Miles Davis

[sunnysideup]

Earlier today I was listening to Barry Harris state his opinion that Miles & Coltrane killed "jazz". Well they certainly took bop to its logical conclusion, and beyond... but they did a lot more than that too...

[srlank]

Listening to Miles as well tonight. Love this rendition of Green Dolphin Street.

[christianm77]

I enjoy Barry Harris's jazz rants. I do get the feeling that they are 75% meant and 25% for effect... Perhaps I am wrong though haha...

But I kind of think in a sense he's right. I think Trane and Miles were perhaps the last great jazz musicians and everything since has been something else - a different type of music... Different social conditions too.

When people play bebop now the cultural meaning is completely different to what it was in the 40s and 50s. Now it's a classical genre.

The jazz label now means something wider, different... Anyway that debate always goes in circles....

Thing is Miles Davis didn't want to be jazz anyway, so they'd probably agree... Bitches Brew says 'directions in music by Miles Davis' - no mention of the j-word, which he hated.

But then the greatest 'jazz' musicians have often had a slightly complicated relationship with the term 'jazz' - I was reading an old downbeat article where Charlie Parker states that he didn't think his music was jazz - no doubt because the term jazz suggested 'lightweight entertainment' and he felt his music was a serious artistic endeavour.

(as opposed to 'incomprehensible noise and snobby audiences' which is what it signifies now to many people :-))

BTW - I do like Miles electric stuff ... I'm not making value judgements - although Barry certainly is!

[goldenwave77]

This interview is more of Miles talking out of both sides of his mouth, as usual.

Thing is Miles Davis didn't want to be jazz anyway, so they'd probably agree... Bitches Brew says 'directions in music by Miles Davis' - no mention of the j-word, which he hated.

Right....because the adjective "jazz" is a marketing death wish...Miles was selling about 60,000 albums on most of his albums....Kind of Blue is the outstanding exception--it has sold steadily. Kind of Blue and Dave Brubeck's stuff are what the jazz "curious" might have in their record collection...they were kind of "entry level" drugs, so to speak, for the cautiously intrepid to try to listen to jazz.

Miles hit middle age...even his 2nd great group stopped selling out arenas and clubs....he found young blacks listening to Sly and the Family Stone, and MoTown...and he was scared to death of becoming irrelevant, musically and financially. He made the "courageous" artistic decision to go after the rock n' roll demographic, and Bitches Brew was produced.

I think Bitches Brew is like the Rolling Stones turning to disco back in 1978 (?!)....all of a sudden, disco became socially acceptable for a lot of the rock n' roll crowd, because after all the Stones had given their imprimatur. Bitches Brew was a huge smash, and it gave fusion a big boost...but I think this would have happened anyway.

As far as race is concerned, Miles is again, a hypocrite. Miles in the pd. from the mid-50's to the mid-60's is kind of like Sidney Poitier...cool, dignified....with some undeniable talent, and acceptable to a white cross-over audience...Miles dressed himself up in the Brooks Brothers suits and adopted the disdainful Black Prince persona, and white (and black) audiences ATE it up. Miles has a love/hate affair with white America...he talks a lot about his blackness, but he's happy to sell lots of records to white America, through the efforts of Columbia Records...he even conked his hair. He had marquee appeal, and star quality, and could pull off this performance for a long while. He has a hot button about race because I think, in his heart, he knows he is conflicted. He's like the closeted homosexual who runs around ragging on queens and fairies.

Miles and bebop: Miles D. is NOT the last word in bebop trumpet....the development of the music is unimaginable without Dizzy, one of the few who could go toe to toe with Charlie Parker and not come out looking silly. Dizzy, Fats Navarro, and Clifford Brown, I think are all better pure bop trumpeters. Later on Freddie Hubbard could play rings around Miles, just as far as technique is concerned. Miles D. is a great ballad player, and he had a talent for putting together groups and maybe coaxing them to musical places that others would not go...as a pure player, his compositional aspect is superior...I like Horace Silver's piano playing a lot....even though it's kind of minimalist, groove and rhythm stuff....like Miles, he is also a very good composer...their stuff just ends up sounding good. Miles also has taste....the courage to play little...as I've said before, he is a greater artist than he is a trumpet player. (Compare him to Al Hirt, who technically is very good...but who was always less adventurous, a better technician but a lesser artist.)

[smokinguit]

Definitely agree that Miles was a very conflicted individual.

