1 00:00:34,034 --> 00:00:37,203 [Miles] Music has always been like a curse with me. 2 00:00:37,704 --> 00:00:39,748 I've always felt driven to play it. 3 00:00:40,749 --> 00:00:42,459 It's the first thing in my life, 4 00:00:42,542 --> 00:00:45,420 go to bed thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. 5 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:47,672 It's always there. 6 00:00:48,339 --> 00:00:50,467 It comes before everything. 7 00:00:50,967 --> 00:00:53,178 [music: "Milestones"] 8 00:01:25,668 --> 00:01:27,003 [music fades] 9 00:01:28,213 --> 00:01:30,799 Living is an adventure and a challenge. 10 00:01:31,466 --> 00:01:34,427 It wasn't about standing still and becoming safe. 11 00:01:35,929 --> 00:01:39,766 But I've always been the way I am. Been like this all my life. 12 00:01:41,309 --> 00:01:44,896 If anybody wants to keep creating, they have to be about change. 13 00:01:47,857 --> 00:01:50,527 [music: "Paraphernalia"] 14 00:02:03,164 --> 00:02:04,666 [distant cheering] 15 00:02:14,926 --> 00:02:17,762 I was born in Alton, Illinois, 16 00:02:17,846 --> 00:02:20,223 a little river town up on the Mississippi River. 17 00:02:22,183 --> 00:02:24,853 My father moved the family to East St. Louis. 18 00:02:27,230 --> 00:02:31,067 East St. Louis and St. Louis were country towns full of country people... 19 00:02:31,734 --> 00:02:34,237 especially the white people from around there, 20 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:37,949 really country... and racist to the bone. 21 00:02:40,410 --> 00:02:42,620 [Petty] Miles grew up in a wealthy situation. 22 00:02:43,371 --> 00:02:45,206 His father was a dentist. 23 00:02:45,707 --> 00:02:51,045 He also had a farm and raised cattle and hogs and all of this. 24 00:02:52,046 --> 00:02:54,507 [Troupe] They were the cream of the crop in the city. 25 00:02:54,591 --> 00:02:57,468 He was the second richest guy in the state of Illinois. 26 00:02:57,552 --> 00:02:58,761 Black man. 27 00:02:58,845 --> 00:03:04,058 But during the period that he grew up in, it's still Jim Crow America. 28 00:03:04,142 --> 00:03:09,355 And, so, his wealth, his father's wealth would not have protected him 29 00:03:09,439 --> 00:03:14,319 from segregation and racism in a place like East St. Louis. 30 00:03:16,613 --> 00:03:20,199 [Miles] On my 13th birthday, my father bought me a new trumpet. 31 00:03:21,451 --> 00:03:25,330 My mother wanted me to have a violin, but my father overruled her. 32 00:03:26,414 --> 00:03:28,541 This caused a big argument between them. 33 00:03:30,001 --> 00:03:33,171 They had been at each other's throats since I was a little kid. 34 00:03:34,339 --> 00:03:38,468 He would hear his mother and father talking and fussing 35 00:03:38,551 --> 00:03:43,932 and so I guess that's what got in his mind as a young boy. 36 00:03:44,015 --> 00:03:46,893 Miles absorbed that. He absorbed all of that... 37 00:03:47,435 --> 00:03:51,564 the anger, that kind of attitude toward women. 38 00:03:53,816 --> 00:03:56,194 [Miles] I remember my mother picking up things 39 00:03:56,277 --> 00:03:57,987 and throwing them at my father. 40 00:03:58,529 --> 00:04:00,740 He got so mad with her he punched her. 41 00:04:00,823 --> 00:04:03,409 He knocked a couple of teeth right out of her mouth. 42 00:04:04,953 --> 00:04:06,955 It had to affect us somehow... 43 00:04:07,413 --> 00:04:09,123 although I don't really know how. 44 00:04:11,167 --> 00:04:13,836 [Petty] Miles was considered a genius... 45 00:04:14,379 --> 00:04:18,383 but he was also considered, I guess, weird. 46 00:04:19,884 --> 00:04:22,262 Miles would go into the woods, 47 00:04:22,345 --> 00:04:25,515 listening to the animals or listening to the birds, 48 00:04:25,598 --> 00:04:28,601 and play what he was hearing. 49 00:04:31,145 --> 00:04:34,524 He always had his own way of doing things. 50 00:04:36,859 --> 00:04:40,697 [Khan] Miles started very early as a member of the trumpet section, 51 00:04:40,780 --> 00:04:42,740 in Eddie Randle's Blue Devils. 52 00:04:43,408 --> 00:04:45,994 Miles is young and small 53 00:04:46,077 --> 00:04:49,998 and can barely fill the suit that he had to wear for these gigs. 54 00:04:50,081 --> 00:04:53,918 While the other guys in Eddie Randle's band were working their day jobs, 55 00:04:54,002 --> 00:04:57,880 this teenager Miles Davis quickly becomes the musical director 56 00:04:57,964 --> 00:04:59,465 for this popular dance band. 57 00:05:01,426 --> 00:05:05,054 ♪ I love the rhythm in a riff When the music jumps I get a lift ♪ 58 00:05:05,138 --> 00:05:08,224 ♪ Body a-do-do do-lo-do Do-lo-do do-lo-do do-lo-do ♪ 59 00:05:08,308 --> 00:05:11,477 So, the real pivot point for Miles is when, 60 00:05:11,561 --> 00:05:13,980 during his summer after high school, 61 00:05:14,063 --> 00:05:18,234 he is invited to sit in with the Billy Eckstine band. 62 00:05:18,318 --> 00:05:22,447 ♪ When that rhythm's in ya The blues don't have a chance ♪ 63 00:05:22,530 --> 00:05:25,950 [Khan] Both Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie are in that band. 64 00:05:26,034 --> 00:05:28,411 I mean, you've got the laboratory, 65 00:05:28,494 --> 00:05:32,582 the future of modern jazz right there in this big band. 66 00:05:32,665 --> 00:05:34,834 [music continues] 67 00:05:37,503 --> 00:05:42,175 [Miles] The greatest feeling I ever had in my life, with my clothes on, 68 00:05:42,258 --> 00:05:44,635 was when I first met Diz and Bird. 69 00:05:45,303 --> 00:05:47,346 I was 18 years old. 70 00:05:48,347 --> 00:05:51,142 I decided right then and there I had to be in New York, 71 00:05:51,225 --> 00:05:54,312 on 52nd Street, where the action was. 72 00:05:55,313 --> 00:05:57,356 [music: "Paraphernalia"] 73 00:06:14,373 --> 00:06:18,878 Walter Cronkite reporting. War years always bring on new fads and tastes 74 00:06:18,961 --> 00:06:20,546 and the strangest taste around 75 00:06:20,630 --> 00:06:24,092 is the excitement generated by the musical noise called jazz. 76 00:06:24,175 --> 00:06:26,761 This strange music has been accused of everything, 77 00:06:26,844 --> 00:06:29,889 including the bad weather and the present decay in morality. 78 00:06:29,972 --> 00:06:32,517 [music: "Donna Lee" by Charlie Parker] 79 00:06:34,227 --> 00:06:39,524 52nd Street was a mecca of jazz clubs. 80 00:06:39,607 --> 00:06:42,568 They had jazz clubs on both sides of the street. 81 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:50,827 [Miles] I had never heard no shit like they was playing on 52nd Street. 82 00:06:51,911 --> 00:06:54,580 We would go down there and listen in amazement. 83 00:06:55,498 --> 00:06:58,167 That shit was so good it was scary. 84 00:07:01,963 --> 00:07:04,006 Each little place had a speaker outside 85 00:07:04,090 --> 00:07:06,384 where you could hear what was going on inside. 86 00:07:06,467 --> 00:07:12,306 You could stand outside and hear the music until a doorman... 87 00:07:12,390 --> 00:07:16,060 the clubs had doormen, they would chase you away. [chuckles] 88 00:07:20,731 --> 00:07:24,318 Miles enrolled at Juilliard 'cause he wanted to learn music 89 00:07:25,027 --> 00:07:29,532 and because his mother wanted him to be a trained musician and all that. 90 00:07:30,825 --> 00:07:34,454 [Griffin] He is serious about Juilliard. He's seriously committed to it 91 00:07:34,537 --> 00:07:37,874 and he values what Juilliard might have to offer. 92 00:07:39,208 --> 00:07:42,128 [Miles] A lot of the old guys thought that if you went to school, 93 00:07:42,211 --> 00:07:44,338 it would make you play like you were white. 94 00:07:45,173 --> 00:07:46,632 If you learned something from theory, 95 00:07:46,716 --> 00:07:48,926 you would lose the feeling in your playing. 96 00:07:50,052 --> 00:07:52,430 I would go to the library and borrow scores 97 00:07:52,513 --> 00:07:54,348 by all those great composers. 98 00:07:55,266 --> 00:07:57,935 I wanted to see what was going on in all of music. 99 00:07:59,312 --> 00:08:01,647 And yet he knows that there's something else going on. 100 00:08:01,731 --> 00:08:03,566 It's not happening at Juilliard. 101 00:08:04,358 --> 00:08:08,196 [Heath] So, he was to go at Juilliard in the daytime 102 00:08:08,279 --> 00:08:11,574 and at night, he'd be on 52nd Street. 103 00:08:13,534 --> 00:08:17,121 [Miles] I spent my first week in New York looking for Bird and Dizzy. 104 00:08:17,788 --> 00:08:19,999 Spent all my money and didn't find them. 105 00:08:21,167 --> 00:08:24,045 Then, one night, I heard this voice from behind me say: 106 00:08:24,128 --> 00:08:26,797 "Hey, Miles, I heard you been looking for me." 107 00:08:28,090 --> 00:08:30,760 I turned around and there was Bird. 108 00:08:37,433 --> 00:08:40,353 [Tate] Bebop musicians were rocket scientists. 109 00:08:40,853 --> 00:08:44,899 You can compare bebop to the Manhattan Project. 110 00:08:46,192 --> 00:08:50,029 And it was developed by some serious sound physicists... 111 00:08:51,113 --> 00:08:54,283 blowing their brains out to push this music as far as they could. 112 00:08:57,537 --> 00:09:02,041 So, Miles stepped into kind of a hotbed of musical research and development. 113 00:09:09,674 --> 00:09:12,051 [Early] Bebop was a black music. 114 00:09:12,134 --> 00:09:14,929 It was a music by black musicians, 115 00:09:15,012 --> 00:09:18,224 who wanted to get away from any kind of hint of minstrelsy. 116 00:09:22,770 --> 00:09:27,233 [Jones] No smiling and laughing and grinning and dancing and shit. 117 00:09:27,316 --> 00:09:28,526 No entertaining, man. 118 00:09:29,777 --> 00:09:32,154 They wanted to be an artist just like Stravinsky... 119 00:09:32,780 --> 00:09:35,199 just like Stravinsky who was just a pure artist. 120 00:09:36,617 --> 00:09:41,247 [Tate] Miles saw these very elegantly-dressed characters. 121 00:09:41,747 --> 00:09:45,501 The dignity that came with that and the nobility that came with that 122 00:09:45,585 --> 00:09:46,586 and the swagger. 123 00:09:51,465 --> 00:09:55,803 Very soon after Miles starts his Juilliard studies... 124 00:09:56,178 --> 00:09:59,348 Irene arrives, his high school sweetheart, 125 00:09:59,432 --> 00:10:03,060 with their child and with another baby on the way. 126 00:10:04,687 --> 00:10:09,567 [Miles] All of a sudden, there she was, knocking on my motherfucking door. 127 00:10:10,067 --> 00:10:11,944 My mother had told her to come. 128 00:10:12,570 --> 00:10:14,363 [Griffin] I mean, it seems almost impossible, 129 00:10:14,447 --> 00:10:17,283 what he would have been trying to do at that age. 130 00:10:17,366 --> 00:10:21,579 There's the domestic situation with children. 131 00:10:21,662 --> 00:10:24,665 There's the kind of time required of anyone 132 00:10:24,749 --> 00:10:26,542 who's a serious student at Juilliard, 133 00:10:26,626 --> 00:10:31,130 but there's also the kind of time and commitment that this music will take. 134 00:10:31,213 --> 00:10:34,050 And, at some point, something has to give. 135 00:10:36,218 --> 00:10:37,845 [Troupe] Music was everything. 136 00:10:37,928 --> 00:10:39,138 It was everything. 137 00:10:39,221 --> 00:10:41,599 It was sexual, sensuous. 138 00:10:41,682 --> 00:10:45,144 Everything, power. Everything, humor. 139 00:10:45,227 --> 00:10:47,855 And then... he could not share that. 140 00:10:48,481 --> 00:10:51,150 And, so, somebody had to play second fiddle to that. 141 00:10:54,487 --> 00:10:56,864 [Shorter] One day, the teacher said: 142 00:10:56,947 --> 00:11:03,829 "The blues grew out of the downtrodden suffering of the slaves, of slavery, 143 00:11:03,913 --> 00:11:07,917 and the crying and wailing and all that, 144 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:11,170 this became the blues of the people in chains." 145 00:11:11,253 --> 00:11:13,631 Miles was in the back in the room somewhere 146 00:11:13,714 --> 00:11:15,549 He raises his hand while she's talking. 147 00:11:17,176 --> 00:11:18,386 And she says: "Yes?" 148 00:11:19,011 --> 00:11:19,970 He said: 149 00:11:21,347 --> 00:11:24,183 "You're a goddamn liar." 150 00:11:24,266 --> 00:11:26,060 [music: "Dewey Square" by Charlie Parker] 151 00:11:26,143 --> 00:11:27,520 And walked out of the room. 152 00:11:29,980 --> 00:11:34,026 [Khan] Miles, within months, is hanging with Bird. 153 00:11:34,110 --> 00:11:36,320 He's recording with Bird. 154 00:11:36,404 --> 00:11:39,615 He really arrives, like, right away. 155 00:11:39,907 --> 00:11:42,284 Every night, he'd get on the stand with Bird. 156 00:11:42,368 --> 00:11:45,538 Bird would play the head of the tune and just leave him on stage by himself. 157 00:11:46,288 --> 00:11:47,998 He said he threw up every night... 158 00:11:48,666 --> 00:11:52,503 'cause he was just so stressed out and humiliated. 159 00:11:53,212 --> 00:11:56,382 I mean, those cats could wear him out on the horn any night. 160 00:11:57,633 --> 00:11:59,176 But he figured something else out. 161 00:11:59,260 --> 00:12:01,137 [music: "Boplicity"] 162 00:12:11,814 --> 00:12:16,318 [Kernodle] He comes up with a style that is truly reflective of who he is, 163 00:12:16,402 --> 00:12:19,363 straight tone, lyricism. 164 00:12:20,281 --> 00:12:24,201 It is him. It is uniquely, organically him. 165 00:12:24,285 --> 00:12:26,370 [music continues] 166 00:12:32,251 --> 00:12:37,131 [Khan] Miles meets Gil Evans and there's this level of mutual respect 167 00:12:37,214 --> 00:12:43,053 and mutual dedication to the music that will last a lifetime. 168 00:12:44,847 --> 00:12:48,893 [Miles] I liked the way Gil wrote music and he liked the way I played. 169 00:12:48,976 --> 00:12:50,978 We heard sound in the same way. 170 00:12:52,396 --> 00:12:55,357 [Khan] By the end of the '40s they're working on a project together. 171 00:12:55,441 --> 00:12:58,903 It's called Birth of the Cool, a nonet, 172 00:12:58,986 --> 00:13:05,326 that would create a kind of melding of modern classical ideas with jazz. 173 00:13:05,409 --> 00:13:07,286 [music: "Moon Dreams"] 174 00:13:12,958 --> 00:13:14,752 [Symphony Sid] Right now, ladies and gentlemen, 175 00:13:14,835 --> 00:13:16,712 we bring you something new in modern music. 176 00:13:16,795 --> 00:13:18,756 "Impressions in Modern Music" 177 00:13:18,839 --> 00:13:21,467 with the great Miles Davis and his wonderful new organization. 178 00:13:25,095 --> 00:13:29,517 [Tate] I think the intention was to create a listening music, concert music, 179 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:33,437 that very deliberately, did not have the drive... 