miles davis, a very tough grader
From the blog Noise Made Me Do It: Miles Davis, in 1964, discusses other music during a blind listening test conducted by Downbeat magazine. Discussing Miss Ann, as performed by Eric Dolphy:
That’s got to be Eric Dolphy – nobody else could sound that bad! The next time I see him I’m going to step on his foot. You print that. I think he’s ridiculous. He’s a sad motherfucker. Just put he’s a sad shhhhhhhhh, that’s all! The composition is sad. The piano player fucks it up, getting in the way so that you can’t hear how things are supposed to be accented.
Disagree on Dolphy, but he’s kind of right on the piano player…
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Thanks for this quote. Thanks too to my former neighbor Miles (he lived 3 blocks away). Eric Dolphy is one of those musicians that I always felt I should like but never did.
Jay Livingston
July 27, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Miles was a genius… Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, Bitches Brew, etc. but he definitely seems like he could be an egotistical asshole. e.g.
“I remember one time – it might have been a couple times – at the Fillmore East in 1970, I was opening for this sorry-ass cat named Steve Miller. Steve Miller didn’t have his shit going for him, so I’m pissed because I got to open for this non-playing motherfucker just because he had one or two sorry-ass records out. So I would come late and he would have to go on first and then we got there we smoked the motherfucking place, everybody dug it.”
Funny, but not cool. Furthermore, his later work does nothing for me.
Michael Bishop
July 27, 2012 at 11:08 pm
@Michael–you mean you don’t like Doo Bop? Scandalous.
Doo Bop
Jenn Lena
July 28, 2012 at 1:45 pm
“doo bop” is not really a fair representative of his later work. It was released posthumously and didn’t get the kind of studio attention lavished on the major works later in his career. No denying there are more than a few duds along the way, but, in my opinion, “Bitches Brew” is genius. “On the corner” and “In a slient way” are radically innovative albums.
Joe
July 31, 2012 at 5:02 pm
I see now that Miles Davis is no laughing matter.
Jenn Lena
July 31, 2012 at 7:24 pm