[Nate Miller]

I don't know about "killed" jazz, but I've played with sax players that weren't influenced by John Coltrane because he was their contemporary. They had already learned jazz and were out playing when Trane was making records.

that is a completely different perspective. Think about it for a second...you are learning jazz but there is no John Coltrane. He hasn't happened yet.

Then everybody who comes after has come up in a time where there was John Coltrane. All of us young guys (which includes even old geezers like myself) play differently. We make them want to get out their garden hoses and teach us to take short solos.

that's what he's talking about.

[christianm77]

This interview is more of Miles talking out of both sides of his mouth, as usual.

Thing is Miles Davis didn't want to be jazz anyway, so they'd probably agree... Bitches Brew says 'directions in music by Miles Davis' - no mention of the j-word, which he hated.

Right....because the adjective "jazz" is a marketing death wish...Miles was selling about 60,000 albums on most of his albums....Kind of Blue is the outstanding exception--it has sold steadily. Kind of Blue and Dave Brubeck's stuff are what the jazz "curious" might have in their record collection...they were kind of "entry level" drugs, so to speak, for the cautiously intrepid to try to listen to jazz.

Nah I think he genuinely didn't like the term.

As I think it's odd that people express a preference for a genre rather than for specific works or musicians, I kind of see where Miles is coming from. I don't like all jazz, for example, and I certainly don't like only jazz.

But that's how I feel about a every musical genre. The great musicians are in a class of their own. They transcend genre and mere craft. Miles is certainly in this category - long before he started playing with an electric rhythm section.

It's kind of the way I was brought up - my dad will listen to anything, but he won't necessarily like it just because it's meant to be like something else he likes. He's like the opposite of the iTunes Genius!

So I guess, I don't like 'jazz' - I like Charlie Parker, Miles, Wes, Clifford, etc etc and so on.... Of course, I play jazz repertoire and I improvise solos and so on, so I am a jazz guitarist. You have to find a tradition. But that doesn't mean I think jazz has a privileged place in my heart just for being in the 'jazz' record bins. It has to be better than that.

Miles hit middle age...even his 2nd great group stopped selling out arenas and clubs....he found young blacks listening to Sly and the Family Stone, and MoTown...and he was scared to death of becoming irrelevant, musically and financially. He made the "courageous" artistic decision to go after the rock n' roll demographic, and Bitches Brew was produced.

I think Bitches Brew is like the Rolling Stones turning to disco back in 1978 (?!)....all of a sudden, disco became socially acceptable for a lot of the rock n' roll crowd, because after all the Stones had given their imprimatur. Bitches Brew was a huge smash, and it gave fusion a big boost...but I think this would have happened anyway.

Thing is Bitches Brew is some of the strangest music I've ever heard (well the first disc anyway...) 70s Fusion to me is a much more 'commercial' movement than anything Miles did. Did sell a lot of records though, tis true. I do believe the artwork had something to do with that though. Faaarrr oouut maaaaan.

Of course, he probably was trying to cash in to some extent, but IIRC he actually ended up play support slots for Herbie, Mahavishnu etc, who perhaps being younger understood the funk and rock audiences a bit better and were able to provide something more commercial for those audiences.

As far as race is concerned, Miles is again, a hypocrite. Miles in the pd. from the mid-50's to the mid-60's is kind of like Sidney Poitier...cool, dignified....with some undeniable talent, and acceptable to a white cross-over audience...Miles dressed himself up in the Brooks Brothers suits and adopted the disdainful Black Prince persona, and white (and black) audiences ATE it up. Miles has a love/hate affair with white America...he talks a lot about his blackness, but he's happy to sell lots of records to white America, through the efforts of Columbia Records...he even conked his hair. He had marquee appeal, and star quality, and could pull off this performance for a long while. He has a hot button about race because I think, in his heart, he knows he is conflicted. He's like the closeted homosexual who runs around ragging on queens and fairies.

I kind of can't blame Miles, though he was certainly not an easy or admirable man in many respects. But does he have to be a saint? No. He still had to put up with a lot of shit throughout his life.

Miles and bebop: Miles D. is NOT the last word in bebop trumpet....the development of the music is unimaginable without Dizzy, one of the few who could go toe to toe with Charlie Parker and not come out looking silly. Dizzy, Fats Navarro, and Clifford Brown, I think are all better pure bop trumpeters. Later on Freddie Hubbard could play rings around Miles, just as far as technique is concerned. Miles D. is a great ballad player, and he had a talent for putting together groups and maybe coaxing them to musical places that others would not go...as a pure player, his compositional aspect is superior...I like Horace Silver's piano playing a lot....even though it's kind of minimalist, groove and rhythm stuff....like Miles, he is also a very good composer...their stuff just ends up sounding good. Miles also has taste....the courage to play little...as I've said before, he is a greater artist than he is a trumpet player. (Compare him to Al Hirt, who technically is very good...but who was always less adventurous, a better technician but a lesser artist.)

