{"id":4424,"date":"2013-02-04T00:48:52","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T08:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=4424"},"modified":"2013-02-04T10:58:13","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T18:58:13","slug":"other-places-young-miles-davis-speaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2013\/02\/other-places-young-miles-davis-speaks-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Other Places: Young Miles Davis Speaks Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Young<\/a>Thanks to Michael Cuscuna and his colleagues at Mosaic Records for a reminder in their Daily Gazette<\/em><\/a> of an interview with the forthright Miles Davis. Nat Hentoff spoke with the 29-year-old Davis for a 1955 Down Beat<\/em> article. Full of opinions, the trumpeter took on conventional wisdom about a number of players and genres. For instance, this observation about a hot new band, the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet:<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like their current group too much because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too much going on. I mean, for example, that Richie Powell plays too much comp. Max needs a piano player that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t play much in the background. Actually, Brownie and Max are the whole group. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need anybody but those two. They can go out on stage by themselves. What happens is that the band gets in Brownie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way the way it is now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this about Dave Brubeck:<\/p>\n

Well, Dave made one record I liked\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcDon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Worry \u00e2\u20ac\u2122bout Me.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Do I think he swings? He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how. Desmond doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t swing, either, though I think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d play different with another rhythm section. Frankly, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather hear Lennie (Tristano). Or for that matter, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather hear Dizzy play the piano than Brubeck, because Dizzy knows how to touch the piano and he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t play too much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On clarinetists:<\/p>\n

I only like Benny Goodman very much. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like Buddy DeFranco at all, because he plays a lot of cliches and is very cold. Tony Scott plays good, but not like Benny, because Benny used to swing so much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To read the entire Hentoff piece for Davis’s thoughts about Stan Kenton, Jimmy Giuffre, Charles Mingus and Charlie Parker, among others, go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for Davis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work in 1955, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sample, Davis playing a Ray Bryant composition that used intriguing altered blues changes, hence the piece’s title. His colleagues are Bryant, piano; Milt Jackson, vibes; Percy Heath, bass; Arthur Taylor, drums. August 5, 1955.<\/p>\n