Distributed for Missouri Historical Society Press
Miles Davis and American Culture
Miles Davis and American Culture examines Davis in cultural context. In this new collection of a dozen essays, William Kenney explores the St. Louis jazz scene of Davis’s youth; Eugene B. Redmond looks at East St. Louis’s cultural history; Ingrid Monson examines Davis and civil rights; and Waldo Martin discusses Davis and his relation to the black avant-garde of the 1960s.Original interviews and classic photographs round out the volume, published to coincide with the 2001 Miles Davis Festival, celebrating what would have been Davis’s seventy-fifth birthday.
240 pages | 50 illus | 6 x 9 | © 2001
Table of Contents
Gerald Early
Just before Miles: jazz in St. Louis, 1926-1944
William Howland Kenney
"I just adored that man"
An interview with Quincy Jones
"So what"(?) ... it's "all blues" anyway: an anecdotal/jazzological tour of Milesville
Eugene B. Redmond
"He's Miles ahead"
An interview with George Avakian
Miles and the jazz critics
John Gennari
"Sensational pulse"
An interview with Ahmad Jamal
Miles, politics, and image
Ingrid Monson
"Any direction he chose"
An interview with Ron Carter
Miles Davis and the 1960s avant-garde
Waldo E. Martin Jr.
From Kind of blue to Bitches brew
Quincy Troupe
"It's about that time": the response to Miles Davis's electric turn
Eric Porter
Miles Davis and the double audience
Martha Bayless
"Here's God walking around"
An interview with Joey DeFrancesco
Ladies sing Miles
Farah Jasmine Griffin
Remembering Miles in St. Louis: a conclusion
Benjamin Cawthra
Appendix 1. Playboy interview with Alex Haley
Appendix 2. Chronology.