Miles Davis: Birth of Cool

USA 2019

"DON'T PLAY WHAT'S THERE. PLAY WHAT'S NOT THERE."

There are some things in documentary that go above and beyond what music, or any art, is all about ... and sometimes, it's really hard to disagree with the life and work of Miles Davis and what he did in music, which STILL is not done today, in so much music that is formulaic and always does the same thing at the same time as any other song ... there is nothing original and creative in a lot of those pieces of music, and how it came to be, but Miles Davis, left behind a legacy, that I doubt any other American musician has EVER come up with or helped create. What he did in "jazz", is still not done today, and people are afraid to do it, because most people are too afraid to get off the "beat" or get off the "sync" with their friends and partners in the band, when the best music ever created probably came out of mistakes in those special seconds or minutes ... when you adjusted ... something that you don't see, or do, in music that much anymore.

And to see, and hear, the list of folks that played with him, and those around him, that knew ... what it was all about ... and Herbie Hancock even "knew" the secret ... "we were kids and he thought we could just do anything" ... and they did.

And this spectacular documentary on PBS, is as good as you will ever see something and appreciate the incredible musicianship of an artist ... and we pretty much get to see it in the samples and the various combinations of musicians that he used and played with ... and he was not just a nobody when it came to music ... he knew music and had one of the funniest bits in documentary is the moment when he tells a student to bring the book, opens it up and ... we gonna do this bit ... and proceed to dismantle the book, but it was a great starting point many times ... "bring that book" ... as it had things that would help develop and style Miles Davis' career in music.

The documentary makes no bones about saying that Miles had a way about "breaking boundaries" and doing so in music was what the opening line of this review is really about ... we almost NEVER play what we don't know ... and it is in those spots that the music lives, because otherwise it is simply inside someone's head!!!!!

The nicest thing about the documentary was the access to the Miles Davis Estate, which provided a lot of footage and film that probably was never shown anywhere, and included some really far out interviews with many folks ... Quincy Jones, Carlos Santana, Wayne Shorter, Frances Taylor (Miles' first wife), Erin Davis (son), Ron Carter, Clive Davis, Reginald Petty, Quincy Troupe, Lee Annie Bonner, Ashley Khan, Billy Eckstine, Charlie Parker (on footage), Juliette Greco, Thelonious Monk (on footage), Lenny White, Archie Shepp, are just a few of the folks talking about it.

Miles started his music career at 13, but his break came playing with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie ... which eventually got him to move to New York for him to try his own with the very vibrant jazz scene in there, since in Illinois, you were only a part of the "blues" in the clubs and that was that ... stay there please (per Paul Butterfield!!!). He ends up going to Juilliard and in Paris got to meet a few big name artists, and in 1955 he is thought to have created a new sound ... with John Coltrane, Gil Evans, and later into the 70's and 80's with Prince and Quincy Jones.

The documentary goes through just about all the albums, and events that shaped his musical career from his quietly beautiful ballads to anything else he plays ... the timing and moments are uncanny in their ability to blend and match, and are not "setup" by what else the band is playing, which is what most jazz bands do in clubs these days ... it's all a song format ... and has little to do with experience and music itself.

Probably one of the best documentaries ever done about an American artist ... the deserves his place in the history of music, not just in "jazz", but also in actual music, as a serious lesson in how to create something ... it's not an "idea" ... it's a feeling coming alive right then and there.

AND it's a new experience in music each and every time!

5 GIBLOONS

Directed by Stanley Nelson

Cinematography by Henry Adebonojo, Herve Cohen, Eric Coleman, Marc Genke, Jerry Henry, Mead Hunt, Clare Major and Antonion Rossi. Various cinematographers for the times and many places where the interviews took place.