The thing about bebop trumpet is there is a kind of a last word and it is Clifford Brown. Even now. The right musician, playing at the right time.

But Miles wasn't really playing bop, was he, after the early days? The thing I hear about his early playing is how 'notey' he was - actually too notey...

[mr. beaumont]

People rag on Miles, I get it...kill your idols and that crap...attack the biggest head.

I've actually never heard him called the be all end all of bebop. I've never even heard him called a great bebop trumpeter.

Fact is, the man changed the music we love several times over, and along with the innovations of Trane in the 60's--we're STILL not done with this music...modal, second quintet, fusion...it's still being explored. Listen to modern jazz in NYC today...how much of it owes it's entire sound to music Miles created over 50 years ago?


And as for fusion getting a big boost without Brew? Maybe. But there was never another record that sounded like that. Not even Miles' records sounded like that again. Maybe fusion would have happened anyway, but I'm glad there's Miles' big, scary, messy, bombastic, apocalyptic fusion and not just the brand that spawned from say, "Heavy Weather."

[Nate Miller]

I heard that Miles liked to have some white guys in his band for "contrast"

I also heard that he hated white people. Well, I grew up in Texas and I can tell you that black people, white people, Mexican people...they all hate each other. Everybody hates everybody as best as I can tell from how people act

right now today, to say someone is a racist is one of the most damning things you can say

but that wasn't really the case 60 years ago. People thought different people were different. It was just the way it was.

one thing you can say about Miles Davis....he was on the band stand with Charlie Parker. He was right in the middle of the whole Cool Jazz thing in the 50s. Then he had one of the best quintets of all time in the 60s. Then he made Bitches Brew and changed direction again

[mr. beaumont]

Yeah, that was a killer band...

I always liked Miles' brand of fusion best...outside of that, maybe a few other things...Herbie's Headhunters/Thrust band was so funky, early Weather Report was cool, Idris Muhammad's band with Joe Beck...but a lot of fusion just sounds dated and cheesy to me.

But never those Miles records. They'd sound fresh (and scary) if released today.

[destinytot]

I find the section from 1m42 to the end of the OP's video clip to be provocative - which is fine - but also regrettable - which is not.

I think he had an important point to make, but I don't like the way that he went about it - a way that seems more likely to set up barriers than remove them. To me, that explains a lot of the poignancy I find in his Art - but I wish he'd kept it there.

An unfortunate spectacle - and, quite probably, knowingly contrived as a fashionable pose.

[grahambop]

I have never been that mad on fusion, but I love Bitches Brew. It's in a different category.

I haven't listened to it for ages, but for some reason I listened to 'Pharaoh's Dance' the other day and it was mind-blowing. Nothing else sounds like that.

[goldenwave77]

Well, the OP started out saying Miles D. "took bop to its logical conclusion". No, actually he didn't. He was around...so was Dizzy, Fats N., Clifford B., Red Rodney, and others.

As for "cool jazz", (i) he didn't invent it, (ii) he didn't pick the musicians who played on the Birth of the Cool sessions, (iii) he didn't do the arrangements , and (iv) that record was never even released till 4 yrs. after 2 of the singles were released, and these singles were not exactly smash hits. But Miles is happy to take the credit for inventing cool jazz.

Modal jazz: More of a claim here, though he loved to downplay Bill Evans' contributions, after first congratulating himself for having the courage to hire a white pianist.

Bitches Brew: Yes, Miles D made the great artistic leap of going after the biggest audience out there...people who listened to loud rock music. Some people seem to like this spliced together piece of something or other. I don't.

As for Miles D. yes, "he did put up with a lot of sh*T in his life", but so did Dizzy, Clark Terry, and pretty much every other black musician, most likely. But they didn't end up with the Ferraris, the block long brownstone in the West 70's, and the distinction of being the most highly paid jazz musician probably ever (in real terms). So his railing against the power structure and the people who made all this possible, strikes me, as a little.... insincere...phony...hypocritical....something he trots out to sell a book, or get some ink in some journalistic puff piece.

In the end its not about "killing ... idols ...and attacking the biggest head", its whether he should be an idol in the first place. If you want to swallow the official propaganda cooked up in the A & R ofc. at Columbia Records about Miles D. "changing music three or four times", feel free. But just recognize, you're being played.

