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05/25/2005 Archived Entry: "Miles"

Miles
Today is Miles Davis' birthday. WDET is treating us to Miles throughout the day. I first picked up a Miles record by chance in high school. Flipping through the bins at Peaches Records and Tapes, I picked out Kind of Blue for no reason. These are the kinds of accidental moments that seem eerie. Out of all the records to choose, why this one? The smoothest and most celebrated of all of Miles’ work, Kind of Blue is haunting in it appeal to arrogance and love simultaneously. To start with the best should lead to later disappointment, But it didn’t. Some time later I put aside the ‘50s and ’60s stuff and started listening to the freakish music Miles put out by the late ‘60s early ‘70s: In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, On the Corner, and A Tribute to Jack Johnson. In some ways, this is Miles at his best: Funky, obscure, dissonant, troubling, interrupted, haunting. I like this Miles because it breaks the rules about what jazz should do; like Sun Ra or Ornette Coleman, this sound irritates at times, gets you up at others. By Tutu Miles is no longer Miles anymore. He’s too placid. The only raspy thing left in him is his voice (what a voice; he should have sang like Chet Baker). I would like to hear WDET shift from the Miles Ahead stuff they’re doing now and rip it up a bit with “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down.”