180 00:13:34,063 --> 00:13:37,024 and the funk of 52nd Street on it. 181 00:13:37,107 --> 00:13:39,318 [music continues] 182 00:13:45,991 --> 00:13:49,203 Well, it's mainly about trying to create new colors, 183 00:13:49,286 --> 00:13:51,956 in a way, where you widen the palette of jazz. 184 00:13:52,039 --> 00:13:53,541 [music continues] 185 00:13:58,671 --> 00:14:03,092 And I think he was conscious of the fact that to move the music forward, 186 00:14:03,175 --> 00:14:06,345 you've got to go someplace it hasn't gone before. 187 00:14:06,428 --> 00:14:08,514 [music: "Move"] 188 00:14:13,060 --> 00:14:16,689 [newscaster] The heart of European civilization is beating strong again. 189 00:14:17,189 --> 00:14:18,357 Paris is free. 190 00:14:19,233 --> 00:14:22,111 This is the end of four years of Nazi rule in Paris. 191 00:14:23,070 --> 00:14:24,905 Once more, it is The City of Light. 192 00:14:25,698 --> 00:14:27,283 [crowds cheering] 193 00:14:34,790 --> 00:14:40,546 It was a very unique time in France's life. Very. 194 00:14:40,629 --> 00:14:41,714 [crowds cheering] 195 00:14:42,006 --> 00:14:45,718 Because there was this euphoria, this post-war euphoria, 196 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:53,058 There were two bombs, the atomic bomb and the Liberation. 197 00:14:55,728 --> 00:14:59,732 After the war, France was different, Europe was different 198 00:14:59,815 --> 00:15:03,277 and they needed a new sound to that era. 199 00:15:03,903 --> 00:15:05,195 And that was jazz. 200 00:15:05,279 --> 00:15:09,283 You're now listening to the Tadd Dameron and Miles Davis Quintet. 201 00:15:10,409 --> 00:15:11,493 Here's Miles Davis. 202 00:15:11,577 --> 00:15:13,412 [music: "Rifftide"] 203 00:15:14,413 --> 00:15:16,874 [Miles] This was my first trip out of the country. 204 00:15:17,374 --> 00:15:21,503 I loved being in Paris and loved the way I was treated. 205 00:15:22,504 --> 00:15:26,300 [Troupe] He said that the food even tasted better in France. 206 00:15:26,675 --> 00:15:32,014 The smell in the air was even more beautiful in Paris. 207 00:15:33,057 --> 00:15:36,518 That moment, for him, was something that was galvanizing. 208 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:40,731 [Miles] Music had been my total life. 209 00:15:40,814 --> 00:15:43,192 I was always so into the music. 210 00:15:43,275 --> 00:15:48,739 I never had time for any kind of romance until I met Juliette Gréco. 211 00:15:50,282 --> 00:15:54,912 ♪ Sous le ciel de Paris Marchent des amoureux ♪ 212 00:15:54,995 --> 00:15:57,581 ♪ Mm-mm ♪ 213 00:15:57,665 --> 00:16:01,710 The first concert I saw Miles in, I saw him from the side. 214 00:16:04,672 --> 00:16:06,632 And it was extraordinary. 215 00:16:06,715 --> 00:16:09,718 It was really beautiful, aesthetically beautiful. He was beautiful. 216 00:16:11,971 --> 00:16:17,142 My English was bad. It still is, but at this time, it was really, really bad. 217 00:16:17,977 --> 00:16:20,270 But we managed to understand each other. 218 00:16:21,438 --> 00:16:23,774 It was a miracle. 219 00:16:23,857 --> 00:16:26,151 It was what you call a miracle of love. 220 00:16:26,402 --> 00:16:32,241 ♪ L'hymne d'un peuple épris De sa vieille cité ♪ 221 00:16:32,324 --> 00:16:35,619 [Miles] Juliette and I used to walk down by the Seine River together, 222 00:16:35,703 --> 00:16:37,496 holding hands and kissing, 223 00:16:37,579 --> 00:16:40,416 looking into each other's eyes and kissing some more. 224 00:16:41,917 --> 00:16:43,919 I cared a lot for Irene, 225 00:16:44,003 --> 00:16:47,172 but I had never felt like this before in my life. 226 00:16:48,382 --> 00:16:50,968 [Griffin] She brings him into a circle 227 00:16:51,051 --> 00:16:54,096 of other artists, of intellectuals, of philosophers, 228 00:16:54,179 --> 00:16:57,850 of, you know, the sort of greatest minds of that time. 229 00:16:58,142 --> 00:17:02,646 Jazz was really seen as the height of artistry at that time 230 00:17:02,730 --> 00:17:06,358 inside of French intellectual and creative circles. 231 00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:11,196 [Khan] He meets Pablo Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre. 232 00:17:11,822 --> 00:17:15,743 He's treated as an equal by some of the most creative giants of the day. 233 00:17:17,453 --> 00:17:23,417 [Griffin] Paris for Miles is kind of opening up of possibility and potential, 234 00:17:23,500 --> 00:17:27,629 the sense that one can be fully oneself 235 00:17:27,713 --> 00:17:31,050 beyond the boundaries of race. 236 00:17:31,133 --> 00:17:33,886 That it isn't something to hold you back. 237 00:17:33,969 --> 00:17:37,890 And, in fact, it might be something that contributes to your ability to ascend. 238 00:17:38,724 --> 00:17:42,853 [Miles] Paris was where I understood that all white people weren't the same... 239 00:17:43,645 --> 00:17:46,023 that some weren't prejudiced and others were. 240 00:17:47,524 --> 00:17:49,568 It had only been a couple of weeks... 241 00:17:50,277 --> 00:17:52,905 but I was living in an illusion of possibility. 242 00:17:53,447 --> 00:17:55,240 Maybe a miracle had happened. 243 00:17:56,325 --> 00:18:00,621 Sartre asked Miles: "Why don't you marry Gréco?" 244 00:18:00,704 --> 00:18:02,539 [music: "Romance" by Juliette Gréco] 245 00:18:02,623 --> 00:18:06,627 And Miles answered: "Because I'm in love with her. I love her." 246 00:18:06,710 --> 00:18:11,882 ♪ Dans le printemps de Paris ♪ 247 00:18:17,638 --> 00:18:21,141 [Miles] I was so depressed coming back to this country on the airplane 248 00:18:21,225 --> 00:18:24,353 that I couldn't say nothing all the way back. 249 00:18:25,104 --> 00:18:27,773 I didn't know that shit was going to hit me like that. 250 00:18:29,441 --> 00:18:34,738 ♪ Dans le printemps de Paris ♪ 251 00:18:34,822 --> 00:18:38,951 [Griffin] Every African-American artist who has spent time abroad 252 00:18:39,034 --> 00:18:42,496 talks about the profound disappointment in coming back to the United States. 253 00:18:42,579 --> 00:18:47,793 You see your country as you knew it but in an even starker light 254 00:18:47,876 --> 00:18:49,878 because you've experienced something different. 255 00:18:53,132 --> 00:18:55,092 [Miles] It was hard for me to come back 256 00:18:55,175 --> 00:18:59,179 to the bullshit white people put a black person through in this country. 257 00:18:59,972 --> 00:19:02,558 I lost my sense of discipline, 258 00:19:02,641 --> 00:19:06,520 lost my sense of control over my life and started to drift. 259 00:19:07,938 --> 00:19:11,150 Before I knew it, I had a heroin habit... 260 00:19:12,067 --> 00:19:16,738 which meant getting and shooting heroin all the time, all day and all night. 261 00:19:17,948 --> 00:19:19,408 That's all I lived for. 262 00:19:19,491 --> 00:19:21,285 [music: "Paraphernalia"] 263 00:19:23,912 --> 00:19:26,498 [Kernodle] His career is spiraling out of control. 264 00:19:27,749 --> 00:19:30,669 There's no expectation that Miles is going to survive, 265 00:19:30,752 --> 00:19:35,340 let alone is he really going to be a successful musician again. 266 00:19:40,762 --> 00:19:44,808 [Wein] I had a little club in... I think it was Hartford. 267 00:19:44,892 --> 00:19:46,935 I booked the Symphony Sid All Stars. 268 00:19:48,020 --> 00:19:51,190 And Symphony Sid said: "Don't give Miles any money." 269 00:19:52,816 --> 00:19:55,235 So, Miles came up to me the first night and says: 270 00:19:55,319 --> 00:19:57,112 "George, give me five dollars." 271 00:19:57,196 --> 00:19:58,947 I said: "Miles, come on, man." 272 00:20:00,199 --> 00:20:02,159 "George, give me two dollars." 273 00:20:02,784 --> 00:20:05,162 And I... "Come on, Miles." 274 00:20:05,245 --> 00:20:07,372 "George, give me 50 cents." 275 00:20:07,456 --> 00:20:09,666 And I: "Hey, man, you know..." 276 00:20:10,459 --> 00:20:12,669 "George, give me a penny." 277 00:20:13,253 --> 00:20:15,297 That's my first meeting with Miles. 278 00:20:15,380 --> 00:20:16,840 [music: "Paraphernalia"] 279 00:20:18,967 --> 00:20:21,803 [Heath] We were playing at a club in New York... 280 00:20:23,096 --> 00:20:25,474 and his father came from East St. Louis. 281 00:20:25,557 --> 00:20:28,727 And came to the club and took him off the stage. 282 00:20:28,810 --> 00:20:30,229 He left his horn and everything. 283 00:20:30,312 --> 00:20:32,439 He said: "Come on. You're going back home with me." 284 00:20:32,522 --> 00:20:34,149 [train klaxon blares] 285 00:20:36,276 --> 00:20:38,278 [music: "White"] 286 00:20:38,362 --> 00:20:41,365 [Miles] I felt like a little boy going with his daddy. 287 00:20:42,616 --> 00:20:47,120 I had never felt like that before and probably haven't felt like that since. 288 00:20:48,705 --> 00:20:51,875 On the way home, I told him I was going to give up dope 289 00:20:51,959 --> 00:20:54,336 and that all I needed was a little rest. 290 00:20:55,671 --> 00:20:59,132 Before I knew it, I was shooting up again, 291 00:20:59,216 --> 00:21:02,261 borrowing money from my father to support my habit. 292 00:21:06,098 --> 00:21:09,268 [Redmond] You could see him moving through the night. 293 00:21:10,310 --> 00:21:13,981 You'd run into him somewhere, didn't even know it was Miles. 294 00:21:14,064 --> 00:21:16,441 He might even have on clothes... 295 00:21:16,942 --> 00:21:20,779 that looked like... made him look like he was homeless. 296 00:21:21,530 --> 00:21:23,323 We wanted him to be Superman... 297 00:21:25,867 --> 00:21:28,870 and it just doesn't work that way. 298 00:21:29,538 --> 00:21:31,290 [music continues] 299 00:21:34,209 --> 00:21:38,088 [Bonner] I really hated to see him go down like that. 300 00:21:40,382 --> 00:21:43,552 But I... I don't want to talk about it. 301 00:21:48,473 --> 00:21:51,643 [Miles] I went out to my father's farm in Millstadt. 302 00:21:52,728 --> 00:21:54,354 I was sick. 303 00:21:55,355 --> 00:21:58,525 If someone could've guaranteed that I would die in two seconds, 304 00:21:58,608 --> 00:21:59,901 then I would've taken it. 305 00:22:02,404 --> 00:22:04,781 This went on for about seven or eight days. 306 00:22:05,574 --> 00:22:06,700 I couldn't eat. 307 00:22:07,784 --> 00:22:10,662 Then, one day, it was over, just like that. 308 00:22:10,746 --> 00:22:11,663 Over. 309 00:22:13,290 --> 00:22:16,752 I felt better, good, pure. 310 00:22:21,131 --> 00:22:26,011 This young white guy had started a new jazz label called Prestige 311 00:22:26,094 --> 00:22:28,930 and he was looking for me to make a record for him. 312 00:22:30,557 --> 00:22:32,976 I figured there was nowhere for me to go but up. 313 00:22:33,727 --> 00:22:35,729 I was already on the bottom. 314 00:22:35,812 --> 00:22:37,314 [music: "Paraphernalia"] 315 00:22:37,397 --> 00:22:40,192 [Luther King] We, the Negro citizens, had it not to rise... 316 00:22:40,275 --> 00:22:42,402 -Miss America Contest. -Dodgers go wild. 317 00:22:42,486 --> 00:22:44,071 [newscaster] Emmett Till was taken by... 318 00:22:44,154 --> 00:22:46,531 [newscaster 2] Amazing new Motoramic Chevrolet... 319 00:22:52,245 --> 00:22:56,333 [newscaster 3] This afternoon, Disneyland, the world's most fabulous kingdom... 320 00:22:56,792 --> 00:22:58,877 [music: "Blue Moon" by Thelonious Monk] 321 00:23:12,849 --> 00:23:17,729 [Wein] I was in a club in New York and Miles is at the back of the club. 322 00:23:19,189 --> 00:23:21,399 And Miles stopped me coming out of the club. 323 00:23:21,483 --> 00:23:24,361 He said: "Are you going to have a jazz festival up at Newport?" 324 00:23:24,444 --> 00:23:26,822 I said: "Yeah, Miles." 325 00:23:26,905 --> 00:23:29,741 He said: "You can't have a festival without me." 326 00:23:30,617 --> 00:23:32,994 I said: "Miles, you want to be in a festival?" 327 00:23:33,078 --> 00:23:35,789 He says: "You can't have a festival without me." 328 00:23:35,872 --> 00:23:38,250 So, I said: "All right, I'll call your agent." 329 00:23:38,333 --> 00:23:40,710 [music: "'Round Midnight"] 330 00:23:47,592 --> 00:23:49,636 [Cawthra] Newport was like an audition. 331 00:23:51,429 --> 00:23:55,725 Listening in the audience were executives from Columbia Records. 332 00:23:55,809 --> 00:23:59,855 Columbia Records was the Tiffany of labels at the time. 333 00:23:59,938 --> 00:24:01,773 [Troupe] He knew what this meant. 334 00:24:01,857 --> 00:24:04,067 He knew what this meant for him. 335 00:24:05,152 --> 00:24:08,321 So, if he had that opportunity, as he had at Newport, 336 00:24:08,405 --> 00:24:10,532 he was going for it and with a vengeance. 337 00:24:10,615 --> 00:24:12,450 [music continues] 338 00:24:20,709 --> 00:24:26,131 Miles put the bell of his horn right into the microphone... 339 00:24:27,591 --> 00:24:30,886 and changed the whole world of jazz right there 340 00:24:30,969 --> 00:24:33,555 and changed his career right there, 341 00:24:33,638 --> 00:24:38,101 because the beauty of that song and the beauty of Miles's trumpet... 342 00:24:38,768 --> 00:24:42,898 made bebop a music that could be accepted by everybody. 343 00:24:42,981 --> 00:24:44,816 [music continues] 344 00:24:51,531 --> 00:24:55,785 They could now put on Miles's music while they were making love. 345 00:24:55,869 --> 00:24:57,662 [music continues] 346 00:25:23,563 --> 00:25:26,733 [music fades to cheering] 347 00:25:28,652 --> 00:25:31,321 [Santana] It takes a lot of courage to play a ballad. 348 00:25:31,821 --> 00:25:34,950 You know, it's easy to hide with a bunch of notes all over the place. 349 00:25:35,033 --> 00:25:38,411 Look what I can do. [sings gibberish] Look what I can do. [yawns] 350 00:25:38,495 --> 00:25:39,371 You know... okay. 351 00:25:39,454 --> 00:25:41,456 [music: "It Never Entered My Mind"] 352 00:25:47,128 --> 00:25:51,633 Most men are afraid to be vulnerable. 353 00:25:52,842 --> 00:25:55,053 That's what women love the best about a man. 354 00:25:55,136 --> 00:25:57,180 [music continues] 355 00:26:08,692 --> 00:26:12,320 I think Miles, on one hand, he comes out like this, 356 00:26:12,404 --> 00:26:16,241 you know, but then he starts playing and people are like... oh... 357 00:26:16,866 --> 00:26:18,702 You know, he just disarms you. 358 00:26:19,619 --> 00:26:21,788 [music continues] 359 00:26:29,587 --> 00:26:34,467 [Griffin] Miles's sound is unique from the first note. 360 00:26:36,052 --> 00:26:40,348 There's a sense of pleasure, beauty. 361 00:26:42,100 --> 00:26:44,311 There's something very romantic... 362 00:26:45,103 --> 00:26:47,480 but it's romantic without being sentimental. 363 00:26:47,564 --> 00:26:49,190 [music continues] 364 00:27:04,914 --> 00:27:07,751 [Tate] He's spilling his guts to you... 365 00:27:08,335 --> 00:27:14,090 so directly, you know, to the heart, to your... you know, to your vitals. 