Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz.
Some of his notable albums include: Birth of the Cool (1952), Kind of Blue (1959), Sketches of Spain (1959) and Bitches Brew (1969).
Zappa and Captain Beefheart listened to Miles Davis and Gil Evans' album Sketches of Spain when they were teenagers.[1]
Zappa claimed to have seen Miles Davis in the early 1960s:
Q: Do People like Miles Davis know about you and your music?
A: Well, I met Miles Davis in 1962[2] in a jazz club in San Francisco called the Black Hawk. I really liked his music and I went up to him and introduced myself to him and he turned his back on me. And so I haven't had anything to do with him or his music since that time.
Q: In 1962, though, you hadn't recorded anything.
A: That's okay. He had his chance. I don't treat people that way.[3]
But Sergio Albonico later recalled:
I remember one time I said to Frank that I was also working with Miles. I don’t remember precisely what he said, but he had a lot of respect for Miles and Miles’ band. [4]
In August 1969 as Zappa was recording his jazz-influenced rock album Hot Rats on the west coat Davis was recording his rock-influenced jazz album, Bitches Brew, on the East Coast. Their approach to recording was equally distant. Zappa, as he explained about a later band, requiring his musicians to play what he had written:
I hate to have to act like an umpire or referee and go scream at everybody because they're jamming. I don't pay 200 dollars an hour studio time to have guys go in there and jazz out. If you want to practice, do it at home; don't do it in the studio. The studio is the time to make the record.[5]
whereas Davis presented the group with some "musical sketches" for the Bitches Brew pieces and told them they could play anything that came to mind as long as they play off of his chosen chord. He had not arranged each piece because he was unsure of the direction the album was to take and that what was produced came from an improvisational process:
"not some prearranged shit."[6]
Miles Davis is alluded to at the end of Zappa's song Latex Solar Beef. In series 2 of the TV show Miami Vice Davis appeared in a guest role in episode 6 as did Zappa in episode 19.
Notes
- ↑ Mike Barnes' biography, "Captain Beefheart" (Quartet Books, 2000)
- ↑ Davis played the Black Hawk in 1961. A 2 disc set of the concert was released by Columbia in 1961. Davis played Royce Hall and The It Club in Los Angeles September/October 1963.
- ↑ It Just Might Be Frank, RockBill Vol. 3 No. 29, November 1984
- ↑ 2018 Interview
- ↑ Little Band We Used To Play In, Keyboard Magazine, 1980
- ↑ Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe, Simon & Schuster 1990
