Miles to Go [Hardcover]

Chris Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2002

Told by Chris Murphy, a young, down-on-his-luck, Irish-American guitarist who devoted himself to Miles Davis, first as his roadie and assistant, and then as one of his most trusted road managers, Miles to Go is a frank and intimate exploration of Davis’s eccentric working life, drug habits, paranoia, depression, and subsequent recovery. It also deals with Davis’s troubled relationship with his children and the controversial role Cicely Tyson played in his life. Murphy explores the dynamics that made Davis’s band work so well together, placing Davis’s work in a historic, literary, and musical framework. It corrects Davis’s own almost self-hating autobiography, and attempts to treat with some balance the rumors about Davis being bisexual and HIV positive upon his death. Willie Nelson, Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, and a very unlikely Mother Theresa all have walk-on parts in this engaging, intelligent, and often hilarious narrative that takes us from the small seedy jazz clubs that Davis was always at home in, to the world tours, and then finally to Davis’s triumphant return with his celebrated concerts at Lincoln Center in the early ‘80s. Eight pages of black-and-white photos are included.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this thin memoir, an adoring fan and former assistant of Miles Davis makes a plea for the legendary musician's sainthood. Working as Miles's roadie and doting servant for two narrow stretches 1973-1976, and 1981-1983 the author recounts his sketchy memories and tales from the road in an effort to shine more light on the musician's later years. (In the mid-1970s, Miles quit playing music altogether and slid into a five-year depression, reemerging in the early '80s with a few inspired, if uneven, records.) Unfortunately, most of these fragmented anecdotes like the one about Miles's pants repeatedly popping open on stage during a concert, or the "Spinal Tap" moment when he got himself wrapped up in the wires to his amp tell readers little about the man. Murphy is also unconvincing in his attempts to correct Miles's own "self-hating autobiography." On Miles being a misogynist: "I never once saw him raise his hand against a woman"; a hater of whites: "No, he didn't." It all reads like vanity press and is likely to disappoint even the most obsessive Miles fans. They and newcomers will be better off with Miles: The Autobiography with Quincy Troupe, and Ian Carr's Miles Davis: The Definitive Biography.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

An out-of-work guitarist in the 1970s, Murphy gave up his day job at a music store to work as a road crew member and later as road manager for Miles Davis' band, during one of the most tumultuous eras in the trumpeter's long musical career. The two formed a close bond, and their professional relationship evolved into friendship, with Murphy becoming an all-around man Friday to Davis. Many of the "scandalous" aspects of Miles' life--drug use and freewheeling sex life--are fairly well-known and widely reported. But Murphy has written a revisionist account of Miles the man. Instead of the enigmatic, aloof, intimidating, and violent person Davis revealed to the public in his autobiography, Murphy insists the man he knew was far more human than the myth. Murphy portrays Miles as funny, loyal, and generous but lonely and often depressed, struggling with the pressures of his career and chaotic personal life during what was a difficult era for jazz musicians. Ted Leventhal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press (January 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560253614
• ISBN-13: 978-1560253617
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #819,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians > Jazz

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little bit better than I expected, April 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Miles to Go (Hardcover)

There's hero worship and then there's idolatry. Miles was and still is one of my musical heroes - an almost personal relationship exists with your heroes, even though I never met the man. Even though this book for the most part operates on the level of blind adoration of Miles, those who have been touched by his music, and therefore his personality, are bound to get [drawn] in. So I found myself enjoying all the stories. It's like what Joe Zawinul said about Miles: the greatest conversation piece in 20 years . . . Fortunately, the author doesn't delve too deeply into giving "insight" into the music - there are perhaps others who could do that better, namely some of the musicians who played with Miles. But the author has offered up what I feel to be a sincere and heartful account of his time with Miles, coming from a person whose perspective is not usually heard from - the roadie!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to give this book 5 stars..., August 5, 2006

By 

R. LaRue (Crozet, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Miles to Go (Hardcover)

...but the writing is a bit too conversational for my taste--almost as if the text were transcribed from a tape, as opposed to composed on the page.

However, the other reviewers who object to the author's writing about himself (as well as about the musician who is his subject) are missing the point. This is a personal memoir, not a biography. As such, it is not researched--it is recollected. I found the stories fascinating, and while it is true that there is more of Murphy than Miles here, it is understandable--the author is sharing an intimacy here, and it would be wrong to reveal his subject without revealing himself as well. What we see, ultimately, is Murphy in the context of Miles, as well as Miles in the context of Murphy.

The picture Murphy presents of life on the road with one of the gods of American music is riveting--I couldn't put this book down. And while I can't vouch for its veracity, it is certainly an anodyne to the usual bad-boy image of the musician. At least in his relationship with the author, Miles comes across as a warm, likeable, and intelligent man, with a terrible dependency on reinventing himself and his music--artistically restless utterly unable to rest on his laurels.

As a jazz fan who never cared much for the later Miles, it was nice to learn that, even if you don't care for Miles' music of that period, it was never (as critics have suggested) a crass attempt to cash in on to commercially successfull music. He loved rock and rock musicians and felt there was a genuine place for a band such as his.

Kudos to Chris Murphy for sharing these reminiscences

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A warm and affectionate look at a musical giant, March 26, 2002

By 

C. Williamson (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Miles to Go (Hardcover)

I didn't quite know what to expect from this book, since the jacket copy called it "brutally honest (and bound to be controversial)," and I feared a somewhat raw expose. But instead I found this memoir a nostalgic and tender reminiscence of Miles Davis by Chris Murphy, who worked closely with him for many years. While not a total whitewash, it should go a long way toward balancing the "Prince of Darkness" image that so many other writers (and Miles himself) seemed to relish. The book is touching, funny and informative, and while Murphy does discuss incidents in his own life as well, it detracts little from the portrait of Miles he draws. Miles' then-wife, Cicely Tyson, comes off as a harridan, but Miles is always depicted with great affection. This is not the kind of book that Davis fans would refer back to, but it's certainly worth a read as yet another facet of a true artist who never ceases to fascinate lovers of great music.