Customer Reviews

So What: The Life of Miles Davis

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Prior to SO WHAT I felt that, as revealing as many prior Davis bios were (including Miles' own book), their sum was somehow less than the parts. That is, there was more to understand about Miles Davis than what was collectively written. Along comes SO WHAT, the most balanced and coherent one-stop source yet for getting to know about the entirety of Miles Davis' life. As much as Miles urged us to let the music speak for itself, the context and environment in which Davis' art was created is important, and author John Szwed is up to the challenge to walk down the many paths that lead to and from Davis' music and life (e.g., discussing the aesthetics of artists as wide-ranging as Stockhausen and Sly Stone, both of whom impacted Miles' musical vision in the 1970s). Szwed doesn't attempt to cram every interesting, revealing, or just plain provocative story from prior books into his bio. Still, his research does come up with some errors previously presented as facts, and there are plently of newfound "Miles Davis stories" to amuse and/or amaze the reader, for better and worse.

What the author seems to do is pick and choose among the previously-revealed tidbits about Miles and use them as supplements to 1) his open-minded knowledge about the entirety of Davis' music (as well as the cultural and commercial environment in which it was created), and 2) fresh, revealing interviews he conducted with family members and others close to the subject at key points in his life. Having unprecedented access to Davis' family was possibly the missing piece of the puzzle needed to really reconcile what was already known about Miles with the many contradictions that sat unresolved for decades (e.g., tough exterior, insecure interior). Even as Szwed stays in tune with Davis' music from beginning to end, he reveals with unprecedented detail just how chaotic his personal life was. Previously I thought Davis was unlucky to have died so relatively young...albeit at age 65. Given all of the substance abuse and other problems he faced (and created for himself), I'm now amazed that Miles lasted so long, and how he could--with a bare minimum of lulls over nearly a half-century--be artistically creative right up to his final hospitalization in 1991.

Being that Miles' life was often sensationalistic to begin with, Szwed plays it cool with this hot topic, writing the way that Davis played, sans ornamentation. SO WHAT stays focused on the big picture...with details that dip beneath the surface throughout Miles' entire life. The information seems mostly accurate; among the errors that I caught were that Szwed states the 1985 Artists United vs. Apartheid SUN CITY project in which Davis participated was a Quincy Jones production (in reality it was led by Little Steven and Arthur Baker). The author is confusing that benefit recording with WE ARE THE WORLD from the same year which Jones did direct (this error undermines Szwed's critique of the SUN CITY album). Also, it's unfortunate that the 20-CD COMPLETE MONTREUX boxed set came along too late to be included here, because the high quality of that music is the best evidence yet that Miles' final years were musically-productive ones. However, all this means is that understanding Davis remains an ongoing process. Even with its few minor flaws, no one to date has better unraveled the enigmatic genius of Miles Davis than Szwed. I recommended this book first, with Paul Tingen's MILES BEYOND next in line.

To be a jazz fan is to be a Miles junkie, so Szwed's book really may require no further justification than the sizable audience it is bound to attract. Nevertheless, he offers 3 defenses for another biography: there is more to be known; there are misunderstandings to be corrected; his book is more a "meditation" than a bio or musical study. He also decries biographies that "fill in the blanks," "heat up the significance," and turn the "biographer into a novelist." It doesn't seem to occur to him that blanks communicate their own significance, that the narrator's decision about what materials to use and how to order them is in itself an "interpretation." There is no way to resolve his contradictory roles as "mediator" and "meditator," but had he at least acknowledged the difficulty we might have had greater faith in his narrator.

To the reader familiar with the Miles' literature, the first 300 pages are bound to seem much like recycled material, leavened occasionally by a quote from an acquaintaince of Miles heretofore not on the record. Moreover, it's hard not to experience impatience at yet another explanation of "bebop," at the gratuitous introductions of jazz giants (e.g. to learn that Sonny Stitt played alto saxophone and sounded like Bird), and at yet another extended description of Miles' major recording sessions ("Kind of Blue," "Sketches of Spain," "In a Silent Way," "B's Brew").

Close to a quarter of the book's representation of Miles' 65 years is devoted to the years 1969-1971. The "Silent Way" recording session is afforded 24 pages whereas the author finds 8 pages sufficient to handle the "Kind of Blue" session. Wayne Shorter receives considerably more space than John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock gets more attention from the author than Red Garland and Wynton Kelly combined.