366 00:27:14,174 --> 00:27:15,925 [music continues] 367 00:27:24,851 --> 00:27:29,356 I want to feel the way Miles sounds. 368 00:27:40,617 --> 00:27:44,204 [Hancock] Miles had a way of playing 369 00:27:44,287 --> 00:27:48,792 that sounded like a stone skipping across a pond. 370 00:27:53,254 --> 00:27:56,257 He just touched on the waves. 371 00:27:56,341 --> 00:27:59,094 [music continues] 372 00:28:09,896 --> 00:28:12,107 [Miller] Sometimes he leaves a note out 373 00:28:12,190 --> 00:28:14,192 and I've seen people literally like this... 374 00:28:14,859 --> 00:28:16,111 waiting for that next note. 375 00:28:16,194 --> 00:28:17,862 [music continues] 376 00:28:26,955 --> 00:28:31,084 His sound was so pure and elegant... 377 00:28:32,168 --> 00:28:33,753 and tasty... 378 00:28:34,796 --> 00:28:36,381 musically tasty. 379 00:28:43,179 --> 00:28:47,684 Miles could play one note. I've seen him play one note 380 00:28:47,767 --> 00:28:49,978 and some of these high rollers that came to the club... 381 00:28:50,061 --> 00:28:52,188 these high rollers would come and say: 382 00:28:53,022 --> 00:28:56,025 "That did it for me! That did it for me. I just got my money's worth!" 383 00:28:56,109 --> 00:28:58,486 And they're ready to leave. [chuckles] 384 00:28:58,570 --> 00:29:01,614 Miles would say: "Bam!" They'd say: "Oh, that's it, man." 385 00:29:02,991 --> 00:29:04,993 [music out] 386 00:29:05,076 --> 00:29:07,454 [Miles] In February or March 1956, 387 00:29:07,537 --> 00:29:11,499 I had to have a non-cancerous growth on my larynx removed. 388 00:29:12,333 --> 00:29:14,377 It had been bothering me for a while. 389 00:29:14,878 --> 00:29:17,922 I wasn't even supposed to talk for at least ten days. 390 00:29:19,132 --> 00:29:21,968 One week went by, he was in pretty good shape. 391 00:29:22,719 --> 00:29:26,848 The second week, he couldn't keep his mouth shut. 392 00:29:28,433 --> 00:29:30,643 Everybody was "a sack full of motherfuckers". 393 00:29:33,104 --> 00:29:34,272 And that was it. 394 00:29:34,773 --> 00:29:38,651 He got that rasp and it never healed. 395 00:29:39,778 --> 00:29:43,907 At that time, nobody knew that Miles had had an operation 396 00:29:43,990 --> 00:29:46,201 and that his voice had suffered from it. 397 00:29:46,284 --> 00:29:48,870 He came on the stage and began to announce, 398 00:29:48,953 --> 00:29:51,998 in that gravelly voice, what he was going to play for that evening 399 00:29:52,081 --> 00:29:54,959 and I think he got two or three sentences out, 400 00:29:55,043 --> 00:29:58,213 and the audience, a large number of them, began to laugh at him. 401 00:29:59,130 --> 00:30:02,300 Miles turned around and looked at the audience. 402 00:30:02,383 --> 00:30:06,888 He had this very strange look on his face and he left. 403 00:30:08,723 --> 00:30:10,725 [music: "Stella By Starlight"] 404 00:30:15,313 --> 00:30:19,150 [Miles] I could communicate with the band just by giving them a certain look. 405 00:30:20,068 --> 00:30:23,530 That's what I'm doing when I have my back turned to the audience. 406 00:30:24,322 --> 00:30:27,784 I can't be concerned with talking and bullshitting while I'm playing... 407 00:30:28,910 --> 00:30:31,955 because the music is talking to them when everything's right. 408 00:30:32,038 --> 00:30:33,665 [music continues] 409 00:30:43,550 --> 00:30:47,387 George Avakian, the jazz producer for Columbia Records, 410 00:30:47,470 --> 00:30:49,597 wanted to sign me to an exclusive contract. 411 00:30:50,515 --> 00:30:52,725 I told him that I wanted to go with Columbia 412 00:30:52,809 --> 00:30:54,936 because of all the shit that he offered me. 413 00:30:57,522 --> 00:30:58,940 [Khan] George Avakian says: 414 00:30:59,023 --> 00:31:02,110 "Here's a list of demands that I would like you to meet. 415 00:31:03,027 --> 00:31:06,614 You got to be clean and you got to have a consistent band." 416 00:31:07,740 --> 00:31:11,202 And the last thing is, he's got to get free of his Prestige contract. 417 00:31:11,286 --> 00:31:13,663 [Miles] I'll play it and tell you what it is later. 418 00:31:13,746 --> 00:31:16,124 [music: "If I Were A Bell"] 419 00:31:26,384 --> 00:31:27,969 [Chambers] He had a new quintet 420 00:31:28,052 --> 00:31:31,514 with John Coltrane as the tenor saxophone player. 421 00:31:31,598 --> 00:31:36,895 And he took that quintet into the studios of Rudy Van Gelder... 422 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:41,190 and he called tune, after tune, after tune, 423 00:31:41,274 --> 00:31:44,903 and recorded enough music in a couple of days... 424 00:31:45,486 --> 00:31:48,072 to get rid of his obligation to Prestige. 425 00:31:48,156 --> 00:31:50,617 [music continues] 426 00:31:57,123 --> 00:32:01,085 He basically took the handcuffs off the musicians and said: 427 00:32:01,169 --> 00:32:05,048 "Here, do you. Be you. 428 00:32:05,924 --> 00:32:09,552 I'm just going to let the music live, let it breathe 429 00:32:09,636 --> 00:32:12,221 and let it develop as we feel it." 430 00:32:12,305 --> 00:32:14,891 [music continues] 431 00:32:20,355 --> 00:32:23,524 [Chambers] Miles thought he was just dispatching his obligation 432 00:32:23,608 --> 00:32:28,988 as fast as he could, but in fact they are gems of spontaneous jazz music. 433 00:32:29,072 --> 00:32:31,074 [music continues] 434 00:32:33,242 --> 00:32:37,830 Two marathon sessions, three hours or more of recorded music. 435 00:32:39,832 --> 00:32:42,794 One of the great feats, really, of jazz history. 436 00:32:43,461 --> 00:32:45,672 [music continues] 437 00:33:03,606 --> 00:33:08,111 I first met Miles Davis, I was performing with the Katherine Dunham Company. 438 00:33:10,822 --> 00:33:13,408 It was the introduction to so many different people 439 00:33:13,491 --> 00:33:16,327 that I met at that time in the show business world. 440 00:33:18,621 --> 00:33:21,791 I mean, I was in Paris. I was in Berlin. I was everywhere. 441 00:33:23,292 --> 00:33:25,712 I was told I had the best legs in the business. 442 00:33:29,507 --> 00:33:31,175 Hugh O'Brian wanted to date me. 443 00:33:32,510 --> 00:33:35,471 Rory Calhoun wanted to take me to Las Vegas. 444 00:33:37,098 --> 00:33:41,436 Oh, God, trying to think of all the different gentlemen. 445 00:33:44,063 --> 00:33:47,692 Well, as a dancer, I mean, I was spectacular on that stage 446 00:33:47,775 --> 00:33:50,945 and I guess they just wanted to find out more about me. 447 00:33:53,156 --> 00:33:55,992 I didn't know that much about jazz. 448 00:33:56,909 --> 00:34:00,079 Who I did know about was Johnny Mathis. 449 00:34:00,371 --> 00:34:06,794 ♪ Chances are 'cause I wear a silly grin ♪ 450 00:34:07,503 --> 00:34:13,926 ♪ Chances are you think That I'm in love with you ♪ 451 00:34:14,010 --> 00:34:19,557 [Taylor Davis] I was performing at Ciro's and Miles saw the performance. 452 00:34:20,058 --> 00:34:24,562 And he was smitten right away, but so was everybody else. 453 00:34:24,645 --> 00:34:28,066 ♪ Chances are... ♪ 454 00:34:28,149 --> 00:34:30,276 [Taylor Davis] This was just another chapter 455 00:34:30,359 --> 00:34:33,362 of gentlemen wanting to be with Frances. 456 00:34:33,863 --> 00:34:39,160 ♪ Awfully good ♪ 457 00:34:39,243 --> 00:34:43,748 [Taylor Davis] Sammy Davis Jr. asked me to join this new play 458 00:34:43,831 --> 00:34:46,042 that he was doing called Mr. Wonderful. 459 00:34:47,293 --> 00:34:52,381 On my way to rehearsal one day, Miles is coming down the street... 460 00:34:52,924 --> 00:34:56,511 and we looked at each other and he looked at me and he said: 461 00:34:56,594 --> 00:34:59,180 "Now that I found you, I'll never let you go." 462 00:35:00,890 --> 00:35:04,727 And what happened was, I moved in with him. 463 00:35:04,811 --> 00:35:06,604 [music: "You're My Everything"] 464 00:35:17,365 --> 00:35:21,994 [Cawthra] Frances Taylor was really a muse, an inspiration. 465 00:35:22,829 --> 00:35:27,708 She was the most inspirational person he had partnered with, 466 00:35:27,792 --> 00:35:29,710 the one he was with the longest. 467 00:35:30,378 --> 00:35:34,507 She was someone who gave him stability and love at a time when he produced 468 00:35:34,590 --> 00:35:37,718 some of his most groundbreaking and popular work. 469 00:35:42,515 --> 00:35:47,395 [Taylor Davis] He had to go off to Paris and he left me the music. 470 00:35:49,939 --> 00:35:53,776 I fell in love with his sound. It got to me. 471 00:35:56,654 --> 00:35:58,739 And I just played it over and over. 472 00:36:00,283 --> 00:36:03,119 And that was my introduction to his music. 473 00:36:03,202 --> 00:36:05,121 [music continues] 474 00:36:12,128 --> 00:36:18,301 In 1956, when Miles arrived in Europe, we were supposed to have a rehearsal 475 00:36:18,384 --> 00:36:21,679 He had never played with a European rhythm section. 476 00:36:22,889 --> 00:36:27,685 And he didn't say: "Hello." He was not smiling at all. 477 00:36:28,352 --> 00:36:31,939 And without saying one word, he just started to play. 478 00:36:32,023 --> 00:36:35,193 [plays piano solo] 479 00:36:38,821 --> 00:36:40,489 [music: "Tune Up"] 480 00:36:42,575 --> 00:36:46,913 And I follow immediately because we knew his music. 481 00:36:46,996 --> 00:36:49,207 We were fans of his music. 482 00:36:49,707 --> 00:36:53,920 I always asked myself the question of if we had said: 483 00:36:54,003 --> 00:36:57,089 "Excuse me. What are you playing there? We don't know that." 484 00:36:58,883 --> 00:37:01,260 I don't think he would have liked that. 485 00:37:01,344 --> 00:37:02,762 But we played it. 486 00:37:02,845 --> 00:37:06,766 And he said: "All right." And then he... That's all. 487 00:37:06,849 --> 00:37:09,602 That's it. We were engaged. 488 00:37:12,688 --> 00:37:14,398 I love you. 489 00:37:15,900 --> 00:37:17,777 I won't leave you, Julien. 490 00:37:18,361 --> 00:37:19,987 I love you. 491 00:37:20,529 --> 00:37:23,866 Without your voice, I'd be lost in a land of silence. 492 00:37:24,992 --> 00:37:26,452 That's not very daring. 493 00:37:26,535 --> 00:37:29,413 [Bessieres] Miles happened to be in Paris at the time when 494 00:37:29,497 --> 00:37:31,707 Louis Malle had finished his movie... 495 00:37:32,333 --> 00:37:35,336 Ascenseur pour L'Echafaud, Elevator To The Gallows. 496 00:37:41,008 --> 00:37:45,638 Malle was very young and was at the beginning of his career. 497 00:37:46,973 --> 00:37:50,601 He wanted also to make different cinema 498 00:37:50,685 --> 00:37:53,271 and change the way of doing films 499 00:37:53,354 --> 00:37:58,442 like having real people in a real setting. 500 00:37:59,151 --> 00:38:01,279 [music: "Chez Le Photographe Du Motel"] 501 00:38:02,738 --> 00:38:05,324 And he approached Miles with the idea: 502 00:38:05,408 --> 00:38:08,452 "Would you be willing to create a jazz soundtrack?" 503 00:38:14,875 --> 00:38:17,712 Before, a musician, for a film, 504 00:38:17,795 --> 00:38:20,172 he come, he ask... 505 00:38:20,256 --> 00:38:22,049 30 person to come 506 00:38:22,133 --> 00:38:26,387 violin... percussion... brass, etcetera, 507 00:38:26,470 --> 00:38:29,432 and: "Three, four. Gentlemen, are you ready? Three, four..." 508 00:38:29,515 --> 00:38:31,142 [hums a tune] 509 00:38:31,767 --> 00:38:36,397 the man who wrote the music knows exactly how long each sequence takes 510 00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:39,108 two minutes 40... etcetera, etcetera. 511 00:38:39,692 --> 00:38:40,818 Not with Miles. 512 00:38:41,736 --> 00:38:44,113 [music continues] 513 00:38:51,787 --> 00:38:54,457 [Bessieres] Miles didn't write any music. 514 00:38:56,500 --> 00:39:02,340 He played the entire music directly along to the screening of the movie. 515 00:39:13,142 --> 00:39:19,482 Just improvising and creating the sound in reaction to the images of the film. 516 00:39:19,565 --> 00:39:22,151 [music continues] 517 00:39:32,328 --> 00:39:36,332 Looking at the image at the same moment as we were playing 518 00:39:36,415 --> 00:39:40,044 was very important because he's Jeanne Moreau. 519 00:39:41,879 --> 00:39:43,464 His music but... 520 00:39:43,547 --> 00:39:45,508 It's Jeanne Moreau suffering. 521 00:39:52,348 --> 00:39:55,684 Very fast we realized that it was something... 522 00:39:55,768 --> 00:39:58,229 I mean, something outstanding we were doing. 523 00:39:58,312 --> 00:40:00,147 [music: "Au Bar Du Petit Bac"] 524 00:40:03,734 --> 00:40:06,487 [Bessieres] That soundtrack made the film famous. 525 00:40:07,988 --> 00:40:11,325 A lot of people, they heard the record first 526 00:40:11,409 --> 00:40:13,994 and then they wanted to see the movie second. 527 00:40:15,871 --> 00:40:17,248 [applause] 528 00:40:19,834 --> 00:40:22,503 During the recording of Elevator To The Gallows, 529 00:40:22,586 --> 00:40:26,215 Miles experienced a new way of approaching improvisation. 530 00:40:27,007 --> 00:40:30,469 That's something he would develop in the next following years. 531 00:40:31,720 --> 00:40:35,307 So, something started in the recording studio 532 00:40:35,391 --> 00:40:37,810 of Elevator To The Gallows. 533 00:40:38,185 --> 00:40:40,187 [music: "So What (Session)"] 534 00:40:41,897 --> 00:40:43,566 [Teo Macero] Start again, please. 535 00:40:45,192 --> 00:40:49,321 Here we go. 300622981, number two, take one. 536 00:40:49,405 --> 00:40:50,656 [Miles] Wait, one minute! 537 00:40:51,907 --> 00:40:55,286 [Cobb] I was probably the first one there 'cause I had to set up the drums. 538 00:40:56,537 --> 00:41:01,041 So, I had my drums, set 'em up and waited till everybody else filed in. 539 00:41:04,670 --> 00:41:07,339 He just came in with little notes that he had. 540 00:41:07,423 --> 00:41:09,091 He didn't even have sheet music for that. 541 00:41:10,885 --> 00:41:16,307 And the only thing he'd tell me was, like: "Just swing, you know, just swing." 542 00:41:19,768 --> 00:41:24,190 [Miles] I didn't write out the music for Kind of Blue, but brought in sketches, 543 00:41:24,273 --> 00:41:26,942 because I wanted a lot of spontaneity in the playing. 544 00:41:28,819 --> 00:41:31,447 I knew that if you've got some great musicians, 545 00:41:31,530 --> 00:41:35,534 they would deal with the situation and play beyond what is there 546 00:41:35,618 --> 00:41:37,620 and above where they think they can. 547 00:41:39,371 --> 00:41:41,123 [Cobb] The first part of "So What"... 548 00:41:41,207 --> 00:41:46,086 [sings melody] 549 00:41:46,462 --> 00:41:48,297 [sings melody] 550 00:41:48,380 --> 00:41:50,758 Then, Paul would go into the bass saying... 551 00:41:50,841 --> 00:41:52,885 [sings bass part] 552 00:41:52,968 --> 00:41:55,554 [sings bass melody] 553 00:41:56,639 --> 00:41:59,391 Man, that was the first thing I ever heard from Miles. 