Miles
Book description
Miles: The Autobiography, like the man himself, holds nothing back. He talks about his battles against drugs and racism, and discusses the many women in his life. But above all, Miles talks about music and musicians, including the legends he has played with over the years: Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Trane,…
Why read it?
3 authors picked Miles as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Mile Davis is unflinching in this memoir, written with the great poet Quincy Troupe, detailing his drug addiction and the foul racism that undergirded too much of his life.
What I find most compelling is his in-depth discussion of music and musical legends who were his bandmates, notably Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk.
This is a mandatory reading for all fans of the golden era of jazz.
From Alan's list on books that changed the way I think and write about music.
Miles Davis is one of the two or three ultimate masters of modern music, both as a performer and composer, and although there are excellent books about him (John Szwed’s comes to mind), this is the bedrock source. Troupe got him to look at himself with a wider view than most musicians ever communicate (verbally), and Miles dug deep to get to the stories of his life. And it is without a doubt the greatest example of all the possible grammatical uses of the word “motherfucker” ever written.
From Dennis' list on jazz and the story it tells about America.
Scabrous, scathing, hilarious, penetrating — all adjectives that can be applied to Miles (1926- 1991) himself, and also to his American Book Award-winning 1990 memoir, which is marked not only by Davis’s profound wisdom about the music he helped revolutionize in the mid 20th Century and his strong opinions about the multitude of jazz figures he encountered in every era from the 1940s to the 80s, but also by the repeated use (sometimes several times per page) of a certain lively, all-purpose twelve-letter expletive. The book’s detractors claim the book is more Quincy Troupe than Miles, but I can attest,…
From James' list on jazz through the stories of jazz musicians.
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