The author's implicit criterion when it comes to Miles' music is that it's all good, and that each change is an innovation requiring little more than description of what was going on with Miles' choice and deployment of musicians along with his editing of the raw recorded product. In place of specific musical or aesthetic analysis, he constantly sets up "straw men," then refutes them with general sociological-cultural arguments as a way of defending Miles' accomplishment. For example, virtually any critic readily acknowledges that Miles was a better musical complement to Bird than was Diz. By suggesting otherwise, the author is able to "argue" what should be a given. Or he uses Martin Williams' unfavorable response to "Bitches Brew" to portray all such responses in terms that he can attack: "Many critics had an investment in being adult, in resisting the rising tide of rock." His counterargument is to draw on parallel developments in the arts (Eisenstein's theories of film montage to justify Miles' post-production shaping of his records) and the forces of change in popular culture,

Wynton Marsalis, of course, comes off as a misguided bully, shrewd capitalist, and even hypocrite who "understood the social costs of innovation and bohemianism in the arts". Never mind that Miles himself had once heaped abuse on the likes of Louis Armstrong and tapped into the "bank" of pop culture, if not the treasury of commercial trends. Earlier, in fact, the author suggests that Miles is quite capable of playing his audience: "He knew how far not to go." In the absence of footnote numbers, the constructions beginning "he knew" or "he thought" become problematic, raising questions about the author's disavowals of intrusion.

Perhaps most readers will find the final 100 pages the most fascinating part of the book as they recount Miles deterioration. Still, no thoughtful reader can help but be incredulous at the reportage of the apparently indiscriminate, non-stop consumption of uppers and downers, injected street drugs and prescribed medications, beer and hard liquor by a 150 pound specimen (at his peak) who along the way is reported to have diabetes, broken and rebroken ankles, hip replacements, a heart attack, a stroke, while maintaining a prolific love life. (The rumors of Miles having AIDS are simply repeated, along with the observation that he was once treated with AZT. Does anyone bother to check medical records?) The author barely considers the psychological effects of even one of these events--and he fails to address the question of Miles' physical addiction or withdrawal in his final years.

If the book is intended to de-mythologize Miles the icon, it rather succeeds in doing quite the opposite, creating a superhuman phenomenon whose energies, appetites, capacities exceeded even Bird's. By treating the death of Miles' father as just another of many events, it fails to offer the reader a "Rosebud" that might help us see into the soul of the artist, whose own denial of the past need not block our own attempts at understanding its connection with the artist's present.

I did not particularly like John Szwed's new biography of Miles Davis. His prose is stolid. His analysis of Miles' music is, at best, pedestrian. His presentation of the milieu in which jazz musicians work and create strikes me as disembodied and rather off-key. Still, this is probably the first book you should read if you are interested in the life of Miles Davis the man. (If his music is your primary concern, consult the bios by Jack Chambers, Ian Carr, and Paul Tingen for analysis of his early, middle, and late (electric) periods respectively.)

All the main events of Davis' life are touched on in a concise, workmanlike fashion. His family and financial problems are outlined in considerable detail and, while hardly edifying, will nevertheless be of interest to many fans. Szwed does do a superb job throughout of deconstructing and explaining the creation and maintenance of Miles' public persona. And it is indeed a persona worth deconstructing. No personality in the history of jazz so permeates the modern jazz sensibility and so seduces the imagination of its enthusiasts as does the great (and wicked) Mr. Davis. In the end, though, Szwed seems just as flummoxed as other commentators in grasping (much less explaining) precisely why Miles Davis came to be one of the towering figures in 20th century music.

I found this to be a good book, although I'm not sure I would place it ahead of the other two Miles biographies out there. Szwed writes engaging prose and keeps things moving along throughout while writing in a good voice for this type of thing. Chambers book seems to be better researched,though, and it seems that Szwed relies heavily on secondary sources and the Troupe interviews with Miles Davis from the 80s. Personally, I distrust some of Miles' comments on his art from the 80s as he was heavily wrapped up in a star persona by that point. I felt the book was stronger on the bop period and the 60s and seemed to rush headlong through the 80s. This is kind of a pity because Szwed's is the only biography written since Miles' death and more interpretation and a stronger stance on Miles' later period would be illuminating for this contraversial period in his art.

The book seems to be written more for those interested in miles the artist and miles the man than miles the musician. There is not too much musical analysis, and I didn't have too much of a problem with that.