554 00:41:59,892 --> 00:42:03,020 Grabbed the record out of my father's collection, put it on. 555 00:42:03,103 --> 00:42:04,897 [music: "So What"] 556 00:42:04,980 --> 00:42:08,859 First thing that catches your ear is Paul Chambers playing that bass line. 557 00:42:08,943 --> 00:42:10,528 [music continues] 558 00:42:16,659 --> 00:42:19,328 We can't even question the sacred texts that we have, 559 00:42:19,411 --> 00:42:22,039 like, you know, I mean, why is the Bible the Bible? 560 00:42:22,122 --> 00:42:23,415 It's the Bible, you know. 561 00:42:23,499 --> 00:42:26,460 I mean, why is Kind of Blue Kind of Blue? It's Kind of Blue. 562 00:42:26,544 --> 00:42:30,673 Like, it just is and it changed the sound of jazz. 563 00:42:30,756 --> 00:42:33,092 [music continues] 564 00:42:38,639 --> 00:42:42,601 [Cobb] The cymbal crash at the start of "So What", I thought I had overdone it. 565 00:42:42,685 --> 00:42:45,437 It sounded louder than it should've been to me. 566 00:42:45,521 --> 00:42:46,897 [cymbals crash] 567 00:42:48,315 --> 00:42:53,195 And it seems to ring forever, but it brings you right into the tune. 568 00:42:54,071 --> 00:42:58,951 It's like you've hit the highway and the rest of the tune just takes off. 569 00:43:12,423 --> 00:43:17,636 On Kind of Blue, what he asked them to do was to think deeper 570 00:43:17,720 --> 00:43:20,598 about what kind of sound can you create. 571 00:43:24,602 --> 00:43:28,272 He said: "I have these few ideas. Let's go." 572 00:43:31,066 --> 00:43:34,903 And this is something that Miles does for the rest of his life. 573 00:43:47,416 --> 00:43:51,045 [Tate] Kind of Blue doesn't really give away his passion so easily, 574 00:43:51,128 --> 00:43:53,756 but at the same time, once those musicians open up... 575 00:43:54,882 --> 00:43:59,762 they show you how inventive and ingenious they can be 576 00:43:59,845 --> 00:44:01,639 and how incendiary. 577 00:44:03,265 --> 00:44:06,101 [Coltrane plays solo] 578 00:44:25,329 --> 00:44:27,581 [Kernodle] Kind of Blue really signified 579 00:44:27,665 --> 00:44:29,541 a different way of thinking about your music 580 00:44:29,625 --> 00:44:33,337 and a different way of playing the music and approaching the music. 581 00:44:33,420 --> 00:44:39,259 And, for Coltrane, that was the door he needed to find his own identity. 582 00:44:39,343 --> 00:44:41,261 [solo continues] 583 00:44:45,349 --> 00:44:48,977 Few people hear the potential in the young John Coltrane... 584 00:44:49,853 --> 00:44:54,274 but Miles brought him along and provided Coltrane the space 585 00:44:54,358 --> 00:44:58,570 to become the artist who we would later love and revere. 586 00:44:58,654 --> 00:45:01,156 [solo continues] 587 00:45:18,006 --> 00:45:20,592 [Cobb] People that don't even like jazz like that album. 588 00:45:21,385 --> 00:45:25,514 Every decade, there's something. There's new people talking about Kind of Blue. 589 00:45:25,597 --> 00:45:28,517 "That's what started me to listening to jazz music." 590 00:45:33,313 --> 00:45:38,193 [Khan] You can listen hundreds of times, it always has something new to say. 591 00:45:39,445 --> 00:45:43,449 And that, for me, is the definition of a masterpiece. 592 00:45:57,588 --> 00:46:01,133 [Cobb] I don't think Miles knew that that was gonna be a record 593 00:46:01,216 --> 00:46:03,594 that would sell more records than any record 594 00:46:03,677 --> 00:46:06,221 in the history of the jazz music, you know? 595 00:46:06,847 --> 00:46:09,516 If Miles thought that that was gonna be like that, 596 00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:11,477 he would've asked for the building... 597 00:46:12,478 --> 00:46:16,106 and he would've asked for two Ferraris outside right now. 598 00:46:16,190 --> 00:46:18,192 You know, he would've really went crazy. 599 00:46:19,026 --> 00:46:21,403 If he thought anything like that was happening, 600 00:46:21,487 --> 00:46:23,947 he would've went out of Harlem. [chuckles] 601 00:46:24,031 --> 00:46:25,824 [music: "On Green Dolphin Street"] 602 00:46:40,547 --> 00:46:43,550 [Khan] Kind of Blue becomes successful immediately. 603 00:46:44,259 --> 00:46:47,888 He's becoming a popular, mainstream star. 604 00:46:49,431 --> 00:46:55,270 The Columbia deal gets his music into mainstream America like never before. 605 00:46:59,441 --> 00:47:03,862 He elevates himself into music maestro land. 606 00:47:10,786 --> 00:47:15,290 [Miles] All I ever wanted to do was communicate what I felt through music. 607 00:47:16,416 --> 00:47:19,169 Going with Columbia did mean more money, 608 00:47:19,253 --> 00:47:22,923 but what's wrong with getting paid for what you do and getting paid well? 609 00:47:24,341 --> 00:47:26,301 [music continues] 610 00:47:33,308 --> 00:47:35,894 [Heath] It was the black man's era 611 00:47:35,978 --> 00:47:42,442 when he wanted to show his pride of what he was and Miles was Exhibit A. 612 00:47:42,943 --> 00:47:46,113 And he would look clean as he could, man. 613 00:47:57,666 --> 00:48:00,586 [Kernodle] Miles Davis was the personification of cool... 614 00:48:01,503 --> 00:48:03,630 that mythological hero. 615 00:48:08,135 --> 00:48:10,304 He becomes our black Superman. 616 00:48:14,683 --> 00:48:19,980 When a new Miles album came out, man, we would walk around with the album, man. 617 00:48:21,106 --> 00:48:26,528 See, being into Miles was, in itself, a definition of being hip. 618 00:48:32,909 --> 00:48:36,913 [White] Miles Davis wore slick clothes and drove fast cars 619 00:48:36,997 --> 00:48:39,082 and all the women and everything. 620 00:48:39,625 --> 00:48:43,670 We didn't just want to play with Miles Davis. We wanted to be Miles Davis. 621 00:48:43,754 --> 00:48:45,964 [music continues] 622 00:48:49,926 --> 00:48:53,180 [Heath] I'd say: "Miles, what are you doing with your children 623 00:48:53,263 --> 00:48:55,849 when you want to take them out with you?" 624 00:48:55,932 --> 00:48:58,518 He said: "I tell 'em to get a taxi." 625 00:48:59,311 --> 00:49:01,355 [music continues] 626 00:49:08,195 --> 00:49:11,823 [Griffin] Miles becomes representative of a kind of cool, 627 00:49:11,907 --> 00:49:16,036 a kind of sophistication, a kind of masculinity. 628 00:49:17,537 --> 00:49:21,124 A kind of black man who takes no shit. 629 00:49:28,715 --> 00:49:33,595 [Miles] Being cool and hip and angry and sophisticated and ultra clean... 630 00:49:34,179 --> 00:49:36,640 I was all those things and more. 631 00:49:37,182 --> 00:49:40,686 But I was playing the fuck out of my horn and had a great group 632 00:49:40,769 --> 00:49:44,356 so, I didn't get recognition based only on a rebel image. 633 00:49:45,732 --> 00:49:49,361 People were starting to talk about the Miles Davis mystique. 634 00:49:55,492 --> 00:49:59,079 [Kernodle] I think the darkness of Miles Davis' skin, 635 00:49:59,162 --> 00:50:03,875 instead of seeing that as a liability, he saw that as an asset. 636 00:50:06,962 --> 00:50:10,132 It was very different from anything that was projected 637 00:50:10,215 --> 00:50:12,592 on television or in movies at that time. 638 00:50:13,593 --> 00:50:18,432 Miles turned that into something cool, something desirable. 639 00:50:19,933 --> 00:50:22,978 [Miles] I was sharp as a tack every time I went out in public 640 00:50:23,061 --> 00:50:24,646 and so was Frances. 641 00:50:25,522 --> 00:50:30,819 A real black motherfucker like me, with this stunningly beautiful woman. 642 00:50:30,902 --> 00:50:32,821 Man, it was something. 643 00:50:32,904 --> 00:50:35,866 People stopping and looking with their mouths hanging open. 644 00:50:35,949 --> 00:50:38,118 [music continues] 645 00:50:43,248 --> 00:50:46,001 Miles would buy clothes for me, 646 00:50:46,084 --> 00:50:50,046 because I have... everybody knows I had the great legs. 647 00:50:52,174 --> 00:50:54,384 He was chic. I was chic. 648 00:50:56,553 --> 00:50:59,556 And then, of course, getting in and out of a Ferrari. 649 00:50:59,639 --> 00:51:02,809 I mean, we were a hot couple, there's no two ways about it. 650 00:51:03,602 --> 00:51:07,314 Miles and Frances on fire. [chuckles] 651 00:51:37,928 --> 00:51:42,432 As a kid, when I would see them together, it was just like wow. 652 00:51:42,516 --> 00:51:47,020 You know, they dressed to the nines... just clean. 653 00:51:48,146 --> 00:51:49,189 And in love. 654 00:51:50,690 --> 00:51:52,901 It was like a prince and a princess. 655 00:51:59,574 --> 00:52:02,744 I had a friend who was a writer. His name was George Frazier... 656 00:52:03,620 --> 00:52:08,041 and he picked up on a word, which he applied to Miles. 657 00:52:10,627 --> 00:52:15,507 It had to do with the Spanish matadors, the bull fighters. 658 00:52:17,968 --> 00:52:20,011 A lot of guys could kill the bulls. 659 00:52:20,095 --> 00:52:22,305 Some of them were very exciting fighters. 660 00:52:22,889 --> 00:52:24,891 But others would just walk in the ring 661 00:52:24,975 --> 00:52:29,104 and stand there, hold the cape and the bull would charge... 662 00:52:29,771 --> 00:52:32,691 and the audience would just gasp their breath. 663 00:52:35,235 --> 00:52:37,821 That fighter had duende. 664 00:52:40,282 --> 00:52:43,702 And Miles had duende. 665 00:52:47,497 --> 00:52:50,959 [Cobb] Miles was the kind of guy, he had things that he liked. 666 00:52:51,042 --> 00:52:54,212 If he liked you, he liked you. If he didn't like you, he didn't like you. 667 00:52:54,296 --> 00:52:56,965 So, he was just that kind of guy. 668 00:52:57,048 --> 00:53:01,553 You know, if you were on his right side, that's where you were, you know. 669 00:53:01,636 --> 00:53:03,013 And if you were on his wrong side, 670 00:53:03,096 --> 00:53:06,433 that's probably where you stayed, you know? [chuckles] 671 00:53:09,477 --> 00:53:12,147 [Miles] I was just cold to mostly everyone. 672 00:53:12,898 --> 00:53:15,233 That was the way I protected myself, 673 00:53:15,317 --> 00:53:18,778 by not letting anyone inside of my feelings and emotions. 674 00:53:19,571 --> 00:53:21,781 And, for a long time, it worked for me. 675 00:53:24,117 --> 00:53:29,414 I went to the Village Vanguard where Miles was performing... 676 00:53:30,165 --> 00:53:35,587 and I said: "Mr. Davis, my name is Archie Shepp 677 00:53:35,670 --> 00:53:38,715 and I wonder if you'd let me sit in." 678 00:53:39,299 --> 00:53:41,885 And he said: "Archie who?" 679 00:53:43,428 --> 00:53:46,598 And I said: "Archie Shepp." 680 00:53:46,681 --> 00:53:51,770 He said: "Fuck you. You can't sit in with me." 681 00:53:51,853 --> 00:53:53,313 Miles didn't care. 682 00:53:54,481 --> 00:53:58,735 Miles didn't have to please anybody but Miles. 683 00:54:02,989 --> 00:54:06,159 Miles was not interested. 684 00:54:08,119 --> 00:54:11,164 You know what I mean? He wasn't interested in people... 685 00:54:11,915 --> 00:54:13,917 because he was Miles Davis. 686 00:54:16,878 --> 00:54:19,756 [Kernodle] There were all these personality quirks that he had. 687 00:54:20,757 --> 00:54:23,426 He was angry, antisocial... 688 00:54:24,761 --> 00:54:28,598 but oftentimes those insecurities and those demons 689 00:54:28,682 --> 00:54:31,601 are the very things that are the basis of arts, 690 00:54:31,685 --> 00:54:34,854 so, that art becomes a way of healing. 691 00:54:36,815 --> 00:54:40,235 It gave him an opportunity to show a vulnerability 692 00:54:40,318 --> 00:54:44,447 and to show a side of him that, in the real world, he could not show. 693 00:54:46,574 --> 00:54:48,410 [music: "Agitation"] 694 00:54:54,791 --> 00:54:56,918 [Cobb] We were working at Birdland and... 695 00:54:57,752 --> 00:55:01,881 we got through a set and Miles came upstairs to smoke. 696 00:55:05,343 --> 00:55:08,596 [Miles] I'm standing there, in front of Birdland, wringing wet, 697 00:55:08,680 --> 00:55:11,433 because it's a hot, steaming, muggy night in August. 698 00:55:12,767 --> 00:55:16,604 I had just walked this pretty white girl named Judy out to get a cab. 699 00:55:18,148 --> 00:55:21,985 This white policeman comes up to me and tells me to move on. 700 00:55:24,362 --> 00:55:27,115 [Cobb] Miles said: "Why? I'm smoking a cigarette. 701 00:55:27,198 --> 00:55:29,784 I'm working downstairs and I'm smoking a cigarette." 702 00:55:29,868 --> 00:55:32,120 And he was standing right by the sign with his name on it. 703 00:55:32,203 --> 00:55:36,332 "M-I-L-E-S... M-I-L-E-S. Miles." 704 00:55:36,416 --> 00:55:38,918 That's me. Who are you?" 705 00:55:39,002 --> 00:55:43,298 Kind of Blue has just come out. He is the talk of the town. 706 00:55:43,381 --> 00:55:48,261 And he is at the top of the marquee, top of his popularity. 707 00:55:50,305 --> 00:55:52,891 [Cobb] The guy said: "I don't care. You just can't stand there." 708 00:55:52,974 --> 00:55:54,809 Miles said: "Well, I'm not moving." 709 00:55:55,393 --> 00:56:00,273 [Miles] I just looked at his face real straight and hard and I didn't move. 710 00:56:01,816 --> 00:56:05,278 Miles, at that point, was in such good shape 711 00:56:05,361 --> 00:56:07,947 that it was hard for them to actually get a hand on him. 712 00:56:09,741 --> 00:56:12,327 [Miles] From out of nowhere, this white detective runs in 713 00:56:12,410 --> 00:56:14,996 and, bam, hits me on the head. 714 00:56:15,663 --> 00:56:17,332 I never saw him coming. 715 00:56:18,541 --> 00:56:20,668 [Taylor Davis] I received a telephone call 716 00:56:20,752 --> 00:56:23,129 that I should come down to the police station. 717 00:56:24,339 --> 00:56:26,132 And I saw his face. 718 00:56:28,510 --> 00:56:30,428 It was just terrifying. 719 00:56:31,262 --> 00:56:32,555 I was in tears. 720 00:56:39,771 --> 00:56:43,900 [Miles] I would've expected this kind of bullshit back in East St. Louis, 721 00:56:43,983 --> 00:56:45,985 but not here in New York City, 722 00:56:46,069 --> 00:56:50,073 which is supposed to be the slickest, hippest city in the world. 723 00:56:52,450 --> 00:56:55,620 It was racial. The whole thing was racial. 724 00:56:55,703 --> 00:56:59,290 The whole city was racist, the whole world, I guess, you know, 725 00:56:59,374 --> 00:57:02,043 so, what is it, you know? 726 00:57:03,253 --> 00:57:05,463 I can't see it being nothing else but that. 727 00:57:09,008 --> 00:57:13,138 [Griffin] It is a reminder that no level of accomplishment, 728 00:57:13,221 --> 00:57:16,224 no level of achievement, no level of financial success, 729 00:57:16,307 --> 00:57:22,147 or recognition, even, for that, actually protects you 730 00:57:22,230 --> 00:57:25,859 from the racial hostilities of the United States. 731 00:57:26,860 --> 00:57:31,364 Damn, you know, like, there is no way out of this thing. 