Miles on Miles

Interviews and Encounters with Miles Davis

Paul Maher, Michael K. Dorr

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781641606011
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

Gathering the 30 most vital Miles Davis interviews—on his music, his life, and his philosophy—this collection reveals the jazz icon as a complex and contradictory man, secretive at times but extraordinarily revealing at others. Miles was not only a musical genius, but an enigma, and nowhere else was he so compelling, exasperating, and entertaining as he was in his interviews, which vary from polite to outrageous, from straight-ahead to contrarian. Many were conducted by leading journalists like Leonard Feather, Stephen Davis, Ben Sidran, Mike Zwerin, and Nat Hentoff; while others have never before been printed, and are newly transcribed from radio and television shows—making this the definitive source for anyone wanting to really encounter the legend in print.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• November 26, 1957—“Self-Portrait by Miles Davis”—Interviewer: George Avakian, Columbia Records Publicity
• December 1958—“An Afternoon with Miles Davis”—Interviewer: Nat Hentoff, The Jazz Review
• August 1964—“Miles Davis: Winner Take All”—Interviewer: Lionel Olay, Cavalier
• January 22, 1968—“I Don’t Have to Hold the Audience’s Hand”—Interviewer: Arthur Taylor, from Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews
• May 1969—“The Miles Davis: A Semi-Affectionate Reminiscence”—Interviewer: John Palcewski, Cavalier
• 1969—“Talking to Les Tompkins”—Interviewer: Les Tompkins, Crescendo
• May 26, 1970—“A National Treasure”—by Al Aronowitz, TheBlacklistedJournalist.com
• September 1970—“Faded Blue Flowers”—by Al Aronowitz, TheBlacklistedJournalist.com
• November 27, 1971—“The Unmasking of Miles Davis”—Interviewer: Chris Albertson, Saturday Review
• 1972—“Miles”—Interviewer: Leonard Feather, from From Satchmo to Miles
• March 21, 1973—“My Ego Only Needs a Good Rhythm Section”—Interviewer: Stephen Davis, The Real Paper
• 1975—“Interview at Northern Illinois University”—Interviewer: Jimmy Saunders
• Late 1976 / Early 1977—“At the Movies with Miles”—by Mary Bringle (April 2007)
• Late 1970s—“Hangin’ Out with Daffy Davis”—by Eric Nisenson, preface from ’Round About Midnight: A Portrait of Miles Davis (Updated Edition, 1996)
• August 3, 1980—“Miles Davis’s House—Telephone Interview, N.Y.C.”—Interviewer: Kishur Manwar, originally broadcast on “Miles Beyond” for KWMU-FM, Washington University
• March 1982—“The Man with the Horn”—Interviewer: Cheryl McCall, Musician
• Circa Mid-1980s—Excerpts from “Three Anonymous Interviews”—Interviewers: Unknown
• September 29, 1983—“Searching for Miles: Theme and Variations on the Life of a Trumpeter”—Interviewer: David Breskin, Rolling Stone
• May 1986—“Lightening Up with the Prince of Darkness”—Interviewer: Nick Kent, from The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music
• October 1987—“Miles Davis: The Picasso of Invisible Art”—Interviewer: Robert L. Doerschuk, Keyboard
• December 20, 1987—Excerpts from VH1’s Video Hits 1: New Visions Disk Jockey Show—Guest DJs: Miles Davis, David Sanborn, and Joe “Foley” McCreary, VH1
• May 1989—“Miles Davis: Rebel Without a Pause”—Interviewer: Peter Watrous, Musician
• April 9, 1998—“The Prince of Silence”—Interviewer: Mike Zwerin, International Herald Tribune
• July 23, 1998—“Miles the Painter: Colorful Flowing Lines”—Interviewer: Mike Zwerin, International Herald Tribune
• August 5, 1998—“Miles the Movie Star—Dingo”—Interviewer: Mike Zwerin, International Herald Tribune
• Acknowledgments
• Permissions