Chambers book goes into greater detail and is still my first recommendation for those seriously interested in Miles, but this can be a good intro and will definitely give folks a greater sense of this powerful figure of jazz.

Miles' autobiography (written with Quincy Troupe) is fascinating; Ian Carr's biography of Miles is wonderful; Paul Tingen's recent book "Miles Ahead" shone even more light on the man and his music. Now John Szwed does an admirable job of looking for things we didn't know yet, and telling us more of Miles' story.

I really like the way that Szwed didn't try to encapsulate or obsolesce the other books. He presents information that complements them, and/or reveals new perspectives on things, but he doesn't reiterate the stories in the other books, fascinating though they are. However when his research did show contradictions with those other sources (particularly with Miles' autobiography and his self-portrayal within it) he gives us the information and lets us judge for ourselves.

The world was indeed ripe for another Miles Davis book, one in which the author manages to locate new source material and interview relatives not previosuly interviewed (or, not interviewed much). I salute Szwed for his choice in topics; first he writes a brilliant biography of Sun Ra (an important artist whose history had been underdocumented) and now a great book on Miles Davis (an important individual whose life has been documented at some length).

This is the best-written, measured and unbiased of all the Miles biographies. Although it demystifed Miles somewhat, I still got "that feeling" I get whenever I listen to or read anything about the man. Of course, there's bound to be some overlap with some of the other biographies (there's only so many times you can read the same quote again and again . . .), yet because of Mr. Szwed's excellent writing skills, it's a good read from start to finish. The account of the first half of Miles' life is particularly engaging, and I appreciate the fact that Szwed did not "dis" the music Miles made in the 70's (as some others have). This is the most honest, and therefore (to me, anyway) the most HUMAN of all the writings on Miles.

To paraphrase Joe Zawinul : "Miles - the greatest conversation piece in 20 years!". And the conversation is still continuing. Why? This book will help tell why.

And while you're at it, check out Szwed's bio of Sun Ra: oh, thanks, John!

In a way this is really a review of some of the prior reviews, above; it's odd that so much bad writing on popular music and jazz gets so highly praised, and yet when a book of the caliber of this Miles Davis bio appears, everyone qualifies their praise, and adds silly things to boot - like one reviewer's comment that Miles "himself had once heaped abuse on the likes of Louis Armstrong." Simply not true and there is no source for this. Szwed's Miles Davis book is a must read, a living antidote to the stacks of bad books on jazz and pop music these days, written by an academic who KNOWS the music, who can wrtie, and is one of the most perceptive critics on the planet. Read it -

I read Miles' autobiography in all of it's shocking and hysterical glory regarding his personal life. Szwed's book covers some of that same ground but from the perspective of others, particular some of those whom Miles treated so unfairly (Gil Evans had to plead on his children's behalf in order to get paid). From a personal standpoint the reader will find himself/herself muttering "what a p****" many times while reading this book.


Musically, this book is so much more informative than the autobiography and answers most of the questions regarding the evolution of Miles' music. It was great reading about how "In A Silent Way" was composed via edits and it sent me running for my copy of Jimi Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland" to search for the original studio dates to see who got there first. Miles and Jimi were in frequent contact so it's no surprise that the concept of the studio as an instrument were used to create these two masterworks that appeared at roughly the same time. An early review bemoans the fact that over 20 pages were dedicated to "In A Silent Way" while "Kind of Blue" only received 8 pages. But this is actually very necessary as what was going on with the process for "In A Silent Way" was so revolutionary in terms of the music and the whole paradigm of how "records" and musical art are/can be made.

The pages from 280 - 310 that cover "In A Silent Way" through "On the Corner" were a real page-turner for me. So much was revealed about what was going on. I found myself reaching for releases like "Get Up With It" to revisit "Rated-X" and "Honky Tonk" and I was glad I purchased "The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions" and "The Cellar Door Sessions".

The only criticisms I have are:

1. There are some passages regarding recording sessions where the chronology wanders a bit, i.e., we read about Filles De Kilamanjaro, move on and then a little later Szwed revisits that session out of order so one has to pay close attention or will become confused.

2. He gets some of the names of the rock contemporaries wrong, e.g., Johnny Winters instead of Johnny Winter.

3. He's a little off on his release facts when it comes to the 70's band with Liebman and Fortune. He asserts Agharta was not released in this country until 1990 and that is just wrong. I purchased it as a domestic Columbia release in 1976 or 1977.