732 00:57:34,784 --> 00:57:37,162 [Miles] That incident changed me forever... 733 00:57:38,163 --> 00:57:41,624 made me much more bitter and cynical than I might have been. 734 00:57:48,047 --> 00:57:51,217 [Miller] He used to flash back. We'd be talking and randomly he'd just go: 735 00:57:51,301 --> 00:57:53,094 "Those f... cops, man." 736 00:57:53,178 --> 00:57:56,264 Right? Just out of nowhere, it'd be completely random. 737 00:57:56,347 --> 00:57:57,974 He'd flash back to that, man. 738 00:57:59,350 --> 00:58:00,935 Man, that stuff don't go away, 739 00:58:01,019 --> 00:58:03,229 just because all of a sudden you got a little success. 740 00:58:03,313 --> 00:58:05,523 That stuff that happens to you when you're young, 741 00:58:05,607 --> 00:58:07,984 that stays with you for the rest of your life. 742 00:58:21,789 --> 00:58:24,626 [Khan] Miles Ahead was the first collaboration 743 00:58:24,709 --> 00:58:29,214 between Miles Davis and Gil Evans after Miles signs with Columbia Records. 744 00:58:29,297 --> 00:58:32,467 It's one of the reasons why Miles even went over to Columbia Records 745 00:58:32,550 --> 00:58:34,594 because Columbia had the budget 746 00:58:34,677 --> 00:58:38,139 and the wherewithal to make a project like this possible. 747 00:58:50,151 --> 00:58:53,321 [Miles] Gil and I were something special together musically. 748 00:58:54,155 --> 00:58:58,284 I loved working with Gil because he was so meticulous and creative... 749 00:58:59,285 --> 00:59:02,038 and I trusted his musical arrangements completely. 750 00:59:07,252 --> 00:59:09,254 We worked together at the piano always saying: 751 00:59:09,337 --> 00:59:10,922 "How about this? How about that?" 752 00:59:12,048 --> 00:59:16,177 I was just crazy about his interpretations of the songs, you know. 753 00:59:16,261 --> 00:59:18,054 They just fit in so naturally. 754 00:59:28,815 --> 00:59:33,987 [Khan] When Miles Ahead comes out, there's this young white female model 755 00:59:34,070 --> 00:59:39,158 on the deck of a sailing ship as the original cover. 756 00:59:42,245 --> 00:59:47,250 This was, I think, meant to evoke the high life, the good life, 757 00:59:47,333 --> 00:59:49,711 and it would allow the album to be marketed 758 00:59:49,794 --> 00:59:52,463 to a broad, that is white audience. 759 00:59:53,590 --> 00:59:57,427 Miles goes up to George Avakian and he says: 760 00:59:58,052 --> 01:00:01,764 "What's that white bitch doing on the cover of my album?" 761 01:00:01,848 --> 01:00:03,683 [music continues] 762 01:00:05,226 --> 01:00:07,270 [Griffin] He becomes aware of his power 763 01:00:07,353 --> 01:00:10,648 as an artist who is generating a tremendous amount of income 764 01:00:10,732 --> 01:00:14,736 for his record label as well, that he has some say in these decisions. 765 01:00:15,695 --> 01:00:19,324 [Khan] And the next pressing of the same music comes out 766 01:00:19,407 --> 01:00:24,621 under another title, with another cover and Miles Davis himself is on the cover. 767 01:00:31,044 --> 01:00:35,381 Miles Ahead was the first of three wonderful collaborations 768 01:00:35,465 --> 01:00:38,134 with Gil Evans and a 19-piece orchestra. 769 01:00:38,635 --> 01:00:41,679 Two years after Miles Ahead came Porgy and Bess. 770 01:00:41,763 --> 01:00:43,598 [music: "Saeta"] 771 01:00:43,681 --> 01:00:45,892 And then, two years after that... 772 01:00:53,524 --> 01:00:57,028 [Taylor Davis] I had spent time in Barcelona. 773 01:00:59,405 --> 01:01:02,075 After we would finish our shows, 774 01:01:02,158 --> 01:01:05,495 we'd watch and listen to flamenco music and dance 775 01:01:05,578 --> 01:01:07,163 and I was just taken with that. 776 01:01:10,625 --> 01:01:14,003 I said to Miles: "I want you to really see what I see 777 01:01:14,087 --> 01:01:16,506 and feel what I feel with flamenco music." 778 01:01:16,589 --> 01:01:20,051 He didn't want to go. He didn't want to go, but finally he gave in. 779 01:01:20,134 --> 01:01:23,721 And we'd go to see flamenco music and dance. 780 01:01:23,805 --> 01:01:26,599 [music continues] 781 01:01:28,893 --> 01:01:30,395 When we left the theater... 782 01:01:31,646 --> 01:01:36,150 we went right to the Colony record shop... 783 01:01:37,318 --> 01:01:40,196 and he bought every flamenco album he could. 784 01:01:40,279 --> 01:01:42,031 [music: "The Pan Piper"] 785 01:02:00,967 --> 01:02:04,887 [Miles] That was the hardest thing for me to do on Sketches of Spain... 786 01:02:05,388 --> 01:02:09,600 to play the parts on the trumpet where someone was supposed to be singing, 787 01:02:09,684 --> 01:02:11,561 especially when it was ad-libbed. 788 01:02:13,438 --> 01:02:16,899 My voice had to be both joyous and sad in this song 789 01:02:16,983 --> 01:02:19,110 and that was very hard, too. 790 01:02:20,194 --> 01:02:22,905 If you do a song like that three or four times, 791 01:02:22,989 --> 01:02:25,283 you lose that feeling you want to get there. 792 01:02:30,872 --> 01:02:34,584 It seemed to work out all right. Everyone loved that record. 793 01:02:36,586 --> 01:02:38,379 [music out] 794 01:02:38,463 --> 01:02:40,131 Once there was a princess... 795 01:02:40,214 --> 01:02:42,175 Was the princess you? 796 01:02:42,258 --> 01:02:43,593 And she fell in love. 797 01:02:43,676 --> 01:02:45,595 Was it hard to do? 798 01:02:45,678 --> 01:02:47,472 Oh, it was very easy. 799 01:02:47,972 --> 01:02:51,142 Anyone could see that the prince was charming. 800 01:02:51,893 --> 01:02:53,436 The only one for me. 801 01:02:54,103 --> 01:02:59,942 ♪ Someday my prince will come ♪ 802 01:03:00,026 --> 01:03:02,904 [music: "Someday My Prince Will Come" by Miles Davis] 803 01:03:07,784 --> 01:03:09,911 [Tate] Miles always loved a strong melody. 804 01:03:12,789 --> 01:03:17,960 He really felt like those melodies would allow him to speak... 805 01:03:18,044 --> 01:03:20,463 saying here's something that you're familiar with. 806 01:03:21,214 --> 01:03:24,634 I'm going to show you how beautiful it can really be. 807 01:03:24,717 --> 01:03:26,844 [music continues] 808 01:03:28,304 --> 01:03:30,431 [Chambers] So, he could take something like 809 01:03:30,515 --> 01:03:33,476 "Someday My Prince Will Come" from a Walt Disney movie... 810 01:03:34,060 --> 01:03:38,940 and he could invest that with amazing feeling and depth. 811 01:03:39,023 --> 01:03:42,276 He said: "I'm playing it for my wife Frances." 812 01:03:43,027 --> 01:03:48,449 And you can feel the love and care in his playing. 813 01:03:56,582 --> 01:03:58,501 [Taylor Davis] "Someday My Prince Will Come" 814 01:03:58,584 --> 01:04:01,170 was the first album cover I was on for Miles. 815 01:04:02,255 --> 01:04:07,260 And he was out of town and I remember going to the shooting 816 01:04:07,343 --> 01:04:10,096 and he was calling every two minutes 817 01:04:10,179 --> 01:04:12,849 to see what I was wearing, how do I look. 818 01:04:12,932 --> 01:04:17,186 He wanted to make sure that I looked perfect... 819 01:04:18,104 --> 01:04:20,857 and, of course, I thought I did. 820 01:04:26,487 --> 01:04:31,951 I put the mole on my little cheek 'cause I thought it had flair. 821 01:04:37,456 --> 01:04:39,834 [Miles] It was on "Someday My Prince Will Come" 822 01:04:39,917 --> 01:04:44,797 that I started demanding that Columbia use black women on my album covers. 823 01:04:46,340 --> 01:04:49,969 I mean, it was my album and I was Frances's prince. 824 01:04:50,052 --> 01:04:52,638 So, I was able to put Frances on the cover. 825 01:04:54,473 --> 01:04:57,643 He was standing up for the beauty of black women, 826 01:04:57,727 --> 01:05:02,398 you know, and saying: "This beauty here is the beauty that I'm projecting 827 01:05:02,481 --> 01:05:04,859 you know, through this music, through this song." 828 01:05:04,942 --> 01:05:06,569 A major statement to make. 829 01:05:07,445 --> 01:05:11,073 And I'm sure it was just because he thought his wife was hot and fine, too. 830 01:05:11,949 --> 01:05:14,368 [music: West Side Story's "A Boy Like That"] 831 01:05:20,583 --> 01:05:23,419 [Taylor Davis] Everybody wanted to be in West Side Story. 832 01:05:23,502 --> 01:05:28,007 Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, you know, it was, like, the one. 833 01:05:33,346 --> 01:05:37,183 There were at least, I'd say, 300 girls auditioning. 834 01:05:39,060 --> 01:05:43,147 I got on stage and I stood up there and I snapped my fingers and I went... 835 01:05:43,230 --> 01:05:47,568 [sings Fitzgerald scat] 836 01:05:47,652 --> 01:05:49,987 I did an Ella Fitzgerald scat. 837 01:05:50,071 --> 01:05:53,074 And Jerome Robbins... they all freaked out. 838 01:05:53,157 --> 01:05:54,992 I was in. I was in. 839 01:05:55,076 --> 01:05:57,161 [music continues] 840 01:06:05,127 --> 01:06:06,545 [music out] 841 01:06:07,421 --> 01:06:11,300 [Miles] Around this time, I was drinking more than I had in the past 842 01:06:11,384 --> 01:06:13,594 and I was snorting a lot of cocaine. 843 01:06:14,595 --> 01:06:17,473 That combination can make you real irritable. 844 01:06:19,642 --> 01:06:22,812 Frances was the only woman that I had ever been jealous of. 845 01:06:24,313 --> 01:06:27,191 And being jealous and using drugs and drinking, 846 01:06:27,274 --> 01:06:31,779 she just looked at me like I was crazy, which I was, at the time. 847 01:06:31,862 --> 01:06:33,489 [music: "Blue In Green"] 848 01:06:33,572 --> 01:06:36,450 I thought I was sane and on top of the world. 849 01:06:38,828 --> 01:06:41,205 [Taylor Davis] He was a jealous person when it came to me. 850 01:06:41,956 --> 01:06:45,584 He just couldn't handle me being with these people 851 01:06:45,668 --> 01:06:47,128 and getting, you know... 852 01:06:48,671 --> 01:06:49,839 all of this attention. 853 01:06:51,298 --> 01:06:56,012 And that's when he came to the theater and picked me up in his Ferrari and said: 854 01:06:56,095 --> 01:06:58,305 "I want you out of West Side Story. 855 01:06:58,806 --> 01:07:00,891 A woman should be with her man." 856 01:07:00,975 --> 01:07:02,685 [music continues] 857 01:07:04,895 --> 01:07:06,313 I froze. 858 01:07:11,527 --> 01:07:15,114 But I was in love with him and I did as he said. 859 01:07:16,240 --> 01:07:17,366 I quit the show. 860 01:07:20,619 --> 01:07:22,204 He sent for his children 861 01:07:22,747 --> 01:07:25,750 Cheryl and Gregory and little Miles. 862 01:07:28,085 --> 01:07:31,797 What I ended up doing was performing in the kitchen. 863 01:07:34,717 --> 01:07:38,637 I came to New York and Frances got us enrolled in schools 864 01:07:38,721 --> 01:07:43,225 and we started going to school, coming home, doing our homework. 865 01:07:44,101 --> 01:07:45,895 So, it was a big change for her. 866 01:07:48,397 --> 01:07:52,068 I didn't know how to cook or anything. I'd been on the road. I didn't know. 867 01:07:54,070 --> 01:08:00,868 He said to me: "Look, listen. Watch what I'm doing and do it." 868 01:08:03,079 --> 01:08:04,538 So, I learned to cook. 869 01:08:06,582 --> 01:08:08,542 She would be downstairs cooking 870 01:08:08,626 --> 01:08:11,629 and every now and then she would go upstairs and disappear. 871 01:08:11,712 --> 01:08:13,047 And later on, she told me: 872 01:08:13,130 --> 01:08:15,800 "You remember when I used to disappear, go upstairs?" 873 01:08:15,883 --> 01:08:17,051 I said, "Yeah." 874 01:08:17,134 --> 01:08:20,304 She said: "I went upstairs to look at my ballet slippers." 875 01:08:20,387 --> 01:08:22,181 [music continues] 876 01:08:25,601 --> 01:08:31,732 She always seemed to be holding in, uh, certain feelings 877 01:08:31,816 --> 01:08:35,277 about what she could've been doing. 878 01:08:40,324 --> 01:08:44,203 [Miles] My hip was operated on in April 1965, 879 01:08:44,286 --> 01:08:47,289 and they replaced the hip ball with some bone from my shin... 880 01:08:47,957 --> 01:08:51,544 but it didn't work and so they had to do it again that August. 881 01:08:52,545 --> 01:08:54,922 I was in a lot of pain all the time. 882 01:08:55,756 --> 01:08:58,342 I was starting to drink more than I had in the past 883 01:08:58,425 --> 01:09:00,261 and I was taking pain medication. 884 01:09:01,095 --> 01:09:03,305 And I was starting to use more coke... 885 01:09:04,265 --> 01:09:06,267 I guess, because of the depression. 886 01:09:08,144 --> 01:09:12,565 [Taylor Davis] It was a combination of jealousy, cocaine... 887 01:09:13,524 --> 01:09:16,360 Percodan, Scotch and milk, 888 01:09:16,443 --> 01:09:20,281 that's the combination... that I found out later. 889 01:09:21,740 --> 01:09:22,658 And... 890 01:09:23,450 --> 01:09:27,454 this combination causes you to snap... 891 01:09:29,123 --> 01:09:30,583 which he did. 892 01:09:31,625 --> 01:09:33,210 [music: "Agitation"] 893 01:09:38,007 --> 01:09:41,594 I was with Miles at Birdland one evening... 894 01:09:49,935 --> 01:09:53,397 and Quincy Jones was there. 895 01:10:06,035 --> 01:10:07,661 When we got home that night... 896 01:10:08,204 --> 01:10:13,083 I just mentioned to Miles that Quincy Jones is handsome. 897 01:10:19,048 --> 01:10:21,717 And before I knew it, I... 898 01:10:22,509 --> 01:10:23,677 It was so fast. 899 01:10:25,804 --> 01:10:28,182 And I saw stars. I was on the floor. 900 01:10:30,726 --> 01:10:33,896 It was the most unbelievable thing that ever happened to me 901 01:10:33,979 --> 01:10:35,981 because I'd never been hit in my life. 902 01:10:38,943 --> 01:10:40,444 That was the first... 903 01:10:41,487 --> 01:10:45,324 and it wasn't going to be the last, unfortunately. 904 01:10:50,621 --> 01:10:53,499 I didn't know at the time that I was close to leaving... 905 01:10:54,583 --> 01:10:58,170 but... that's when it happened. 906 01:10:58,254 --> 01:11:00,089 [music: "It Never Entered My Mind"] 907 01:11:05,427 --> 01:11:07,263 [Miles] I can say this right now... 908 01:11:08,138 --> 01:11:11,141 Frances was the best wife that I ever had. 909 01:11:13,352 --> 01:11:17,189 I realized how badly I'd treated her and that it was over. 910 01:11:18,732 --> 01:11:22,861 I know that now and I wish I had known that then. 911 01:11:25,614 --> 01:11:27,533 [McCoy] He was always talking about her. 912 01:11:28,200 --> 01:11:32,705 Even after it was all over, four or five years later... 913 01:11:33,330 --> 01:11:36,792 he would say: "See that suit that girl's wearing? 914 01:11:37,293 --> 01:11:39,670 I bought Frances a suit like that once." 915 01:11:43,215 --> 01:11:48,095 After I left, I heard Miles say that he really screwed up. 916 01:11:49,013 --> 01:11:54,601 He also said: "Whoever gets her is a lucky motherfucker." 