Quincy Jones, Carlos Santana, Clive Davis, Wayne Shorter, Davis’s first wife Frances Taylor, his son Erin Davis, and Ron Carter are just a few of the luminaries weighing in on Davis’s remarkable career and complicated personal life.
#MILES DAVIS AMERICAN MASTERS FULL#
With full access to the Miles Davis Estate, the film – which earned a Grammy nomination in the “Best Music Film” category – features never-before-seen footage, studio outtakes from his recording sessions, rare photos, and new interviews with close friends, fellow musicians, collaborators, and scholars. The film takes its name from Davis’ compilation album of 1957. Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson ( Boss: The Black Experience in Business, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution) tells the story of this beloved musical giant in Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, premiering on American Masters in honor of Black History Month. Widely regarded as one of the most influential and respected figures in music, he was an inspiring collaborator, a cultural icon, and an innovator – in everything from bebop to cool jazz, modern quintets, orchestral music, jazz fusion, rock ’n’ roll, and even hip-hop. The central theme of Miles Davis’s life was his restless determination to break boundaries and live life on his own terms. Trumpeter, bandleader, the very embodiment of cool. As "Birth of the Cool" establishes, the score endures while the film is forgotten.American Masters – Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool premieres on THIRTEEN, Tuesday February 25 at 9 p.m. Modern cinema was changed too: His score for Louis Malle's "Elevator to the Gallows" in 1958 arguably did more for Malle's "Nouvelle Vague" movement than Malle did. (Davis even collaborated with Karlheinz Stockhausen, but Nelson doesn't get around to that.) The world-shattering Miles Davis Quintet of the mid-50s, then the collaborations with Gil Evans (and "Kind of Blue" in '59), would not only change jazz but all of modern music.
While Davis disciples might not be fully satisfied with what's here, the samplings are generous, major phases well-explored, and better yet, well-explained.
Critics took to calling him the "Prince of Darkness." You wonder why.īut that "greatest show in modern jazz" is what endures, and Nelson sensibly gives it the prominence and priority demanded. "Changed my whole life, whole attitude," he would later say. Davis was one of the most renowned musicians in the world when he was sucker-punched by an NYPD detective outside Birdland in 1959, his bespoke suit splattered in blood. He suffered from depression, physical pain, addiction and like many black Americans, the scarring effects of racism. The anger and remoteness are acknowledged, Davis' sporadic violence toward women (Taylor in particular) is as well. Nearly 30 years later, Nelson confirms this appraisal, then sorts through - if not quite out - some of the lingering contradictions as well. MY SAY When Davis died in 1991 - hard life, copious drug use, an incandescent body of work - Newsday's jazz critic Gene Seymour wrote that "he was simply the greatest show in modern jazz" and "spoke from the darkness as a way of reaching out to those who were lost in it." This was her last interview before her death in 2018.īorn to an affluent family in Illinois in 1926, Davis was playing trumpet with Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker by the time he was 18 and when "Birth of the Cool" - a compilation album - came out a few years later in 1957, he had revolutionized jazz.Ĭarl Lumbly - or at least his voice - channels Davis throughout, with excerpts from Davis' 1990 autobiography, which he co-wrote with Quincy Troupe. The most noteworthy - and startling - interview is with his second wife, Frances Taylor. WHAT IT'S ABOUT For this "American Masters" career perspective, filmmaker Stanley Nelson talks to Quincy Jones, Carlos Santana, pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Ron Carter, and many others, as well as Davis’ son Erin and nephew Vince Wilburn. DOCUMENTARY "Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool" on PBS' "American Masters"
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