4. The epilogue was completely unnecessary. This was an effort to rationalize and explain the shabby way that Miles treated others. There is really no excuse for treating people the way Miles treated people. It is a choice, not because he had a stern, standoffish mother or anything like that. I can love the music of Miles Davis and dislike the man's behavior and actions as a human being living in this world.

On the positive side, there is just so much to learn about Miles' musical process and the evolution of that process in this book. This is highly recommended reading, especially for musicians who are interested in creative music.

Yale jazz historian Szwed established his credentials with an excellent biography of jazz eccentric Sun Ra (Space Is the Place: The Life and Times of Sun Ra [1997]). He has now written an engaging biography of the talented trumpeter, Miles Davis. The story of Davis's tormented life and his tumultuous relations with men and women is enough by itself to ensure the book's interest but Szwed brings special strengths to the subject of Miles as artist (which Miles clearly, and above all else, was).

At times, Szwed's description of the artistic and creative milieu of Davis's times disrupts the narrative flow of the book, but Szwed's judgments always illuminate: they are especially helpful in understanding an artist like Davis who was keenly attuned to the musical currents -classical, jazz and pop-of his day and whose music often consciously responded to them.

Szwed is in addition a perceptive analyst of Davis's music throughout the trumpeter's long career. To me, this is a special strength of this excellent book: Szwed makes clear to me the musical aesthetic that shaped Miles's decisions as he moved further and further away from conventional jazz forms and techniques. If there is a flaw in Szwed's book, it is in the digressions: they break the narrative flow, but they also enrich the reader's understanding of the musical world in which Davis made so many bold and ultimately successful choices.

Highly recommended. David Keymer. Modesto CA.

Although the author acknowledges up front that there are a lot of gaps, there is still an undeniable continuity and understated authenticity to this (yet another) story of Miles' life. Somehow the way the author has pieced this one together is befitting Miles' life in ways the others, including Miles' own autobiography, did not.

Although among the facts are many recognizable retreads, to the author's credit this version of them has a freshness, a hipness and a cachet that is never boring or tiring. Arguably, it is more "Miles like" and authentic than is Miles' telling of his own story. In fact, I was so dumbfounded at the shallowness and crudity of Miles' autobiography that I was forced to "downgrade" him as a personality. The story that Miles seemed to want to tell was essentially that he was little more than an "East St. Louis Gangsta." This self-promoted image of him was so embarrassingly juvenile that when juxtaposed against his musical accomplishments, it showed him to be a very diminished and unbecoming pygmy of a man, one who just happened to otherwise be a musical genius.

As but one example of many that John Szwed uses to excellent effect is his way of telling about Miles' love life as if putting the vignettes in a kind of mental parentheses. This is an art form obviously created on the fly by the author, born out of a necessity to keep some of Miles' lovers anonymous. It is a clever almost voyeuristic device that adds the kind of edginess the reader would expect of Miles' life.

There are also many new an interesting facts such as the fact that Miles' father was from my home town, Pine Bluff, Ark., or that Miles' group got thrown out of Lee Harvey Oswald's killer, Jack Ruby's club in Chicago, or that Miles was in Riker's Island serving time for failure to pay child support when Charlie Parker died, or that Philly Joe Jones was the first black man to become a trolley driver in Philadelphia, or that Miles met and liked Jean Paul Sartre, etc.

But the bonus of the book is the way the author has gotten beneath the skin of Miles' music. Perhaps the height of this technique is the unforgettable description given here of the dance that Miles and Louis Malle engage in, in choreographing the score to the movie Ascenseur pour l'echafoud, which was improvised (as in ad libbed on the fly) as a dual project with a time constraint of four hours. Anyone who has ever heard the score from that movie comes away breathless and with the same question: How the hell did Miles do it? John Szwed gives us the full story here. The ability to create such a beautiful, lush, deep, sensuous, haunting, mysterious piece -- "on the fly," all by itself is the most profound evidence of, and measure of, Miles' musical genius one is likely to ever find.

The mystery of Miles' Julliard years are also cleared up here, as is Miles' approach to music generally, the way he coped with being overshadowed by Dizzy and Bird: he effectively created his own alternative musical aesthetic and reality by playing against the trend of hot and fast, to cool, deep and precise.

It is such a nuanced book that it is difficult to do justice to it in a review. Suffice it to say that it is simply the best of the several books on Miles that I have read and reviewed. Five stars.