917 01:11:59,273 --> 01:12:01,108 That's what I heard he said. 918 01:12:03,277 --> 01:12:05,946 Well, he was right. [chuckles] 919 01:12:31,180 --> 01:12:33,932 [Miles] In the last years that Trane was with my group, 920 01:12:34,016 --> 01:12:36,101 he started playing for himself. 921 01:12:37,269 --> 01:12:40,230 When that happens, the magic is gone out of a band 922 01:12:40,314 --> 01:12:44,360 and people who used to love to play together start not caring any more. 923 01:12:45,110 --> 01:12:47,321 And that's when a band falls apart. 924 01:12:48,614 --> 01:12:51,283 I'd be lying if I said that it didn't make me sad, 925 01:12:51,367 --> 01:12:53,744 because I really loved playing with this band. 926 01:12:55,162 --> 01:12:57,831 And I think it was the best small band of all time... 927 01:12:59,750 --> 01:13:02,127 or at least the best I had heard up until then. 928 01:13:03,754 --> 01:13:06,673 I had always been looking for new things to play, 929 01:13:06,757 --> 01:13:09,343 new challenges for my musical ideas. 930 01:13:10,677 --> 01:13:13,055 Now it was time for something different. 931 01:13:13,138 --> 01:13:15,140 [music: "Agitation"] 932 01:13:20,604 --> 01:13:23,190 [Carter] I was working at a place called The Half Note. 933 01:13:23,690 --> 01:13:25,442 Miles had come in during the course of the set 934 01:13:25,526 --> 01:13:29,279 with his black cape and his black hat, looking mysterious. 935 01:13:29,780 --> 01:13:33,409 And he said: "I'm looking for a bass player. Are you interested?" 936 01:13:33,951 --> 01:13:38,288 Well, at the time, the only thing hotter than Miles Davis was the pancake. [laughs] 937 01:13:40,124 --> 01:13:46,547 My phone rang and I hear this guitar, plung, somebody strumming a guitar. 938 01:13:47,423 --> 01:13:51,677 Then this voice said: "The guitar is a motherfucker, ain't it?" 939 01:13:51,760 --> 01:13:52,761 [laughs] 940 01:13:53,470 --> 01:13:57,307 "Come to my house tomorrow at 1:30." Click. 941 01:13:58,392 --> 01:14:00,018 He never said his name. 942 01:14:00,561 --> 01:14:04,022 He never gave me his address, phone number, nothing. 943 01:14:04,106 --> 01:14:05,607 But Miles called me. 944 01:14:06,650 --> 01:14:07,901 [music: "Footprints"] 945 01:14:09,528 --> 01:14:11,822 [Shorter] And he sent me a first-class ticket 946 01:14:11,905 --> 01:14:14,825 and sent me to his tailor to get a tuxedo made. 947 01:14:15,742 --> 01:14:17,953 And I flew to California. 948 01:14:18,370 --> 01:14:20,205 Miles, what are you going to play this time? 949 01:14:21,582 --> 01:14:24,168 Somebody else tell me 'cause Miles has laryngitis. 950 01:14:24,251 --> 01:14:25,878 [indistinct voice] 951 01:14:26,962 --> 01:14:28,380 Blues of some kind or other. 952 01:14:28,464 --> 01:14:31,049 All right, once again, the Miles Davis Quintet. Here he is. 953 01:14:31,133 --> 01:14:32,634 [music: "Walkin'"] 954 01:14:36,722 --> 01:14:39,641 [Khan] Miles's great quintet of the 1960s 955 01:14:39,725 --> 01:14:43,145 created a way of improvising that was totally new, 956 01:14:43,228 --> 01:14:49,067 that allowed this incredible level of democracy to enter into the music. 957 01:14:49,151 --> 01:14:52,738 And anyone could take the music where they wanted to. 958 01:14:52,821 --> 01:14:54,948 [music continues] 959 01:15:03,999 --> 01:15:06,877 [Kernodle] He consistently surrounded himself 960 01:15:06,960 --> 01:15:10,506 with young, emerging, unknown voices. 961 01:15:11,006 --> 01:15:15,260 He allowed them to develop their musical identity in that band. 962 01:15:15,594 --> 01:15:18,764 And he continued to just keep regenerating 963 01:15:18,847 --> 01:15:21,225 over and over for the remainder of his career. 964 01:15:25,145 --> 01:15:28,315 At the time I joined Miles's band, I was 23 years old. 965 01:15:28,398 --> 01:15:30,901 Tony Williams, the drummer, was 17 years old. 966 01:15:32,736 --> 01:15:35,030 We were kids... just kids. 967 01:15:48,752 --> 01:15:52,881 [Miles] Creativity and genius in any kind of artistic expression 968 01:15:52,965 --> 01:15:54,758 don't know nothing about age. 969 01:15:54,841 --> 01:15:56,885 Either you got it or you don't. 970 01:15:58,303 --> 01:16:00,722 And being old is not going to help you get it. 971 01:16:03,267 --> 01:16:06,144 We were looking at it, like every night going to a laboratory. 972 01:16:07,229 --> 01:16:08,730 Miles was the head chemist. 973 01:16:09,356 --> 01:16:15,195 Our job was to mix these components, these changes, this tempo, 974 01:16:15,279 --> 01:16:19,408 into something that explodes safely every night with a bit of danger. 975 01:16:20,784 --> 01:16:22,119 And it happened every night. 976 01:16:22,202 --> 01:16:24,162 [music continues] 977 01:16:34,464 --> 01:16:39,761 Miles wanted us to live on the stage in front of the people, 978 01:16:39,845 --> 01:16:41,638 creating in front of the people. 979 01:16:42,514 --> 01:16:45,976 In other words, don't lean on what you know. 980 01:16:46,685 --> 01:16:49,229 What he was looking for is the stuff that you don't know. 981 01:16:49,313 --> 01:16:51,982 [music: "I Fall In Love Too Easily"] 982 01:16:56,987 --> 01:16:59,114 I liked that idea, man. I hate to rehearse. 983 01:16:59,489 --> 01:17:00,949 All the good ideas get shot. 984 01:17:01,033 --> 01:17:03,702 I want to make mistakes on the bandstand and fix them there. 985 01:17:05,454 --> 01:17:07,039 [Hancock] Miles even told us: 986 01:17:07,122 --> 01:17:12,753 "I pay you to practice on the bandstand in front of the people." 987 01:17:12,836 --> 01:17:15,130 I said: "Well, public's not gonna like that." 988 01:17:15,213 --> 01:17:18,050 He said: "I'll take care of the public. 989 01:17:19,593 --> 01:17:20,969 You just play." 990 01:17:21,053 --> 01:17:23,013 [music continues] 991 01:17:28,685 --> 01:17:30,187 [music out] 992 01:17:30,604 --> 01:17:32,731 [Miles] Teo, you know I can't play this shit, man. 993 01:17:32,814 --> 01:17:33,857 [Teo Macero] Yes, you can. 994 01:17:34,858 --> 01:17:36,693 -[hums melody] -You're getting there. 995 01:17:36,777 --> 01:17:39,780 [Miles] You know what I mean? Herbie, can we do it like that? 996 01:17:39,863 --> 01:17:41,323 [hums melody] 997 01:17:41,406 --> 01:17:44,034 -We gonna divide it up. -Yeah, that's a good idea. 998 01:17:45,118 --> 01:17:46,203 [Macero] Six! 999 01:17:46,870 --> 01:17:50,082 [Miles] Wait a minute, Teo, I don't even know what to play there. 1000 01:17:50,165 --> 01:17:52,542 -Don't play that first beat. - [Miles] Play that, Teo. 1001 01:17:53,502 --> 01:18:00,342 Once, he does a take where the horn players all play the melody... 1002 01:18:01,051 --> 01:18:04,638 correctly, without any major kind of flub. 1003 01:18:04,721 --> 01:18:06,807 That take's going on the record. 1004 01:18:06,890 --> 01:18:08,850 [music: "Footprints"] 1005 01:18:21,905 --> 01:18:24,116 [Shorter] I had this book I have with me 1006 01:18:24,199 --> 01:18:26,410 that I'd been using when I was in the Army. 1007 01:18:26,910 --> 01:18:30,789 I'd wrote stuff down a little bit and he said: "You got any music?" 1008 01:18:31,456 --> 01:18:33,750 I said: "Yeah. I got some stuff in this book." 1009 01:18:33,834 --> 01:18:36,253 He opened the book and he said: "Let's try this." 1010 01:18:36,336 --> 01:18:38,380 -[Macero] What's this called? -[Shorter] "Footprints"! 1011 01:18:38,463 --> 01:18:39,589 [Macero] "Footprints"? 1012 01:18:43,176 --> 01:18:45,303 [Shorter] And then we just... no rehearsal, 1013 01:18:45,387 --> 01:18:48,557 just looked at the music, went over it a little bit and then recorded. 1014 01:18:54,479 --> 01:18:56,857 And the next time we went to the recording studio, 1015 01:18:56,940 --> 01:19:00,777 he would say: "We're gonna record next Wednesday. Bring the book!" 1016 01:19:00,861 --> 01:19:01,820 [he chuckles] 1017 01:19:01,903 --> 01:19:03,405 [music: "Paraphernalia"] 1018 01:19:24,551 --> 01:19:29,139 In 1969, historically, a man had walked on the moon... 1019 01:19:30,140 --> 01:19:36,813 and the United States is still in this bloody... Vietnam War. 1020 01:19:36,897 --> 01:19:41,193 I think Miles sensed the importance of the younger generation, 1021 01:19:41,276 --> 01:19:43,361 'cause Miles was always looking forward. 1022 01:19:46,573 --> 01:19:51,161 [Miles] 1969 was the year rock and funk were selling like hotcakes. 1023 01:19:51,703 --> 01:19:55,832 People were packing stadiums to hear and see stars in person, 1024 01:19:55,916 --> 01:19:58,710 and jazz music seemed to be withering on the vine. 1025 01:19:59,377 --> 01:20:03,006 We played to a lot of half-empty clubs in 1969. 1026 01:20:04,299 --> 01:20:05,759 That told me something. 1027 01:20:05,842 --> 01:20:07,969 [music: "Coldblooded" by The Bar-Kays] 1028 01:20:13,600 --> 01:20:17,229 The music of Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone and James Brown... 1029 01:20:17,729 --> 01:20:23,109 it made Miles aware that you could play one concert and hit a lot of people. 1030 01:20:25,779 --> 01:20:29,908 You could make more money playing one concert for 45 minutes 1031 01:20:29,991 --> 01:20:33,453 than you might make playing a week in a club, three sets a night. 1032 01:20:35,121 --> 01:20:36,998 [Cobb] One reason he got the electric band 1033 01:20:37,082 --> 01:20:40,544 because he had hung out with Sly & the Family Stone. 1034 01:20:42,212 --> 01:20:46,341 Sly was telling him how much money he made. Miles said: "What? What?" 1035 01:20:46,424 --> 01:20:47,801 [he laughs] 1036 01:20:47,884 --> 01:20:51,680 So, after that, Miles kind of changed his stuff up. 1037 01:20:51,763 --> 01:20:53,723 [upbeat rock music] 1038 01:20:53,807 --> 01:20:55,642 [Miles] I started realizing 1039 01:20:55,725 --> 01:20:58,228 that most rock musicians didn't know anything about music. 1040 01:20:59,437 --> 01:21:01,481 I figured if they could do it, 1041 01:21:01,565 --> 01:21:03,525 reach all those people and sell all those records 1042 01:21:03,608 --> 01:21:05,694 without really knowing what they were doing, 1043 01:21:05,777 --> 01:21:09,155 then I could do it, too, only better. 1044 01:21:11,491 --> 01:21:18,039 Miles asked to see me and it was a very, very tense meeting. 1045 01:21:19,291 --> 01:21:22,210 And he said these fucking long-haired, white kids 1046 01:21:22,294 --> 01:21:26,882 were stealing his music, his riffs. 1047 01:21:27,382 --> 01:21:31,011 He was irate and asked to be released from the label. 1048 01:21:32,178 --> 01:21:35,432 I said: "Look, I can get you dates 1049 01:21:35,515 --> 01:21:40,604 playing with musical artists of a different generation, 1050 01:21:40,687 --> 01:21:43,315 playing a different kind of music. 1051 01:21:43,398 --> 01:21:49,195 I just know that if you play those dates, something will happen." 1052 01:21:57,954 --> 01:22:01,416 [Miles] Around this time, I had met a beautiful young singer 1053 01:22:01,499 --> 01:22:04,127 and songwriter named Betty Mabry. 1054 01:22:04,210 --> 01:22:09,174 She was full of new things and surprises and helped point the way I was to go. 1055 01:22:09,925 --> 01:22:15,347 Betty Davis was just a very fierce, dynamic sister 1056 01:22:15,430 --> 01:22:19,059 who was a part of that whole New York and California rock scene. 1057 01:22:20,769 --> 01:22:24,898 She totally changes his sense of what's happening in music. 1058 01:22:30,528 --> 01:22:32,322 [Miles] Betty was a big influence 1059 01:22:32,405 --> 01:22:35,450 on my personal life, as well as my musical life. 1060 01:22:35,533 --> 01:22:38,203 She also helped me change the way I was dressing. 1061 01:22:39,621 --> 01:22:42,582 I went by his house, he had a bunch of funny-looking suits, 1062 01:22:42,666 --> 01:22:47,170 and things hanging in his closet, funny-looking shoes, hats and all of that. 1063 01:22:47,253 --> 01:22:48,838 I said: "What's going on, man?" 1064 01:22:49,798 --> 01:22:52,175 So, he changed up. He went from that to that. 1065 01:22:52,258 --> 01:22:54,386 [funky jazz music] 1066 01:23:04,771 --> 01:23:06,189 [Miles] I wanted to change course, 1067 01:23:06,523 --> 01:23:10,568 had to change course for me to continue to believe in and love what I was playing. 1068 01:23:13,571 --> 01:23:17,075 My interest was in an electronic bass player. 1069 01:23:17,158 --> 01:23:20,787 It gave me what I wanted to hear instead of the stand-up bass. 1070 01:23:25,291 --> 01:23:28,753 [Carter] He called me and said: "I want to talk to you." I said okay. 1071 01:23:28,837 --> 01:23:31,506 He said: "All you got to do is play like you're playing upright." 1072 01:23:31,589 --> 01:23:33,008 I said: "Man, it's not the same." 1073 01:23:33,717 --> 01:23:36,594 "The notes are different. The sound is different. The impact is different. 1074 01:23:36,678 --> 01:23:38,972 The note length is different. Their placement... 1075 01:23:39,055 --> 01:23:41,725 The only thing the same, Miles, is the same fucking notes. 1076 01:23:44,644 --> 01:23:47,480 I'm hearing this since I was 18, man. 1077 01:23:47,981 --> 01:23:49,691 Why the fuck would I give it up? 1078 01:23:49,774 --> 01:23:52,152 To join you? No, man, I'm not going to do that." 1079 01:23:53,111 --> 01:23:54,320 He said okay. 1080 01:23:57,949 --> 01:24:00,160 So, I put my hat on and got in the wind. 1081 01:24:01,327 --> 01:24:02,912 [music: "Spanish Key"] 1082 01:24:08,043 --> 01:24:10,670 [Miles] The group broke up when Ron decided to leave for good, 1083 01:24:10,754 --> 01:24:13,006 because he didn't want to play electric bass. 1084 01:24:13,757 --> 01:24:16,426 Now, I was starting to think about other ways 1085 01:24:16,509 --> 01:24:18,094 I could approach the music. 1086 01:24:20,221 --> 01:24:23,725 I went into the studio in August of 1969. 1087 01:24:26,061 --> 01:24:30,065 [White] Miles had said to be at Columbia Studios at ten o'clock. 1088 01:24:31,066 --> 01:24:34,235 I was there at 9:30. The cleaning lady let me in. 1089 01:24:37,572 --> 01:24:41,201 [Miles] I brought in these musical sketches that nobody had seen, 1090 01:24:41,284 --> 01:24:43,369 just like I did on Kind of Blue. 1091 01:24:44,746 --> 01:24:47,874 I told the musicians that they could do anything they wanted... 1092 01:24:48,875 --> 01:24:52,921 play anything they heard, so, that's what they did. 1093 01:24:57,926 --> 01:25:01,179 [White] There were four percussion players playing at the same time, 1094 01:25:01,262 --> 01:25:03,598 two bassists playing at the same time, 1095 01:25:03,681 --> 01:25:07,852 two or three keyboard players playing at the same time, a guitar. 1096 01:25:09,562 --> 01:25:13,024 It was a great, massive improvisation. 