"One time at the Three Deuces Bird came in late and went in the dressing room, where he opened up sardines and crackers. The owner was trying to get him to hurry up to the bandstand and Bird was just casually eating, grinning like a fool, you know what I mean? The owner was begging him to play and Bird was offering him crackers. Man, that was a funny scene. I laughed until I almost died."


Miles Davis: The Autobiography



Yes, it's a short excerpt from the above mentioned book that I recently read. Written by the great Sorcerer himself; and written as he great sorcerer himself. What do I mean with this? Quite simple: He poured his life and soul into this book; reading it feels like listening to Miles Davis speaking, narrating his life's story. I could almost hear him talking in that trademark husk voice of his. And not withholding anything. This is what makes this book so apealing - no polished, clean, straight, safe-for-work elevator reading. Nope. You get Miles Davis - his thoughts, his views and his language. All of them quite radical for the weak-hearted among us. Roughly said there are more fucks, motherfuckers and shits than in any other book in existence. But they are all casual; I guess what breathing is to us, cursing was to him. It was his way of talking. And that is what brings him to life through that story.

And radical worldviews? A musician? Indeed. Seldom have I encountered so many ways in which white people can be hated. Whatever his opinions were, he had no inhibitions sharing them.
Radical lifestyle? Indeed. He was all about being hip - hip cars, hip clothes (though looking at his clothes I can naught but pitty him), hip chicks, hip friends (he knew almost every important jazz player in the last seventy years), hip... drugs, pimping, abuse of women... Well... not really so hip, I gather. But I can only admire him for not witholding that part of his life. Few people can actually admit their mistakes and make peace with their past. Publishing that information will make it possible to look at Miles Davis not as just a man with the horn, but a person.

But he not only writes about his life, but also about his one passion that dictated his existence - music. It's no secret that he was at the forefront of almost every important development in jazz (and also rock) music. But to the casual observer his role in this maelstrom stays almost unknown. He explains how all his different styles of playing came to be, what they actually are, who were his accomplices, what was moving him (and them) in this or that direction... Even to a greenhorn like me his explanations were very interesting, and understandable.

I guess I know a bit about jazz styles and its history, but reading this book I felt it's all coming together - jazz just simply seemed a chaos of different styles and musicians. But data gathered while I was reading this book seemed to bring order into that chaos, and help attach names and dates to different developments in music.

So if you're even slightly interested in jazz and its history, don't hesitate. This man IS the history of jazz. Kolatkar.