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tommyhousworth's review against another edition
5.0
The definitive jazz biography. Miles writes with such a casual hipness - and frankness - that you're pretty much disarmed from the get-go. His attitude toward women is abysmal, and his prejudice against most white people, while perhaps justified, is disheartening. Still, you find yourself mesmerized by his life, his battles, his confidence, and his passion for jazz.
A wounded, bitter artist, a fireplug, a gentle soul, a man lost in his music, an outspoken advocate for African Americans, and at the heart of it, a musical genius, pure and simple.
This is truly a trip through jazz history, with Miles ensconced right in the heart of it all - taking you back as far as Satchmo and Diz, and right up to the mid-80's, when jazz was crying out for another Miles to step up and revive the art form.
A wounded, bitter artist, a fireplug, a gentle soul, a man lost in his music, an outspoken advocate for African Americans, and at the heart of it, a musical genius, pure and simple.
This is truly a trip through jazz history, with Miles ensconced right in the heart of it all - taking you back as far as Satchmo and Diz, and right up to the mid-80's, when jazz was crying out for another Miles to step up and revive the art form.
tittypete's review against another edition
4.0
What I learned from this book: 1. Miles Davis cared deeply about the music. This overshadows everything else. 2. Miles Davis sounds like he was an annoying asshole. 3. Miles Davis pretty much hates white people. Fine but it gets pretty tiring to read over and over being myself a member of such a despicable race. But his overwhelming commitment to his craft and his refusal to remain comfortable and to continue to push himself made his story bearable and informative. 4. He says motherfucker a lot. And that's entertaining.
davygibbs's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of the most entertaining and educational books about music I've ever read...and it has to be The Platonic ideal of celebrity biographies. Miles Davis was many things -- many of them bad, many of them fabulous -- but ALL of them make for good reading. I laughed, and I listened, but I also learned quite a bit from this book. And not just technical music theory, though that's part of it (and less tedious than you might imagine). No, there's a lot of life in these pages. Experience. Wisdom, even. It's not filtered. Miles was a man of many opinions, none of them lightly held. The perspectives he delivers about American vs. European culture, about music (past & present & future), about romance, geography, and most especially about race in the US -- are incredibly insightful and valuable and tragic. And it's all delivered in this musical, conversational, occasionally explosive voice. Co-author Quincy Troupe went to great pains to preserve Miles' way of speaking, and you just can't overstate the wisdom of that decision. He shines right through. A brilliant book.
chatb's review against another edition
5.0
From the Afterword: "Miles speaks in a tonal language, in the manner of mainland Africans and African-Americans from the South. By tonal language I mean that the same word can take on different meanings according to the pitch and tone, the way the word is spolken. For example, Miles can use 'motherfucker' to compliment someone or soimply as punctuation. In any case, the voice you hear in the book is truly Miles..."
And boy does he use motherfucker a lot...and I love it. Reading this book was like having your older uncle tell his life to you while he sipped on beers. Miles lived an amazing life, and was extremely perceptive about the world around him. The Autobiography is like a history and music class rolled into one and his well worth the read.
And boy does he use motherfucker a lot...and I love it. Reading this book was like having your older uncle tell his life to you while he sipped on beers. Miles lived an amazing life, and was extremely perceptive about the world around him. The Autobiography is like a history and music class rolled into one and his well worth the read.
akross's review against another edition
3.0
Unlike other co-written autobiographies I've read (Three Cups comes to mind first), there was no third person aftertaste about Miles. This book is his story, in his voice, with his words- though Quincy Troupe could have done Miles (and the rest of us) a favor and edited a little more closely to refrain from repeating things several times. But I have the highest regard for Quincy's ability to step back and rearrange the story without diminishing Miles' voice.
Miles himself is so angry, so talented, so opinionated that his life just naturally jumps off the page as something extraordinary, yet accessible. And, as another reviewer put it- this is part-autobio, part-intensive course on 1930s-1990s jazz. I've listened to Ellington and Coltrane and Davis before- but unless you really know your shit when it comes to names and music styles/techniques, a lot of this is going to go over your head.
I was torn between giving this book a 3/4, but my lack of musical background (my own fault), combined with the more-than-occasional excessive detail (Troupe's fault) forced my hand.
Miles himself is so angry, so talented, so opinionated that his life just naturally jumps off the page as something extraordinary, yet accessible. And, as another reviewer put it- this is part-autobio, part-intensive course on 1930s-1990s jazz. I've listened to Ellington and Coltrane and Davis before- but unless you really know your shit when it comes to names and music styles/techniques, a lot of this is going to go over your head.
I was torn between giving this book a 3/4, but my lack of musical background (my own fault), combined with the more-than-occasional excessive detail (Troupe's fault) forced my hand.
nickdleblanc's review against another edition
4.0
Miles Davis was crazy, and I don't say that in the traditional understanding of "crazy" (ie, mentally ill). I mean crazy in the way that you call your good friend crazy, that guy who is probably right about everything he says but he goes about spreading those ideas and behaving in such a way that you can't help but laugh and say, "Damn, he's crazy." He was probably mentally ill as well. He just about admits as much. But after reading this collection of gig recollections and short anecdotes you're left with that distinct friendly feeling of "Damn, he's crazy."
He was also no doubt a musical genius and a very strong thinker. I'm glad I write it and I'm thankful for his music. Miles wasn't a jazz musician. He was music.
He was also no doubt a musical genius and a very strong thinker. I'm glad I write it and I'm thankful for his music. Miles wasn't a jazz musician. He was music.
obscuredbyclouds's review against another edition
2.0
There are autobiographies where you don't know/care much about the person, but they sweep you away and you become heavily invested (Andre Agassi's "Open" comes to mind). And then there's autobiographies about people you admire, that are so humanizing and disheartening that they leave a bad taste in your mouth and you just hope it won't taint your love of the art. Sadly, "Miles" is the latter to me. At first, I just found the 'authentic' writing a bit of a drag. It jumps around a lot and I have never read the word "motherfucker" as much as I have in this book. But I found his early life and mostly the description of the jazz scene at the time really interesting - although at this point as a reader you learn more about Charlie Parker than Miles Davis. But the longer this book goes on, the ramblier it gets. All the young hot women in his life that he can hardly remember the names of? Random fights with random session musicians I don't care about? There were also a lot of contradictions in the story telling.
I think Miles Davis wrote some of the best music ever, but he was also an arrogant sexist guy really far up his own ass. I can only take so much Bill Cosby praising and what an ideal woman should be like (sexy, young and 'respecting' her man). Still, in some way I did learn something about his life and about jazz. I just would not recommend the book for pleasure reading.
I think Miles Davis wrote some of the best music ever, but he was also an arrogant sexist guy really far up his own ass. I can only take so much Bill Cosby praising and what an ideal woman should be like (sexy, young and 'respecting' her man). Still, in some way I did learn something about his life and about jazz. I just would not recommend the book for pleasure reading.