1097 01:25:18,613 --> 01:25:21,449 All he had me bring was a cymbal and a snare drum. 1098 01:25:22,158 --> 01:25:27,038 And we went over the first part of Bitches Brew. 1099 01:25:27,122 --> 01:25:29,874 [sings melody] 1100 01:25:30,583 --> 01:25:31,459 And then... 1101 01:25:31,543 --> 01:25:32,460 [cymbals crash] 1102 01:25:32,544 --> 01:25:33,419 [music in] 1103 01:25:33,503 --> 01:25:34,879 [sings melody] 1104 01:25:34,963 --> 01:25:36,381 [music: "Bitches Brew"] 1105 01:25:39,425 --> 01:25:45,265 [Santana] You hear Miles's trumpet bouncing against the buildings 1106 01:25:45,348 --> 01:25:46,850 at night, three o'clock in the morning. 1107 01:25:46,933 --> 01:25:49,310 [sings trumpet melody] 1108 01:25:49,394 --> 01:25:53,022 You know? It sounds like New York is a grand canyon of buildings. 1109 01:25:53,106 --> 01:25:54,816 [music continues] 1110 01:26:03,074 --> 01:26:05,076 [music: "Pharaoh's Dance"] 1111 01:26:05,160 --> 01:26:07,745 [White] It's this ominous thing. 1112 01:26:07,829 --> 01:26:10,874 You know, it's like something getting ready to happen. 1113 01:26:11,291 --> 01:26:15,336 [sings melody] 1114 01:26:23,928 --> 01:26:28,391 Moving like an amoeba that just moved along... 1115 01:26:29,142 --> 01:26:32,770 and it did like this and then, like, you know, something would stick out. 1116 01:26:33,271 --> 01:26:38,902 But, like, it was like this whole thing just moved like this, together. 1117 01:26:38,985 --> 01:26:40,570 [music: "Spanish Key"] 1118 01:26:56,169 --> 01:26:58,546 I had the jazz station on and the guy was like: 1119 01:26:58,630 --> 01:27:01,674 "Oh, my God. The new Miles just came in." 1120 01:27:01,758 --> 01:27:03,551 [music continues] 1121 01:27:16,856 --> 01:27:18,358 And then he said the name of it. 1122 01:27:18,441 --> 01:27:20,818 I was like: "Man, can you even say that on the air?" 1123 01:27:20,902 --> 01:27:24,739 He said: "Forget the music. Y'all got to see this cover." 1124 01:27:28,368 --> 01:27:33,206 [Miles] Bitches Brew sold faster than any other album I had ever done, 1125 01:27:33,289 --> 01:27:36,668 and sold more copies than any other jazz album in history. 1126 01:27:39,712 --> 01:27:43,883 After he did Bitches Brew, he started at the Fillmore East and all of that stuff. 1127 01:27:45,343 --> 01:27:48,763 We're in the dressing room and Miles got the check. 1128 01:27:49,597 --> 01:27:55,186 He's looking at it and we heard him say: "I feel like a thief." 1129 01:27:55,270 --> 01:27:56,771 [Shorter chuckles] 1130 01:28:00,400 --> 01:28:03,569 [Mtume] It was an Indian restaurant on 125th Street. 1131 01:28:04,696 --> 01:28:07,991 And we're sitting there, we're eating and we're talking for about two hours. 1132 01:28:08,074 --> 01:28:10,910 So, we get up, and as we're walking out... 1133 01:28:11,995 --> 01:28:13,913 he says: "So, what do you think?" 1134 01:28:14,539 --> 01:28:18,376 I'm like: "First of all, think about what?" 1135 01:28:18,459 --> 01:28:21,212 I mean, I'm trying... my brain is into the conversation. 1136 01:28:21,296 --> 01:28:23,673 He said: "What do you think about the music?" 1137 01:28:25,341 --> 01:28:29,178 And I do this... because, you know, they're playing Indian music. 1138 01:28:29,762 --> 01:28:34,350 And Miles, he said: "That's where we're going on the new album, On the Corner." 1139 01:28:34,434 --> 01:28:40,273 He said, "I'm gonna mix tablas and sitar, electric sitar with the funk." 1140 01:28:40,356 --> 01:28:41,774 [music: "Black Satin"] 1141 01:28:57,623 --> 01:29:00,501 The On the Corner album, there's no ambiguity. 1142 01:29:00,585 --> 01:29:01,669 We're going for this. 1143 01:29:02,837 --> 01:29:04,505 Bap! Boom! Bap! 1144 01:29:04,589 --> 01:29:06,382 It just got more intense. 1145 01:29:06,466 --> 01:29:09,135 Four, one, two. That's what funk is. 1146 01:29:16,476 --> 01:29:19,395 [Tate] They were just taking off. They were making the Big Bang, 1147 01:29:19,479 --> 01:29:21,397 kind of upping the ante every night, 1148 01:29:21,481 --> 01:29:25,651 just so gnarly and... and dangerous with it, 1149 01:29:25,735 --> 01:29:29,697 in terms of the use of percussion and the use of distortion. 1150 01:29:37,080 --> 01:29:38,706 This cosmic jungle music. 1151 01:29:41,709 --> 01:29:44,378 That's when we really locked in to Miles 1152 01:29:44,462 --> 01:29:48,299 as kind of our Hoodoo-voodoo priest of music. 1153 01:29:52,512 --> 01:29:55,098 [Santana] This is acid music. 1154 01:29:56,390 --> 01:29:59,060 People who smoke weed and they go there high 1155 01:29:59,143 --> 01:30:01,354 all of a sudden they're straight, you know? 1156 01:30:01,437 --> 01:30:03,564 And people who are straight, they're high. 1157 01:30:04,440 --> 01:30:07,110 He totally changed everything just by the way he was playing. 1158 01:30:14,700 --> 01:30:18,037 [Troupe] Miles's audience was changing because his music was changing... 1159 01:30:18,538 --> 01:30:20,665 absorbing what was happening now. 1160 01:30:21,332 --> 01:30:25,461 What was happening now. Not ten years ago... now. 1161 01:30:25,545 --> 01:30:27,755 [music continues] 1162 01:30:30,675 --> 01:30:34,971 I never understood what was so appealing to so many people. 1163 01:30:37,849 --> 01:30:41,269 I was trying to figure out what he heard in it. I didn't understand it. 1164 01:30:42,103 --> 01:30:43,938 Plus, it didn't sound good. 1165 01:30:48,109 --> 01:30:49,735 [Santana] People who say that, 1166 01:30:49,819 --> 01:30:52,780 I just always looked at 'em like: "You're really ignorant 1167 01:30:52,864 --> 01:30:55,533 and what drove you to say that is because you're jealous, 1168 01:30:55,616 --> 01:30:59,745 because you could never be, or have, or even comprehend 1169 01:30:59,829 --> 01:31:04,709 something that is beyond your limited, twisted, crooked mind." 1170 01:31:05,293 --> 01:31:07,295 "Damn, Carlos, that's a little harsh." 1171 01:31:07,378 --> 01:31:08,796 But it's accurate. 1172 01:31:08,880 --> 01:31:11,632 [music: "Spanish Key"] 1173 01:31:16,345 --> 01:31:20,349 When you listen to that slew of records 1174 01:31:20,433 --> 01:31:25,521 you know, he made in rapid succession about '69 through '75, 1175 01:31:25,605 --> 01:31:28,858 I mean, you hear the template for hip-hop, for house, 1176 01:31:28,941 --> 01:31:30,985 drum and bass, electronica. 1177 01:31:31,569 --> 01:31:34,572 Miles was doing all of that in the early '70s. 1178 01:31:35,489 --> 01:31:39,619 He's creating new music and kind of disturbing the fabric. 1179 01:31:39,702 --> 01:31:42,288 [music continues] 1180 01:31:51,923 --> 01:31:55,635 When I was with him he was pretty healthy. He was doing very well... 1181 01:31:56,344 --> 01:31:59,513 eating a good healthy diet, keeping his body clean. 1182 01:32:00,806 --> 01:32:03,976 Of course, he worked out in the gym every day, pretty much, boxing. 1183 01:32:04,644 --> 01:32:08,731 And, so, those things were very important at that time and that was really good. 1184 01:32:08,814 --> 01:32:11,108 [music continues] 1185 01:32:18,115 --> 01:32:20,743 I knew that Miles was getting back into drugs... 1186 01:32:21,327 --> 01:32:23,913 even though he hadn't been doing them around me, 1187 01:32:23,996 --> 01:32:25,998 because he was getting paranoid a lot. 1188 01:32:27,500 --> 01:32:30,169 He was violent. He was abusive. 1189 01:32:32,213 --> 01:32:34,715 I said: "You know, I'm not going to live like this." 1190 01:32:39,637 --> 01:32:43,766 [Miles] In October 1972, I fell asleep at the wheel 1191 01:32:43,849 --> 01:32:46,435 and ran my Lamborghini into a divider. 1192 01:32:47,645 --> 01:32:50,481 I was laid up for almost three months and when I got home, 1193 01:32:50,564 --> 01:32:54,694 I had to walk on crutches for a while, which further fucked up my bad hip. 1194 01:32:56,612 --> 01:33:00,074 [Rothbaum] That was probably the most pivotal moment in his life. 1195 01:33:01,617 --> 01:33:05,454 The abject pain that he was in, from awakening to going to sleep... 1196 01:33:06,038 --> 01:33:10,167 forced him, and I say "forced him" to use prescription medicine, 1197 01:33:10,251 --> 01:33:13,713 cocaine, alcohol, cigarettes, 1198 01:33:13,796 --> 01:33:15,256 anything to dull the pain. 1199 01:33:16,424 --> 01:33:20,428 He started taking fewer and fewer jobs and tours. 1200 01:33:21,721 --> 01:33:25,182 Eventually, there was no band. There was no Miles Davis band. 1201 01:33:28,227 --> 01:33:32,231 [Miles] I was spiritually tired of all the bullshit I'd been going through 1202 01:33:32,315 --> 01:33:33,899 all those long years. 1203 01:33:34,567 --> 01:33:36,569 I felt artistically drained. 1204 01:33:38,362 --> 01:33:40,948 I didn't have anything else to say, musically. 1205 01:33:41,866 --> 01:33:45,036 I knew that I needed a rest and so I took one. 1206 01:33:45,828 --> 01:33:49,290 I put down the thing I love most in life, my music. 1207 01:33:50,541 --> 01:33:52,376 And the more I stayed away, 1208 01:33:52,460 --> 01:33:55,463 the deeper I sank into another dark world. 1209 01:33:57,840 --> 01:34:03,054 [Rothbaum] His apartment building was his cave... 1210 01:34:03,804 --> 01:34:06,390 and he sequestered himself there. 1211 01:34:07,266 --> 01:34:10,644 And there were days, weeks, he wouldn't go out. 1212 01:34:13,272 --> 01:34:14,940 [Wilburn] When I was 15 or 16, 1213 01:34:15,024 --> 01:34:18,611 I would go and stay in New York during that dark period. 1214 01:34:19,904 --> 01:34:23,074 I remember it being dark, always dark in the house. 1215 01:34:23,157 --> 01:34:28,746 I just remember... you know, cigarettes, beer bottles and cocaine. 1216 01:34:32,291 --> 01:34:35,669 [Erin Davis] I remember going to visit him a couple of times. 1217 01:34:36,170 --> 01:34:37,546 It was a dark time for him. 1218 01:34:38,923 --> 01:34:40,716 He was... Like, I wasn't... 1219 01:34:42,551 --> 01:34:43,886 I was a little bit scared of him. 1220 01:34:46,347 --> 01:34:50,267 He was in there by himself, just dealing with pain and not playing. 1221 01:34:51,477 --> 01:34:56,941 I know, for him, not playing is... is just like not having water anymore. 1222 01:35:00,027 --> 01:35:01,821 [Wilburn] I just wanted it to stop. 1223 01:35:01,904 --> 01:35:03,697 I wanted the darkness to stop. 1224 01:35:05,032 --> 01:35:06,826 It was like a person I never knew. 1225 01:35:07,326 --> 01:35:13,541 And I wanted him to get back to... to, uh, you know, to my uncle, my superhero. 1226 01:35:20,840 --> 01:35:22,883 [Rothbaum] I remember going up to Harlem 1227 01:35:22,967 --> 01:35:25,261 and there would be a woman in the car with us. 1228 01:35:26,470 --> 01:35:27,930 She'd be sitting next to me 1229 01:35:28,013 --> 01:35:31,517 and Miles would drive up there and then just say: "Wait." 1230 01:35:34,395 --> 01:35:39,483 And he would come out of the building that he was in... very high. 1231 01:35:41,694 --> 01:35:44,655 There would be cocaine smudges on his face 1232 01:35:44,738 --> 01:35:48,159 you know, and I'd want to say something, but I was too afraid. 1233 01:35:50,578 --> 01:35:55,249 He would kind of nudge me over, and he'd say: "You fucked her." 1234 01:35:56,208 --> 01:35:58,794 [chuckles] And I'd say: "I didn't fuck her." 1235 01:35:58,878 --> 01:36:02,089 And he goes: "We're not leaving till you tell me you fucked her." 1236 01:36:04,175 --> 01:36:05,468 He'd shut the car off. 1237 01:36:06,635 --> 01:36:09,013 I said: "All right. I fucked her on the hood. Can we go?" 1238 01:36:09,096 --> 01:36:12,683 And he goes: "And I thought we were friends." [chuckles] 1239 01:36:12,766 --> 01:36:15,853 This is... This is an evening with Miles. 1240 01:36:15,936 --> 01:36:17,229 [music continues] 1241 01:36:23,986 --> 01:36:26,947 [Wein] Miles would come around during that time. We would... 1242 01:36:27,031 --> 01:36:29,617 He needed money and we'd lend him some money, 1243 01:36:29,700 --> 01:36:32,870 which we figured was gone, you know, and... 1244 01:36:34,121 --> 01:36:37,291 Whatever the case, we left there one day and I said to Marie... 1245 01:36:37,958 --> 01:36:41,587 I said, "I think that's the end. There's no way he can come back from this." 1246 01:36:42,713 --> 01:36:45,549 And I said: "But you never can tell." 1247 01:36:47,885 --> 01:36:49,678 [Miles] Around this same time, 1248 01:36:49,762 --> 01:36:52,765 Cicely Tyson started coming to see me again. 1249 01:36:53,766 --> 01:36:56,352 She had been dropping by throughout all of this, 1250 01:36:56,435 --> 01:36:59,021 but now she started coming by more often. 1251 01:37:00,856 --> 01:37:04,318 [Early] He was in terrifically bad health in those years. 1252 01:37:05,069 --> 01:37:07,446 It was thought by many people, he was in such bad shape 1253 01:37:07,530 --> 01:37:09,406 that he would never play music again. 1254 01:37:09,490 --> 01:37:11,575 He even thought he might never play music again. 1255 01:37:12,785 --> 01:37:16,413 [Kernodle] Cicely inspires him to see once again 1256 01:37:16,497 --> 01:37:18,290 that he has something to offer... 1257 01:37:18,874 --> 01:37:23,629 that his creativity... his creative voice, he has not reached his creative peak. 1258 01:37:26,048 --> 01:37:28,717 [Miles] She helped run all those people out of my house. 1259 01:37:28,801 --> 01:37:31,011 She kind of protected me and started seeing 1260 01:37:31,095 --> 01:37:33,764 that I ate the right things and didn't drink as much. 1261 01:37:33,847 --> 01:37:35,849 She helped get me off cocaine. 1262 01:37:36,934 --> 01:37:40,104 She would feed me health foods, a lot of vegetables 1263 01:37:40,187 --> 01:37:41,981 and a whole lot of juices. 1264 01:37:43,524 --> 01:37:48,529 He was running up and down the beach and trying to be a vegetarian... [laughs] 1265 01:37:48,612 --> 01:37:52,408 which was... which was amazing, because he couldn't do it. 1266 01:37:53,951 --> 01:37:56,996 Miles would say: "Come by the house. Pick me up, man. 1267 01:37:57,079 --> 01:37:59,123 Take me somewhere where they got meat. 1268 01:38:01,166 --> 01:38:06,755 Just let me smell the smells and then get me a hot link sandwich." 1269 01:38:06,839 --> 01:38:08,173 [chuckles] 1270 01:38:10,384 --> 01:38:14,221 Miles needed those years to summon up the strength... 1271 01:38:14,930 --> 01:38:21,645 to kick drugs, to play again, to handle the public... 1272 01:38:22,187 --> 01:38:26,317 to handle the touring, to handle the critics... to live. 1273 01:38:28,485 --> 01:38:33,115 [Miles] From 1975 until early 1980, I didn't pick up my horn. 1274 01:38:33,949 --> 01:38:37,411 For over four years I didn't pick it up... once. 1275 01:38:39,622 --> 01:38:42,291 In the end, it was almost six years. 