Miles Davis & Friends: The Miles Davis Band Collection

Zeek.: Great book

United Kingdom on Oct 24, 2023

Richard C.: I was skeptical when Miles - The Autobiography, by Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, was chosen for our book this month given what I had heard about his personal life and his horrible treatment of women. This book was about much more than Miles Davis. It was about much of the 20th Century timeframe in America history. It about survival in rural and urban America. It was about the development of America's only original artform - which was pioneered and developed by African Americans. It was about virtually every great jazz artist from 1940 through 1990 and their lifestyle. It was about how these musical artists like other artists found great success and far more personal acceptance beyond their race in Europe and other parts of the world - but despite this always eventually returned to the US. It was about a father's unconditional love that allowed a prodigy to develop despite personal flaws including drug addiction - when many of his contemporaries died very, very young tragic deaths. It was about a great musician and his relationship with and impact on other great musicians, their genre and more. It was about someone understanding that to grow professionally you have to continue be...

United States on Apr 17, 2023

Anton: 1990 paperback edition. Must-have for any jazz cat like myself. A few B&W photos inside. Lean and mean edition, what can I say more?

Germany on Mar 03, 2023

Darryl Bey: I loved this book as I am a long time Miles Davis fan. The book provided historic contract about Miles Davis, his family and life. I highly suggest this book. There are a lot of misconceptions and rumors about Miles Davis and this book puts most of them to rest!

United States on Jan 24, 2023

Thregwort: Strap yourself in for a no holds barred, from the horse's mouth, trip down the scarred drug-addled memory of a bitter, eventually fabulously wealthy, genius: a (very) black man's trip through the latter half of the 20th century. This is a printed edition, and so it is impossible to remove two words which populate every page many, many, many times, like a 'riff' in jazz, which is, after all, an interest explaining why you would buy this book. In his own words "I changed the course of music five or six times". Pity that his vocabulary does not stretch past describing "good, bad, a body of work, a stylistic approach, personality, habits, marvellous, awful, shameful, horrendous, magnificent, sad, happy, beautiful, ugly" as just ‘fecal matter’ (but expressed more profanely).
Similarly, every random happening, bad luck thing, superb playing by a contemporary artist, admirable work of art, is not described so that one might appreciate why Miles has so decreed it but merely, lazily in my view, as if the recipient might (theoretically) be engaged in procreation practice with a maternal relation. Ahem. Wiki quotes this occasion (also in the book. “Use of the term as a compliment is...

United Kingdom on Sep 11, 2018

Man in the Street: Well, what is there to say? As a hard-core music fan and someone who has known some of those mentioned in the book, this is a reality that so many are unaware of, a reality far beyond mere competence on a chosen instrument.... the early fascination with music,the yearning for the new, creativity, searching, hard work, deep research, the search for perfection, experiences that affect everything in one's life, enlightened, eclectic, lots of sex, the appreciation of beauty in all of its forms, love and the lack of it, loss, race unityand disunity, awareness and manhood; gritty and real, yet in some ways dishonest as to the damage he wrought while a cocaine addict. This book will change some people, repel some people, and leave some amazed as they travel through Europe on long train rides, such as yours truly. I refused to read it for a long time because he hit Cicely Tyson! Of course there were others, too. Artistic genius is glorious and too often destructive to all of those in its area, a hot but irresistable fire whose burns are, nonetheless, bragged about for a lifetime by some. Some of us have learned to steer clear, quite content to live what appears to be a boring life made...

United States on Nov 11, 2016

The Fat Arab: That Davis is one of the most important musicians that ever lived is undeniable. That Davis had a knack for putting together the perfect band is something that becomes apparent while reading this book. That Davis was a flawed genius should be obvious. From start to finish, this book is open, honest and revealing. Davis does not hold back, and when he does, he does so spitefully: readers will note how Macero's contributions are pretty much maligned or completely overlooked. Why? Because Davis didn't like that white people were getting the credit for the work of the black man. If readers cannot stomach that very American fact, they will not enjoy this book. If readers are squeamish about bad language, violence and drug use, they should stay away from this book. If readers cannot bear to see their beloved Miles beating on women, being a pimp in order to get money for his narcotics habit, they should stay away from this book. Like James Brown, Miles needed control. When he didn't have it, he was uncreative and destructive. Davis was rude, rash and impulsive - he says all this.

And yet.

Davis was also kind, loving, affectionate and misunderstood. His intentions were...

United Kingdom on Mar 28, 2015

Leon: This book was really awesome! I am a young, beginner jazz enthusiast so I started with the King of jazz and worked my way around. I made a great choice. Not only does Miles give a great account of his music, but also recollects other notable musicians in the process. Which makes it worth wild to study their music further too. I thought this book was going to read like a memoir, you know very tight and numerical and mostly personal, and I was wrong. But its in a good way Davis moves from person to person, place to place and it keeps readers (at least me) on their heels. The first thing I ever heard about Miles Davis (way before I discovered his music) was that he was mean, disrespectful, and cold. Miles confirms these personality traits but he also justifies them in an odd but believable way. He made me understand why he grew so cold and by the end of the book (the last few pages I'm on now) he makes me sympathize with him.

I have read many reviews about the book and most are correct. He is bold in this book, holds no punches, tells no colorful stories (I still can't get the taxi cab story with Bird out of my head), and he remains upfront and personal throughout the read....

United States on Jul 31, 2014

N C: Reading many of the reviews here for this book I was surprised about how many did not like ti because they turned out not to like Miles Davis as a person. His apparent cursing, his attitudes, his doings, his views of women, his attitudes to race and and much more. So these reviews judge miles Davis himself rather than the book.

I absolutely loved to read it. Most people would come across and to Miles Davis because of his music, me included. So I approached this with the desire to find out more about the man and his life. From that point of view it is a very good read and will give you an excellent insight into not only Miles Davis's life, but all the other musicians, the general attitudes and mores of the time periods (from the 1920ies to the late 80ies. He describes in considerable details the musicians he worked with (very early on in his musical life CHOOSE to work with in his own bands) and why he worked with them. He goes into detail about their styles, touches on most of their lives and backgrounds.

So in that sense he paints a very tangible picture of his musical world. As other mentioned (and were negatively touched by) his language is as frank and to the...

United Kingdom on Jan 26, 2011