[Nate Miller]

I'm the same way when it comes to Bitches Brew. I don't really like fusion, but I wore the grooves off that record back in college

I went and saw the Star People tour in 80 or 81. The guitar players with him were Mike Stern and John Scofield. It was the first time I had ever heard of Mike Stern, but it didn't take to long to see why he was there on stage with Miles

[mr. beaumont]

Are you really going to tell me that the fact his music changed jazz several times over and it's still being explored today is the result of marketing?

[christianm77]

Well, the OP started out saying Miles D. "took bop to its logical conclusion". No, actually he didn't. He was around...so was Dizzy, Fats N., Clifford B., Red Rodney, and others.

As for "cool jazz", (i) he didn't invent it, (ii) he didn't pick the musicians who played on the Birth of the Cool sessions, (iii) he didn't do the arrangements , and (iv) that record was never even released till 4 yrs. after 2 of the singles were released, and these singles were not exactly smash hits. But Miles is happy to take the credit for inventing cool jazz.

Modal jazz: More of a claim here, though he loved to downplay Bill Evans' contributions, after first congratulating himself for having the courage to hire a white pianist.

Bitches Brew: Yes, Miles D made the great artistic leap of going after the biggest audience out there...people who listened to loud rock music. Some people seem to like this spliced together piece of something or other. I don't.

As for Miles D. yes, "he did put up with a lot of sh*T in his life", but so did Dizzy, Clark Terry, and pretty much every other black musician, most likely. But they didn't end up with the Ferraris, the block long brownstone in the West 70's, and the distinction of being the most highly paid jazz musician probably ever (in real terms). So his railing against the power structure and the people who made all this possible, strikes me, as a little....insincere...phony...hypocritical....some thing he trots out to sell a book, or get some ink in some journalistic puff piece.

You can stay in your "Amen corner". In the end its not about "killing ... idols ...and attacking the biggest head", its whether he should be an idol in the first place. If you want to swallow the official propaganda cooked up in the A & R ofc. at Columbia Record about Miles D. "changing music three or four times", feel free. But just recognize, you're being played.

And while I have incredible respect for people like Clark Terry because of their quality of grace and dignity in the fact of years and years of BS, well it's a very admirable quality.

But I do not expect people to respond like that - why should they? Miles was a dick on many occasions, sure, but that doesn't mean he didn't have a right to be angry about stuff. I'm not interested in finding heroes, really... They don't exist. Only real, complicated human beings.

Anyway, I am not qualified to judge. I don't know what it's like.

If I'd had to deal with Miles in reality, I'd have to make judgements of his character in my dealings with him, sure, but I never met the cat, so who cares?

In any case, I very much like Miles Davis's records. And I very much like Miles's playing.

[Nate Miller]

Miles is somebody that I probably would not have liked, I never met him, but I like his music. Charlie Parker is another. I've heard the stories of Charlie borrowing somebody's horn, then hocking it for drugs and stuff like that. I don't think I would have wanted to be around him all that much, either. But his music is another story

But musicians are human, and a lot of them have some real character flaws. just like movie stars, ball players, lawyers...

[goldenwave77]

No, what I'm saying is that it is almost impossible to separate out his popularity....his star quality...his media presence...from what his artistic impact was. Just in the same way, that the Stones validated disco. There was a post a while back about the 100 Biggest Selling Jazz albums of all time, or something like that...when you looked on the list, there were depressingly few "classic" jazz albums on it....a lot of cross-over...a lot of fusion...all pretty much as a result of Bitches Brew.

Did Steven King and Anne Rice "change literature" because they both wrote Gothic, melodramatic literature that became hugely popular, and has spawned endless, dreary 2nd rate versions of the same? They became popular and it kind of fed on itself. Audiences like to worship popular heroes....we like to believe that those who we bestow celebrity upon are special...because our own evaluation in choosing them, is now validated. With the cult of celebrity-hood, and reality media, this has now reached absurd proportions.