1276 01:38:45,085 --> 01:38:47,921 [Wein] He kept bringing tapes to my office 1277 01:38:48,005 --> 01:38:51,175 of a different sounding band, the electronic band. 1278 01:38:52,301 --> 01:38:57,931 I said: "I'll pay you $70,000 to do two concerts at Avery Fisher Hall." 1279 01:38:59,391 --> 01:39:02,353 He looked at me as if I was crazy. Nobody did that. 1280 01:39:04,438 --> 01:39:10,569 And I wrote out a check for $35,000 and gave it to him. 1281 01:39:14,823 --> 01:39:16,158 I held my breath. 1282 01:39:18,118 --> 01:39:25,084 [Miles] I bought a brand-new, canary yellow 308 GTSi Ferrari sports coupe, 1283 01:39:25,167 --> 01:39:26,585 with a targa top. 1284 01:39:26,669 --> 01:39:28,087 [distant cheering] 1285 01:39:28,170 --> 01:39:30,756 I was ready to go back to music. 1286 01:39:34,259 --> 01:39:37,888 He bought that car just to show up at that gig. 1287 01:39:37,971 --> 01:39:42,476 And yeah, man, you know, I bought a new shirt. [laughs] 1288 01:39:42,559 --> 01:39:43,644 He bought a Ferrari. 1289 01:39:47,147 --> 01:39:48,607 [Wein] Miles was back. 1290 01:39:55,614 --> 01:39:58,659 And he had this whole new sound with all the young musicians. 1291 01:40:06,583 --> 01:40:09,753 [Stern] He was seven years out and all of a sudden he came back. 1292 01:40:10,671 --> 01:40:13,257 This cat could've stopped completely and said: "I've done enough." 1293 01:40:14,717 --> 01:40:16,927 And everybody would've said: "You sure have." 1294 01:40:17,010 --> 01:40:18,470 But he wanted to keep going. 1295 01:40:22,933 --> 01:40:24,935 [music out] 1296 01:40:25,018 --> 01:40:26,437 [cheering] 1297 01:40:31,066 --> 01:40:35,696 [Rothbaum] It wasn't just a comeback of an artist. 1298 01:40:35,779 --> 01:40:37,906 It was a comeback of a human being. 1299 01:40:41,034 --> 01:40:43,620 I never saw anybody do that like he did. 1300 01:40:46,874 --> 01:40:49,418 [reporter] Do you still enjoy playing jazz festivals in Europe? 1301 01:40:49,501 --> 01:40:52,546 Yes. I love to play in Europe, jazz festivals. 1302 01:40:52,629 --> 01:40:54,965 [reporter] What about Molde? You're arriving late. 1303 01:40:55,466 --> 01:40:56,925 I was sick this morning. 1304 01:40:57,551 --> 01:41:00,971 Starting with the first tour, we were in a different city, 1305 01:41:01,054 --> 01:41:03,474 or a different country, every single day. 1306 01:41:03,557 --> 01:41:05,267 [crowd cheers] 1307 01:41:06,351 --> 01:41:08,729 Say a show starts at eight o'clock... 1308 01:41:10,397 --> 01:41:13,567 we'd get back to the hotel by midnight. 1309 01:41:14,067 --> 01:41:15,861 After that, he wants to paint. 1310 01:41:18,197 --> 01:41:22,701 He would just pick up whatever writing device he had and start to draw. 1311 01:41:22,785 --> 01:41:24,244 [music: "Time After Time"] 1312 01:41:26,079 --> 01:41:30,042 [Erin Davis] When we were on the road, he drew on the plane, he drew in the car. 1313 01:41:30,125 --> 01:41:32,711 He drew in the lounge, waiting for the plane. 1314 01:41:32,795 --> 01:41:36,340 We get to the gig. He's drawing in the dressing room. 1315 01:41:36,423 --> 01:41:40,177 It was literally flowing through his arm, into his hand, onto the paper. 1316 01:41:42,012 --> 01:41:44,014 [reporter] When you make a wrong line, 1317 01:41:44,097 --> 01:41:46,975 does it feel with you like the same as in music? 1318 01:41:47,684 --> 01:41:54,066 The note next to the one that you think is bad... corrects the one in front. 1319 01:42:02,866 --> 01:42:05,244 [Gelbard] It was early morning and I was going running. 1320 01:42:05,536 --> 01:42:10,624 I was waiting by the elevator and the elevator opened and there he was. 1321 01:42:11,375 --> 01:42:13,961 My heart was racing. It was kind of like, um... 1322 01:42:15,379 --> 01:42:18,298 like in a movie when you meet the vampire 1323 01:42:18,382 --> 01:42:20,592 and you know you're going to die and you don't care. 1324 01:42:21,635 --> 01:42:23,637 I looked back and he said: "You better run fast 1325 01:42:23,720 --> 01:42:25,639 'cause when I get back I'm going to catch you." 1326 01:42:26,473 --> 01:42:29,351 And that was it. We started painting together. 1327 01:42:36,441 --> 01:42:39,528 There was just all this interest in everything he was doing, 1328 01:42:39,611 --> 01:42:40,988 coming from everywhere. 1329 01:42:41,071 --> 01:42:42,865 Miles, what got you into painting? 1330 01:42:42,948 --> 01:42:44,908 He was never more in demand. 1331 01:42:44,992 --> 01:42:46,076 Who are you guys? 1332 01:42:46,994 --> 01:42:49,746 It seems almost as if he forgot who he had been. 1333 01:42:49,830 --> 01:42:51,331 It's like a brand-new start for me. 1334 01:42:51,415 --> 01:42:52,791 He was on talk shows. 1335 01:42:52,875 --> 01:42:55,544 Hello, good evening. This is Miles Davis. 1336 01:42:55,627 --> 01:42:56,879 On late night television. 1337 01:42:56,962 --> 01:42:58,380 -Miles Davis. -Miles Davis. 1338 01:42:58,463 --> 01:43:00,132 -Miles Davis. -Miles Davis. 1339 01:43:00,215 --> 01:43:02,342 -Miles Davis! -[cheering] 1340 01:43:02,426 --> 01:43:06,471 [Chambers] He was accepting interviews in every city he played in. 1341 01:43:07,180 --> 01:43:10,017 He was a totally different seeming person. 1342 01:43:14,855 --> 01:43:16,481 [trumpet solo] 1343 01:43:17,691 --> 01:43:20,944 [Erin Davis] And he was even going out and sitting in with Prince. 1344 01:43:21,028 --> 01:43:25,324 He loved Prince. You know, it was destiny that they worked together. 1345 01:43:25,407 --> 01:43:28,452 [trumpet solo] 1346 01:43:32,122 --> 01:43:34,791 I got a call from Tommy LiPuma, 1347 01:43:34,875 --> 01:43:38,337 who was an A&R vice president at Warner Bros. 1348 01:43:38,420 --> 01:43:42,299 He said: "Miles Davis just left Columbia and he's coming to Warner Bros." 1349 01:43:42,382 --> 01:43:45,719 And I said: "Really? Congratulations!" He said: "Do you have any music?" 1350 01:43:45,802 --> 01:43:47,346 [music: "Tutu"] 1351 01:43:51,391 --> 01:43:55,020 As soon as I hung up the phone, that bass line to "Tutu" hit me. 1352 01:43:55,729 --> 01:43:58,565 [beatboxes bassline] 1353 01:44:05,864 --> 01:44:08,325 I'm writing a song for somebody if I can see them going... 1354 01:44:09,159 --> 01:44:11,745 like grooving to the song, I go, "Okay, this is right for him." 1355 01:44:14,039 --> 01:44:15,999 [plays tune on piano] 1356 01:44:17,626 --> 01:44:20,295 I'm looking across the studio and I'm looking at Miles. 1357 01:44:20,879 --> 01:44:23,548 And then he just started playing stuff on the piano for me. 1358 01:44:25,717 --> 01:44:30,722 Looking back on it, I realize this dude never recorded like that before, 1359 01:44:30,806 --> 01:44:35,894 with headphones, playing to a track with drum machines and all that stuff. 1360 01:44:35,978 --> 01:44:37,813 [music: "Perfect Way"] 1361 01:44:39,064 --> 01:44:42,526 He was, like, into it. He wasn't just like stepping gingerly into it. 1362 01:44:42,609 --> 01:44:43,527 He owned it. 1363 01:44:43,610 --> 01:44:44,611 Yeah! 1364 01:44:46,780 --> 01:44:49,825 [Miller] At the core, he's just staying that young kid 1365 01:44:49,908 --> 01:44:51,576 who came to New York to play the hip music. 1366 01:44:51,660 --> 01:44:53,745 You know, he wanted to always have that feeling. 1367 01:44:53,829 --> 01:44:55,914 [music continues] 1368 01:44:57,833 --> 01:45:01,044 [Erin Davis] Miles never talked about his old records. 1369 01:45:01,128 --> 01:45:03,505 He didn't keep 'em in the house. He didn't have any of 'em. 1370 01:45:04,089 --> 01:45:07,009 You know, not one of them and he didn't want them in there. 1371 01:45:07,092 --> 01:45:09,511 He wanted only the stuff he was working on. 1372 01:45:19,730 --> 01:45:22,566 [Miller] When I first got in the band, Miles seemed cool. 1373 01:45:22,649 --> 01:45:26,236 You know, he was alert and on top of it, 1374 01:45:26,319 --> 01:45:30,240 but soon after that, he started looking not so good, you know? 1375 01:45:31,324 --> 01:45:34,077 And if you see a concert we did on Saturday Night Live, 1376 01:45:34,161 --> 01:45:35,871 you'll see what I'm talking about. 1377 01:45:35,954 --> 01:45:39,583 He's just kind of moving and his sound is very fragile, you know? 1378 01:45:40,959 --> 01:45:44,129 He was tormented, man, 'cause he couldn't get the tone. 1379 01:45:44,212 --> 01:45:45,464 He couldn't get the tone. 1380 01:45:47,299 --> 01:45:50,469 Sometimes he would hobble around the stage, but... but... 1381 01:45:51,261 --> 01:45:52,345 he was still Miles. 1382 01:45:55,265 --> 01:45:56,975 -[music out] -[crowd cheers] 1383 01:45:57,059 --> 01:46:00,937 It will be for the first time tonight that Miles Davis and Quincy Jones 1384 01:46:01,021 --> 01:46:03,690 will be on the same stage, playing together. 1385 01:46:04,608 --> 01:46:07,027 [Jones] I'd been trying for 15 years, man. 1386 01:46:07,611 --> 01:46:11,740 I kept bugging him about it... you know, kept bugging him about it. 1387 01:46:11,823 --> 01:46:14,993 And he said: "Okay, motherfucker." You know? [laughs] 1388 01:46:15,077 --> 01:46:17,370 If he never played another note, he doesn't have to 1389 01:46:17,454 --> 01:46:22,334 because he has led the way on the cutting edge for the last 50 years. 1390 01:46:22,417 --> 01:46:25,087 To see him at 65 years old 1391 01:46:25,170 --> 01:46:28,090 trying to recreate his 25-year-old self 1392 01:46:28,173 --> 01:46:29,591 was just amazing, man. 1393 01:46:30,008 --> 01:46:32,010 My love, my brother, 1394 01:46:32,094 --> 01:46:35,514 and one of my favorite musicians and idols, Miles Davis! 1395 01:46:35,597 --> 01:46:37,015 [crowd cheers] 1396 01:46:37,099 --> 01:46:38,517 Yeah, I loved him, man. 1397 01:46:39,643 --> 01:46:42,896 It just makes my soul smile. 1398 01:46:42,979 --> 01:46:44,773 [cheering continues] 1399 01:46:47,859 --> 01:46:49,861 There was a tune called "The Pan Piper"... 1400 01:46:50,487 --> 01:46:54,908 and I knew that that was a hard piece 1401 01:46:54,991 --> 01:46:58,161 and I wasn't sure that he would be able to play that one. 1402 01:47:00,372 --> 01:47:02,124 [music: "The Pan Piper"] 1403 01:47:04,459 --> 01:47:05,877 He would never say that. 1404 01:47:11,716 --> 01:47:15,762 So, when it was time for us to do it, I remember jumping in. 1405 01:47:17,514 --> 01:47:19,141 [plays trumpet solo] 1406 01:47:29,860 --> 01:47:33,321 I remember him telling me: "Listen, if I ever went back to that old stuff, 1407 01:47:33,405 --> 01:47:34,573 I'd die." 1408 01:47:36,533 --> 01:47:39,911 And I sat there in front of the TV and I was like: "He's sick. 1409 01:47:41,037 --> 01:47:41,913 He's sick." 1410 01:47:53,633 --> 01:47:57,762 He said: "When God punishes you, it's not that you..." 1411 01:47:59,890 --> 01:48:01,308 So sad. 1412 01:48:02,309 --> 01:48:04,686 "...it's not that you don't get what you want. 1413 01:48:06,229 --> 01:48:10,358 You get everything that you want and there's no time left." 1414 01:48:10,442 --> 01:48:12,652 [music continues] 1415 01:48:16,156 --> 01:48:18,575 -[music out] -[crowd cheers] 1416 01:48:18,658 --> 01:48:19,868 [announcer] Miles Davis! 1417 01:48:20,827 --> 01:48:21,995 Quincy Jones! 1418 01:48:28,752 --> 01:48:32,839 [Gelbard] Miles went into the hospital, Labor Day weekend of 1991. 1419 01:48:34,382 --> 01:48:36,593 We were talking and listening to music... 1420 01:48:37,093 --> 01:48:41,765 and I looked at him and he looked funny, like, still. 1421 01:48:41,848 --> 01:48:45,310 And then I looked up and a doctor came in to the door 1422 01:48:45,393 --> 01:48:48,939 and he walked over and it was just a second. 1423 01:48:49,022 --> 01:48:51,399 And I was sitting with his head in my lap... 1424 01:48:52,025 --> 01:48:54,027 and the doctor started pounding on him. 1425 01:48:54,110 --> 01:48:56,571 And then he beeped something and then another doctor came in 1426 01:48:56,655 --> 01:48:59,241 and then a bunch of doctors and nurses came in. 1427 01:48:59,324 --> 01:49:02,953 And I was still sitting on the bed and he was blank. 1428 01:49:03,036 --> 01:49:06,498 I mean, he was breathing. I knew he didn't die. I mean, I didn't know... 1429 01:49:06,581 --> 01:49:09,751 It was horrifying. And they're working on him 1430 01:49:09,834 --> 01:49:12,212 and they're pounding him and injecting him 1431 01:49:12,295 --> 01:49:17,175 and then they roll us both out like that into the elevator, into the hall. 1432 01:49:17,259 --> 01:49:19,844 And they didn't even notice that I was on the bed, 1433 01:49:19,928 --> 01:49:22,138 when his head was still next to me. 1434 01:49:22,222 --> 01:49:25,183 And, you know, we were surrounded by people. 1435 01:49:25,267 --> 01:49:31,356 We're in the elevator and... you know, and they said: "He had a stroke." 1436 01:49:32,232 --> 01:49:33,775 [music: "Blues For Pablo"] 1437 01:49:46,621 --> 01:49:49,291 [Santana] Deborah, my ex-wife, called me and she says: 1438 01:49:49,374 --> 01:49:52,043 "I think you'd better hold on to something." 1439 01:49:52,127 --> 01:49:57,215 I said "What's going on?" She says: "Miles Davis just passed." 1440 01:50:06,641 --> 01:50:09,019 And it just felt like, um... 1441 01:50:13,023 --> 01:50:14,441 someone hit me with a... 1442 01:50:16,443 --> 01:50:18,236 with a jackhammer over the head. 1443 01:50:22,574 --> 01:50:24,075 [music: "Flamenco Sketches"] 1444 01:50:30,040 --> 01:50:31,624 [Cantu] I think Miles was definitely, 1445 01:50:31,708 --> 01:50:34,377 without a doubt, the most unique person I've ever known. 1446 01:50:39,924 --> 01:50:43,345 He did things totally in a different way than everybody else. 1447 01:50:43,428 --> 01:50:46,348 He looked at things differently. He saw things differently. 1448 01:50:48,933 --> 01:50:52,937 You have to be true to yourself. I think a lot of that was his philosophy. 1449 01:51:00,820 --> 01:51:04,032 How can someone come up with such beautiful music 1450 01:51:04,115 --> 01:51:05,950 when you can have that other side? 1451 01:51:07,118 --> 01:51:09,245 Sometimes I couldn't take it. 1452 01:51:09,329 --> 01:51:11,706 Sometimes it was just perfecto. 1453 01:51:16,086 --> 01:51:21,925 I don't regret, I don't forget, but I still love. 1454 01:51:28,473 --> 01:51:30,100 [Rothbaum] I miss him, you know? 1455 01:51:30,183 --> 01:51:32,185 I miss him. I dream about him a lot. 1456 01:51:34,604 --> 01:51:36,189 He, uh... 1457 01:51:37,315 --> 01:51:38,525 What a big presence. 1458 01:51:49,494 --> 01:51:50,912 [McCoy] Of course I loved him. 1459 01:51:52,956 --> 01:51:54,374 He was like a brother... 1460 01:51:55,125 --> 01:51:58,294 who did dumb things and you accepted it. 1461 01:52:05,969 --> 01:52:07,053 He was real. 1462 01:52:11,558 --> 01:52:12,725 Very real. 1463 01:52:15,895 --> 01:52:18,773 There won't be many Mileses again. 1464 01:52:20,692 --> 01:52:21,860 That's enough. 1465 01:52:21,943 --> 01:52:22,944 I'm through.