboyant Betty Mabry, who wouldgo on to lead a singing career underthe name Betty Davis.

MatiKlarwein,Live/Evil,oil oncanvas,1971(diptychorthe eponymousalbumby MilesDavis).GalerieAlbertBenamou.

While revolutionizing his music under the infuence o rock and electrication, Miles Davis

also changed his wardrobe; and his record covers refect these shits too. Somewhere betweensurrealism and the psychedelic, paintings by Mati Klarwein (1932-2002), a gure o the NewYork counter-culture, decorate the album covers o Bitches Brew (1969) and Live/Evil(1971) theoriginal painting is displayed in the exhibition.

Miles Davis,photo taken rom theseries madeor the albumcover o In A Silent Way,1969. LeeFriedlander.CourtesyFraenkelGallery,San Francisco.

MilesDavisonthe coverothe magazineRollingStone,1969.Privatecollection. RollingStoneMagazine.

Miles Davis,in his NewYork apartment,1971. Anthony Barboza.

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o c: fuk pu (1072-1975)

At the core o a group with everchanging members, Miles Davisslid, in the early 1970s, rom thenebulous heights o rock to thehypnotic ever o unk. Concernedthat he was not reaching the Aro-

American audience, Miles lookedto the ghetto in order to absorb thesound coming o the street: On theCorner resounds like a maniesto.Always at the cutting edge, thetrumpeter connected a wa-wa pedal,like the ones used by guitarists,on his instrument, adopted theelectronic keyboard, that he himselplayed, and punctuated his act withboxing moves a sport he practicedtirelessly and whose championshe admired. Carried by the ris obass guitarist Michael Henderson,straight rom the Motown studios,and lled by the electricity oguitarists accustomed to the virtueso distortion and the expressivityo blues, his group spearheadeda deep groovy music with drawnout improvisations, whose originalthemes and structures, could nolonger be discerned.

Still shot rom an amateur flm o

Miles Davis in the boxing ring, Ca.

1970. Corky McCoy

Poster o the Miles Davis concert at the Berliner

Jazz Tage, 1971. Gnther Kieser.

Notes by the producer Teo Macero on the making

o the album On the Corner, 1972. Teo Macero

Archives, New York Public Library or

Perorming Arts.

Cover o the album On the Cornerdrawn by Corky

McCoy, 1972. All rights reserved.

15

Trumpet in C, engraved with Miles Daviss name and personalized with green paint, around

1973. Photo by Ed Berger. Institute o Jazz Studies, Newark

From the end o the 1950s, Miles Davis took to personalizing his trumpets with engravings

in the brass or colored varnishes. The exhibition brings together seven trumpets thatbelonged to him at dierent times and that are poignant symbols o his talent.


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s, sud, d rqu (1976-1980)

Exhausted by several surgicaloperations, romantic deceptions,and excesses o various kinds,Miles put his trumpet away andstopped perorming in 1975. One othe last recordings he made beore

retiring is a long piece with uneraryovertones, a veritable requiem; atribute to Duke Ellington who had just died. For long months, worndown by depression, Miles Davis,stayed quietly home. Alarmed by hissilence, various attempts to get himback into the studio were made, butit wasnt until 1980 that with thesupport o those close to him andalongside young Chicago musicians,including his nephew the drummerVince Wilburn he began to make acome-back.

s Pp: d-d (1981-1991)

Fascinated by synthesizers andthe possibilities aorded by newstudio technology, Miles reinventedhis music-making to t the times.Taking in the pop music o themoment, without losing sight oblues, he looked or a way to marrycontemporary sounds with his

three decades worth o experience.His repertoire would includecommercial hits (by Cindy Lauper,Michael Jackson, Toto, and Prince),conceived as new standards. Thetone o his trumpet became thecentral element in his records andhis concerts became shows led by aclose-knit band. In 1986, the albumTutu, composed especially or him byMarcus Miller became a world-wide

Miles Davis at home, shortly beore his come back, around 1981 Teppei Inokuchi.

First annotated drat o Miless autobiography, 1990.SchomburgCenter For Research in Black Culture Collection,NYPL,Astor, Lenox& Tilden Foundations.

Picturetaken rom themovie Dingo,1986, Les flms du paradoxe.

Pictures taken rom an advert or Honda scooters (1986) and rom theseries Miami Vice (1985). Universal,HondaMotor Europe,Warner MusicGroup. UniversalStudios.

Honda Motor. UniversalStudios.