I'm not saying fusion music is false art---which is how I would describe celebrity/reality media, but Miles was a kind of midwife to what became the fusion genre. But if he hadn't done it, someone else would have....no record company executive with a pulse was indifferent to Woodstock and the mass marketing possibilities that presented. Bill Graham presented Miles along with Steve Miller and Crosby Stills and Nash...but to twenty-something jazz neophytes..."Oh yeah, Miles D. is going to play...yeah I've heard of him." And Jerry Garcia could claim to be a jazz fan, and he probably was...but Miles D. fulfilled the first prerequisite of stardom---people have to know who he is...like a politician or televangelist (Jimmy Swaggart's son), name recognition counts for a lot. Isn't it amazing how Joey Alexander is now, suddenly, the greatest living jazz soloist?! (see Grammy nominations)...I mean the kid is good, but if you don't think some record company exec's didn't get together and say, "Wow...this kid needs to be sold...NOW...while he's still young and a story.", then I have a bridge I'd like to sell to you.

I own more Miles D. albums than any other artist. The man is a great ballad player and a great artist, but let's not make him into more than he was, and is. Chopin didn't write long pieces---Beethoven never wrote a decent opera, but they are still great in my book. So is Miles.

(To put it another way...I was a fan of Batman when I read comic books growing up, but will I go to see a movie with Batman against Superman...no, because it's ludicrous, and not a fair fight, and just doesn't hold up....the only reason I might go to the flick is to see if Johnny Smith is playing the role of Superman, because I do believe he originally came from the Planet Krypton--he is surely not like any human guitarist that I know of.)

[Nate Miller]

No, what I'm saying is that it is almost impossible to separate out his popularity....his star quality...his media presence...from what his artistic impact was.

there's a lot of truth to that. Miles was also a pretty sharp self-promoter. I always just figured some of the controversial things he said in interviews was part of the act. Part of the Miles Mystique

there's a joke I heard from a buddy in orchestras. There's this pet shop where all the animals are playing different orchestral instruments. the dogs are playing the woodwinds, cats the strings, even the turtles are playing kettle drums. A customer walks in the shop and is just amazed. He spots a cockatiel perched in the corner and he asks the owner "what instrument does that cockatiel play?"

the owner says "I dunno, I've never seen him play anything, but all the other animals call him 'Maestro'"

[Doctor Jeff]

Interesting discussion--can't watch the video right this moment though...

Beethoven wrote Fidelio, which is highly regarded (though I haven't listened to it in ages). It's been said he wrote one of everything--almost all excellent, though his enduring reputation is based on his piano works and symphonies.

Chopin did write 3 multimovement sonatas and 3 piano concertoes.

Re' Miles--I really go back and forth on him from the personal standpoint, but I still listen to him a lot and of course can't deny his legacy. One could say he pushed bop to its conclusion, because I don't think the other principles--Dizzy, et al, were evolving to the extent that Miles was. He DID start out playing bebop, supposedly because that was the way to get gigs, not because that was his natural inclination as a player.

Just my .02 on 2 other bones of contention--I agree he probably didn't like the term jazz because it's a garbage term. Read up on the origins of the word, which is also controversial. To paraphrase Louis, there are only 2 kinds of music, good and bad. If it feels good, it is good.

That said, I think in 1950 or so everyone kind of knew what jazz was. By the 1960's thanks in no small part to Miles, it wasn't so clear at all.

Re' some of Miles' attitudes--I don't think he hated white people. He said some crazy stuff, some of which got reported, probably a lot of it reported wrong. I read his autobiography and don't get that impression at all. He liked musicians and artists who could create, period.

He was very opinionated, and it's well known he knocked both Louis and Dizzy for their clowning around, which he thought was demeaning and perpetuated racial stereotypes.

[eddy b.]

Kind of Blue was the first small group jazz record I owned that was slow enough that I could follow the music and appreciate, it definitely opened my ears to more jazz. My take on Miles is that he was a true superstar, but really not the innovator he's credited with being. As was previously stated he didn't invent "cool" jazz, he didn't make the first "fusion" record( I believe that would be Duster by Gary Burton), and my to my ears he borrowed a LOT from many , specifically Ahmad Jamal. But his genius was that of leading others and in general being the "frontman" in every sense. He was the perfect antagonist for the time and the opposite of Louis Armstrong. The styles or genres Miles is credited with creating had all been done by someone else first, but as soon as Miles did it the genre gained an audience because Miles was the biggest jazz star of his time. If he killed jazz it was by his fame, since his passing No One has filled the void in the pop culture awareness of jazz,ie. Miles playing Cyndi Lauper tunes in the 80's, his band being the best band of the time making ol Sting jealous and trying to hire Marcus Miller, Branford and all that. In terms of instantly recognisable world famous jazz musicians there really was only Miles or Kenny G. Given that distinction I'll take Miles every time. Live at The Blackhawk is one of my all time favourite records. Trane killed jazz by perfecting the Giant Steps cycle, so now all these subsequent generations think they have to play like that, which is cool but not when they can't really play a ballad or a blues like Coleman Hawkins. So from my perspective young horn player steps up to sit in, the bands playing a nice little blues people are dancing and here comes young blowhard #73 blowing like its 26-2 just to show what??? That he can play patterns of b.s over any harmonic form??? That kills me. I love Trane I practice those changes all the time, it's challenging and fun but man o man I play solos for the song and the people. In about 20 years I'll be ready to play 26-2 for y'all. Bird Lives!!!!!!!0

