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Originally Posted by Brian L
Bluebrew, I'm curious. You describe Miles as being "one of the nicest people I ever met." This is a bit of a surprise, as many consider him to be angry or moody or -- at his worst -- misogynistic or racist. I'm not trying to argue that point of view. Rather, I wish you'd say more about your experiences with him and what he did that impressed you.
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People are often surprised when I mention this but several things come into play here, not least of which was my age at the time. My "memoral" asscociation with Miles happened like this,
In the 50's there was a club in Los Angeles called Jazz City. That's where all this took place. My friend and I convinced the owners to let us come after school and take out the trash and generally clean up before the club opened. In payment they let us sit in what used to be the kitchen (the place was formerly a diner, a small club by any syadards) and listen through what used to be the food window which they had left open. In those days a group would come in for 10 days or two weeks. Miles came in with the famous quintet. This must have been late 56 or early 57 because it was the finalized version with Trane, Red Garland (a real angel of a person) Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. We came in to do the cleaning on their first rehearsal. We sated out of the way until they were just about finished then we started polishing up the tables and setting the chairs. I remember Miles saying,
"Aren't you guys a little young to be in here?"
We told him what the scene was and he smiled. He asked us what we played and then who we were listening to. I was on a big Stitt kick at the time and he thought that was great. Somebody on the West Coast listening to East Coast jazz. We had just move about a year before from Rochester N.Y. so I was still a solid East Coaster. he started asking us about others and mentioning some names which we eagerly wrote down on napkins. After a few days we got bold enough to ask him some simple technical questions that he answered pretty completely and understanably for a couple of teenagers. We were in heaven. All the guys were nice but especially Red Garland and Paul Chambers who was from Detoit where I was born. That was like meeting an American in Tibet for me. We kept calling him Mr. Davis which I think impressed him, remember Miles was barely 30 at the time. Finally he said something like,
"Hey we're stablemates now. Just Miles is fine."
He had that gravelly voice that was a little scary at first. Later I remember telling my mom who, as I have mentioned before, came from a flamenco family in Seville that if Miles had decided to sing flamenco he would have revolutionized the art. Anyway the whole group treated us royally. I remember that I was a little afraid of Trane at first, he looked like the bad guy at school who was to tough for anyone. By the end of their two weeks we would finish cleaning up and sit at a table with them while they relaxed before supper. There was only one day that I saw the Miles you speak off. One day we had stayed later than 6pm because the place was an exceptional mess that day. The bar opened at 6 and Miles was still there sitting at the bar doing something. I forget what we were taking out the last of the trash and he was talking to us when he finished. Some guy comes in for an early drink. In those days "yuppies" were called "Ivy Leaguers". You could always tell these guys because they wore pants with a little belt in the back. We came from a working class neighborhood and these guys were dorks to us, older dorks. Totally unhip. So this guy walks up to the bar, looks at Miles and says,
"Hey, you're Miles Davis."
Miles just gives him a dirty look and waks into the back room. I guess it was the way he said it. We we're POed no end.
"You just ruined everything." my freind said. So we just turned and walked into the back room. We were finished anyway. Needless to say during those two weeks we got very little sleep, did no homework but everything was cool with our parents after we told them. My dad even came to pick us up a couple of times. IN the end Miles gave us each a 45rpm of "Walkin" which I still have today.
Anyway Brian, that's my Miles story for what it's worth. I guess I have been one lucky SOB in. Life's been pretty good to me in spite of me being an A-hole plenty of the time. I have had some great times and still plan to have more. The bottle's not empty yet.
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