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66 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Miles Ahead: A No-Holds Barred Autobiography, November 4, 2000
This is a superb book, but not for the easily offended. Miles' autobiography reveals a hardworking, supremely talented musician who challenged himself continually as he, time after time, reinvented jazz. Yet Miles Davis is full of contradictions; the victim of racism; he rails, at times, against whites, yet plays with and respects them. His attitudes and behavior toward women can be appalling, yet he had a tender, generous side, and admits (and also denies) his faults. As far as I can tell, Miles is Miles in this book, and if there are contradictions in his story, it's because there are contradictions in the man. Some people have complained that there is not enough analysis of his music in the book, but your ears will tell you more than any technical explanation. He talks of his early days at Juilliard, skipping the school to play with Bird and others in New York, his courageous "cold turkey" quitting of heroin, his abuse by police, and the various bands and movements he led. Lots of amusing (and tragic) anecdotes, comments on other musicians, insights into his wide-ranging tastes, and interesting sidelights (he and Jimi Hendrix almost made an album together). Miles Davis is candid, and quite generous with his use of obscenities--but no matter. He tells it like he sees it. One gets the impression that if the man is flawed, and his recollections perhaps self-serving at times, he at least is being as honest as he can be with himself. We really don't know, just as we can't really know all the "true facts" in any autobiography. His music is unspeakably beautiful, and one may wonder how his music seems to transcend both his victimization and his own prejudice. But then, maybe that is our bias: To try to fit Miles into some definition that would explain these seeming incongruities. Miles defies categorization, and that is the challenge and the beauty of the book: To take it on its own terms, to accept the complexity of the man, flaws and all (as we are all flawed), and then to be thankful that Miles smiled on us. This is a landmark of autobiography, transposing the seen and the felt. The book makes you think, and would be an excellent choice for a book club or classroom. Very highly recommended, one of the best books ever written about one musician's personal journey.
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72 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The End of Idolatry, November 11, 2005
Miles Davis' autobiography is absorbing reading and should be read by anybody interested in the history of Jazz or the social history of Davis' era. That said, it will be a disappointment to anybody who is really awed by Davis.
I initially read this book early in college when I was first getting into modal jazz, and I loved hearing about the scene and the times, and hearing about in Mile's voice. But I was crestfallen over how unrepentant he was and the overall defensive agenda he has, using his autobiography mainly as a forum to list and dispute things that have been said about him over the years. For example, I was reading about how he used and abused women and I kept waiting to hear him say how ashamed he is looking back, or how bad he felt, or how he tried to rectify the situation. I thought it was coming anytime, a chapter, a paragraph, or even a sentence. But it doesn't happen.
My initial reading of Miles was right around the time I read Flashbacks, the Timothy Leary autobiography. Both books had multiple sections that fit the basic format: "Now, people said that... but what really happened was..." What do you know, it turns out that our heroes have accumulated injustices from everyone but have actually never done anything wrong in their entire lives. I put these books down, disillusioned, and had come to the realization that there were no heroes. Even people I respect or am fascinated by, compelling historical figures, accomplished, if given the opportunity to immortalize themselves in their own words, will reveal themselves to be narcissistic, applause-addicted, blowhards. Oh well, I guess that's part of growing up.
Miles Davis' contributions to art are undeniable, and I recommend this book, but prepare to grapple with the ambiguities of simultaneous reverence and abhorrence.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An important work of history and honest soul searching, September 28, 1999
Miles Davis, with all his faults, flaws and laughable quirks, was still one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century. It takes a book like this where he leaves no stone unturned to make clear the debt we all owe him and his contemporaries, as well as the restless spirit that lead him beyond what he helped to establish as modern jazz. In many ways he shows himself to be, ironically, the archetypal and sterotypical artist simultaneously. Yet his telling of the profound friendships he had with Max Roach and Coltrane, his deep awe and respect but dispassionate eye for the genius and addictions of Charlie Parker, the loves of his life- and what he put them through, and his brutal, courageous hoonesty in general, gives us a gift of his haunting humanity. But above all, this about the music. His own telling of his style, the true creators of the form in total and the actual environment where it was produced, and how he created so many styles of his own is enough to make this book worth having. You will never find another human being who can make curse words sound so beautiful! If you love jazz, or are a jazz musician, this book will remind you why. And why you love Miles. Everybody does.
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