[goldenwave77]

I'm not much on opera, but whenever I've brought up Beethoven to opera lovers, the response I always get is "He never wrote a really good opera...he tried one, but it fell short." It doesn't much matter as far as the pt. I was making.

Re: Dizzy's "clowning", I don't think this had much racial element, if any, at all. You've seen the youtube video where he says to the concert audience "I'd like to introduce the members of the band" and he then leads the sax player over to the bassist (or whoever), and has them shake hands....he's playing with audience expectation, and goofing on them at the same time.

I also saw him at the Blue Note in 1982-ish...some audience members were rude (talking), as he played. Before the next number he requested silence, and said "And if you're not quiet...I will blow your ass away." Shocked silence...a few nervous titters, and it was kind of a joke but it had an edge to it....not much kowtowing to anybody in that incident.

I could go thru Miles' Autobiography and find all the racially tinged comments and attitudes...it's kind of an all purpose ready-made explanation for lots of things, some of them ludicrous and some of them well-founded. As I've stated, I think Miles was conflicted---hard to be a big star if you can't connect with 90 % of the population that has 94% of the disposable income.

[christianm77]

Miles didn't make the first fusion record. He didn't make fusion records. Well not until the '80s.

I don't think fusion has anything to do with Miles Davis. If anything, it was a reaction against his formless, chaotic and post produced approach to making records in the late '60s and '70s.... Miles - jazz/rock/funk - sure - but fusion? No...

Those bands don't sound like they were fun for the musicians because they had literally no idea what they were meant to be doing quite a lot of the time.

They were looking for clues all the time...

As a bandleader, I have found that professional jazz musicians in my experience like to be given small, manageable, amounts of freedom, but they do like arrangements and being told when to solo. Fusion is full of that stuff, and everyone can sound tight and like they know what they are doing, with rehearsals to get all them tricksy stops just right.... And then be like badasses on the solo and everyone claps at the end.

That's what yer musos like.

If you give them total freedom, they freak out and question if you know how to lead a band. Of course Miles could get away with this.

(Although it sounds like Mike Henderson was the guy who had to do EXACTLY as he was told :-))

Only Miles's jazz/rock music has really had much influence on mainstream popular music over the long term - Radiohead for example - while fusion perhaps had some influence of R&B arranging in the '80s, but that's it AFAIK.

And yeah Gary Burton, Charles Lloyd, Cannonball with Zawinul etc, probably more important direct precursors for the fusion movement...

Miles did his thing as he always did. That's his legacy. His process, approach to bandleading and his way of organising music....

[sgcim]

As far as Miles' playing with Bird was concerned, a pianist friend of mine, who was on the road with Chet Baker, and featured on the Woody Herman LP "East and West", said that Miles used to be booed and laughed off the stand when he was playing with Bird in the clubs of NYC.

Who 'killed' jazz? Barry Harris might find George Benson's autobiography's answer to that question interesting.
It ends with a fan of his telling him that Bird killed jazz. Benson thinks about it for a while and comes to the conclusion that maybe his fan was right, and Bird did kill jazz, but people like him (GB) are keeping jazz going by taking the ideas of the past, and applying them to the popular music of the present.

[grahambop]

As far as Miles' playing with Bird was concerned, a pianist friend of mine, who was on the road with Chet Baker, and featured on the Woody Herman LP "East and West", said that Miles used to be booed and laughed off the stand when he was playing with Bird in the clubs of NYC.

Who 'killed' jazz? Barry Harris might find George Benson's autobiography's answer to that question interesting.
It ends with a fan of his telling him that Bird killed jazz. Benson thinks about it for a while and comes to the conclusion that maybe his fan was right, and Bird did kill jazz, but people like him (GB) are keeping jazz going by taking the ideas of the past, and applying them to the popular music of the present.

Miles himself said he felt inadequate to play with Bird and wanted to quit every night. But Bird always persuaded him to stay, so there must have been something about Miles' playing that Bird liked.