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Fodera bass guitar Monarch DeluxeplayedbyMarcus Miller duringthe recordingothe albumTutu.Photo byVincent Fodera.Marcus Miller Collection.

success. The man with a sphinx acehad risen rom his ashes. Reassuredas to his star status, Miles Davishelped orge his own legend andplayed with his image. He publishedhis biography, took to wearingextraordinary outts drawn by thegreatest designers, exposed histalent as a painter, and made multiple

appearances on screen (video clips,talk shows, adverts, movie and smallscreen roles). His health problems,however, would not let him be.In 1991, or the last time, Milesaccepted to go back in time: at theMontreux Festival he again playedGil Evans scores rom the 1950s;in Paris at La Villette, he reunitedwith old tour partners rom dierentpoints in his career. He passed awaysoon ater, on September 28. In 1992the album Doo-Bop an unnishedcollaboration with rappers cameout; posthumous evidence o his

burgeoning interest in hip-hop.

Photos taken or thealbum sleeveo Youre Under Arrest,1985 AnthonyBarboza.

17

Miles Davis receives a goldrecordor the albumTutu,1988 GuyLe Querrec/Magnum Photos.

Tutu album cover,1986. Allrights reserved.

I can U cant, paintingby Miles Davis collection AndrMartinez et OdileMartinez de la Grange,Paris.Photo Alex Krassovsky.

At rst a means to re-educate his hand ater a stroke, drawing and painting became adaily activity or Miles Davis in the 1980s. Used on some o his album covers, his worksbear witness to his aim to be an all-round artist. Several canvases are displayed are theexhibition or this reason, and in particular the one the acted as the stage backdrop orhis concert at La Villette in July 1991.


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18

e DgThe exhibition was designed byProjectiles.

bk-d p: d

At the end o the 1960s, Miles Davis

was one o the rst jazz musicianswho thought to electriy his trumpet.From this idea a new kind o musicwas born; an unprecedentedenergy, accompanying the youthemancipation movements o thetime. Within the scenographicproject, this watershed is made realby a change in location: there is abeore and ater the electricationMiles Davis observed and adoptedwith his creative genius.

Thus, the ground foor covers MilesDaviss career rom its early days

in St. Louis, his childhood town,to the middle o the 1960s, whenhe was recognized as one o thegreat artists o jazz, whose ruleshe revolutionized. The basementfoor covers the second hal oMiles Daviss career. It opens withthe projection, on a large screen,o his Ile o Wight concert in 1970and closes with the second hal othe 1980s when he had attainedpopstar status, surrounded by apredominantly electric instrumentorchestra. Finally, one room projects

one o his last concerts given at LaVillette in 1991.

19

mu h f e Dg

Designed or all audiences, the

exhibition aims to be a showcaseor discovering the trumpetersmusic. Sound and ease o listeningare key elements in thinking out theexhibition. Listening relies on threeprinciples: the mutes: throughout theproposed circuit, these smallacoustic rooms air live theemblematic pieces rom MilesDaviss dierent periods. They arepunctuated by dierent objectslinked to the making o these piecesand, or the most part, by a trumpet,illustrating the development o his

sound (natural tone, mute, wha-wha pedal, amplier ) Live sound rom the concerts:so as to recreate the power andemotion o his great concerts, someo these are aired live, on a largescale, in the exhibition. plug and play listening withheadphones: thanks to headphones ones own or ones lent by themuseum that can be pluggedinto stations, this eature oers notonly an excellent quality o sound,but also the possibility o ollowing

synchronized video clips and ointroducing personal hearingsso that visitors can immersethemselves in the music. Thismode o listening also allows or aselection o additional works to beoered unabridged.


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20

P f

1968-1991

F s-lu 52d s: fbd (1926-1948)

1926-1967

oufc: fdu d f (1949-1954)

mad : ud fcu(1955-1962)

ms:d fd (1963-1967)

sPp:d-d (1981-1991)

em:udk d(1968-1971)

o c:fuk pu(1072-1975)

s,sud,drqu(1976-1980)

renseiGnements PratiQUes

tfEntre de lexposition : 8 Demandeurs demploi, moins de 18 anset personnes handicapes: 4Billets coupe-le en ventesur www.citedelamusique.fr

hDu mardi au samedi de 12h 18hNocturne le vendredi jusqu 22hLe dimanche de 10h 18hOuverture exceptionnellejusqu 20hles soirs de concerts des cycles We Want Miles les 27, 28, 30et 31 octobre et les 18 et 19 dcembre.

contacts Presse

hd s a01 44 84 45 78

[email protected]

sd mu01 44 84 89 69

[email protected]

mu d uqu - c d uqu221, avenue Jean-Jaurs 75019 PARIS01 44 84 44 84

www.citedelamusique.fr

Cover: MilesDavisby AntonCorbijn,Montreal,Canada,1985 ANTONCORBIJN

miles davis anglais

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