When Miles Davis died, Musician magazine (RIP) did a long tribute story on him. It featured comments by a plethora of musicians who had worked with him. I was honored to contribute to this retrospective. I interviewed Jimmy Cobb, Buster Williams, Gary Bartz, Wallace Roney, Jimmy Heath, and Marcus Miller (all by phone). I had met all of these great musicians except Marcus, and I am featuring him here because yesterday was his birthday and I started listening to some clips on YouTube. (One was Marcus playing ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ at the North Sea Jazz Festival. I could listen to it 100 times.) Here’s what he had to say about playing with Miles:
“He always said that the way he stayed young was to have a bad memory. But while we were working on the last album, he talked about the ‘40’s when he was in Bird’s band. I get the feeling that was probably the most exciting time for him. There’s nothing that can replace the first time playing with your idols. He’d tell how Bird used to count the song off at a ridiculous tempo and play two choruses, then leave Miles alone to play and go downstairs and hang out. I think those times really shaped his mentality, and all the terror stories you hears about Miles putting on other people he worked with, Bird put him through that. I think he was kind of paying Bird back for the rest of his life.
People get greedy; they love what the guy did at one point, but when he does something different, it makes them feel old. But you can’t expect everyone to move through life like Miles did. I think the criticism affected him, deep down inside, but he just got hurt and moved on.”
Karen Bennett ©️1991, 2023
most hep!