Miles, The Autobiography Essay, Research Paper

Miles Davis and John Coletrane

Miles, The Autobiography

This book, written by Miles Davis, is the autobiography tht he wrote a few years before he died. In this book I found how he first became interested in jazz. It also explains how he became one of the best jazz players of all time.

Miles was born in Alton, Illinois in 1926 and grew up in eastern St. Louis. He learned how to play trumpet while in high school on the trumpet that his father gave to him for his 13th birthday. He was a bog fan of jazz and said that the thing that made up his mind to be a musician was wheh he first heard Billy Eckstines band with Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, and Charlie parker playing the sax. He then moved to New York looking for Charlie Parker and to study classical trumpet at Juilliard School of music.

Aftera while parkers drug problem began to take over his life, and this also affected Davis. Davis took some time toget over that, and by the late 50s he was a much bigger star than he had been before due to some of his recent recordings. In 1969, Davis started to record more electronic music, which was the start of the azz-Rock. Later on, when he came out with the albums A Tribute to Jack Johnson, and On the Corner, fans were dissapointed, and thought it was a terrible portrayal of the jazz they knew.

Miles then sort of dissapeared from the view of the public eye between 1975 and 1981, but even when he came back, he wasn?t as into playing anymore as he had used to be. He played again a couple times before he died in 1991 at 65 years old.

As for the author?s description of the book, it was all first person, because he wrote the book himself with the help of Quincy Troupe. My conclusion to this book strenghtens what I think about musicians. I don?t understand why lots of famous people and especially musicians experiment with drugs. I would think that if their life is going well why mess with it. Another thing this book made me think about is that Miles is still a very widely known artist. Before reading this book I hadnt known that he died in 1991, I thought that him and his music was something that died long ago and only older people listened to. That is wrong though. I enjoyed this book and didn?t realize before how much work it takes to live forever in history.