Miles Paperback – September 20, 2011

This book was really awesome! I am a young, beginner jazz enthusiast so I started with the King of jazz and worked my way around. I made a great choice. Not only does Miles give a great account of his music, but also recollects other notable musicians in the process. Which makes it worth wild to study their music further too. I thought this book was going to read like a memoir, you know very tight and numerical and mostly personal, and I was wrong. But its in a good way Davis moves from person to person, place to place and it keeps readers (at least me) on their heels. The first thing I ever heard about Miles Davis (way before I discovered his music) was that he was mean, disrespectful, and cold. Miles confirms these personality traits but he also justifies them in an odd but believable way. He made me understand why he grew so cold and by the end of the book (the last few pages I'm on now) he makes me sympathize with him.I have read many reviews about the book and most are correct. He is bold in this book, holds no punches, tells no colorful stories (I still can't get the taxi cab story with Bird out of my head), and he remains upfront and personal throughout the read. Some say he is simply racist, contradictory, and hateful toward his musical peers, but those people fail to understand the story of black folk. The whole of this nation and the western world is one big contradiction and I think, indirectly, Davis displays this fact through his references to events and stuff in his life. And as for disrespecting other legends, he doesn't do this in a way that demonizes them. He gives Bird the worst time (second to maybe Coltrane or Monk) but at the same time he explains how he worshiped the jazz god. For the most part, everything Davis explains is true about the story of our people and our music and lifestyle. If you don't like it, you may find that you are apart of the problem, black or white. This book isn't a literacy masterpiece but I truly believe Davis put his feelings into this good read and that makes it a must read for music lovers.One final note about the read of the book: I like how Davis gives readers insight on how jazz slowly dies through progression of music and the emergence of Funk and "White Rock" and "Hillbilly music". He explains how the music (jazz) becomes white washed and another stolen item from the black experience. He also gives a great account of his own progression through the years of bebop, ballad, "cool", fusion, and free jazz forms. This book is cool, hip, and truthful.On the shape of the book: Seller described it as in good shape but a bit worn and it was. There was now notes or marks inside and that made me very happy. Came before it was scheduled to, but who complains about stuff like that? Not me!

Well, what is there to say? As a hard-core music fan and someone who has known some of those mentioned in the book, this is a reality that so many are unaware of, a reality far beyond mere competence on a chosen instrument.... the early fascination with music,the yearning for the new, creativity, searching, hard work, deep research, the search for perfection, experiences that affect everything in one's life, enlightened, eclectic, lots of sex, the appreciation of beauty in all of its forms, love and the lack of it, loss, race unityand disunity, awareness and manhood; gritty and real, yet in some ways dishonest as to the damage he wrought while a cocaine addict. This book will change some people, repel some people, and leave some amazed as they travel through Europe on long train rides, such as yours truly. I refused to read it for a long time because he hit Cicely Tyson! Of course there were others, too. Artistic genius is glorious and too often destructive to all of those in its area, a hot but irresistable fire whose burns are, nonetheless, bragged about for a lifetime by some. Some of us have learned to steer clear, quite content to live what appears to be a boring life made richer by those we cannot fathom. I suggest, to the beginner, to those grizzled with experience, and all those in between that you read John Szwed's brilliant biography of Miles, "So What," first. It will lend much-needed perspective.

Delivered on time, no damage and good read , Good job guys.

I was skeptical when Miles - The Autobiography, by Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, was chosen for our book this month given what I had heard about his personal life and his horrible treatment of women. This book was about much more than Miles Davis. It was about much of the 20th Century timeframe in America history. It about survival in rural and urban America. It was about the development of America's only original artform - which was pioneered and developed by African Americans. It was about virtually every great jazz artist from 1940 through 1990 and their lifestyle. It was about how these musical artists like other artists found great success and far more personal acceptance beyond their race in Europe and other parts of the world - but despite this always eventually returned to the US. It was about a father's unconditional love that allowed a prodigy to develop despite personal flaws including drug addiction - when many of his contemporaries died very, very young tragic deaths. It was about a great musician and his relationship with and impact on other great musicians, their genre and more. It was about someone understanding that to grow professionally you have to continue be willing to change but who never seemed to apply the understanding consistently in his personal life. It was about a man who never dealt with his personal flaws and abusive nature in relationships with women who loved and nurtured him through the good and bad times in his life. It was about a father who did not provide for his children what his father provided for him. It was about a Black man who no matter how successful never felt accepted for his contributions to American music largely due to institutional racism that then and now haunts our society. It was about personal triumph and tragedy - and much, much more. Thank you Quincy Troup for writing this with Miles in his own voice!