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If Miles Davis had lived, instead of slipping into a mortal coma after suffering a rage-induced stroke in 1991, he would just be turning 80. Radio 3 is marking this with a series of programmes and a repeat of a six-part series by his biographer, Ian Carr. Unsurprisingly, the celebration does not dwell on what the great trumpeter would have made of the jazz scene today, not least because he was as caustic in speech as he was often laconic behind the horn.
New releases spill out of CD stores of female singers performing old songs, while those contemporaries of Miles's who are still alive have long ceased to attempt anything new. But Miles was never interested in playing "tired-ass shit" (or "dead shit", as he referred to European classical music); he was always innovating. As he told a politician's wife at a White House reception: "I've changed music five or six times.
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Miles Davis would’ve turned 80 this week. sholto byrnes looks at his legacy
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What have you done of any importance, other than being white?"
The majority of jazz practitioners today would shrivel under Davis's scorn. He always managed to take in the best of what was new - be it in advanced harmony, rock, funk or pop - and make it his, rather than compromising with the language of mainstream musical taste or settling for established forms.
Jazz today has no figurehead providing such leadership. Wynton Marsalis dusts effigies in the jazz museum, the modernisers are dispersed, and none of them possesses anything approaching the stature of Davis. It is to his music we still need to turn for clues towards the future. Duke Ellington famously told his audiences, "We love you madly". But Miles, well, we miss him madly. 
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POSTED MAY 25, 2006
 Archive: Jazz isn't just beauty |
