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Peter Buitelaar, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Miles Davis at the North Sea Jazz Festival, 1991
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Centennial Miles
I’ve been a fan of Miles Davis
ever since I first heard Kind of Blue.
So many recordings ..So many moods
One traveled the globe with his tunes
Sketches of Spain.. Kilamanjaro ..France
Chicago ..Newport.. Fillmore ..Birdland
New York’s Philharmonic Hall ..Peacock
Alley ..We all went to heaven (and other places)
without traces of regrret We were reborn
There were tears and smiles along the way
He cast spells spun surreal tales
He sent us on dazzling journeys
with desert queens and denizens of teeming
street corners. ..He was eclectic
When he went electric, some wondered
if he had wandered too far afield
from cool blues to Bitches Brews
His musings were amazing as his
trumpet blazed through everything
we thought we knew or needed
Dig deeper to Blue Haze
Cookin’ ..Workin’ ..Relaxin’ ..Steamin’
Miles was there to stir the pot,
mix it up in smoky nighttime spots.
He could go silent. Stand offstage
leaning back ..steaming with grievance
audiences left to engage with E.S.P.
He could take us far far up to the sky,
introduce you to the Star People
or send you weeping for jazz giants
lost like Duke Ellington where
Get Up With It shows us that grief
can be a revelatory ride. ..One can
be madly loved – music will always
bring them back to us ..full of power
He played with the greats – Hancock
Burton ..Jones.. Cobb ..Carter.. Getz.. Blakey
Evans.. Coltrane.. Mulligan.. Shorter ..Kelly
Chambers.. Corea.. Roach.. Hawkins.. Cannonball
Some died young like Clifford Brown
Some made magic longer like Rollins
and Jack DeJohnette whispering in our
ears for decades ..Their ghosts linger
at the Village Gate.. on bootleg tapes
quartets ..quintets playing for angels
Miles could fuse it all together for us –
a chorus of blues ..bebop ..doo bop
zouk.. funk ..bassline.. go go ..go slow
then sizzle ..steam.. catch the horn’s gleam
as it razzle dazzles ..synthesizers mean
business ..backbeat dazzles.. It’s a dream
Miles had something to play ..to say
to everyone – boxers.. princes ..freedom fighters
rockers ..old folks ..beggars ..sitar players
He’ll always be The Man With The Horn
Let’s honor his talent every day from
sunrise to.. ‘Round About Midnight.
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by Mary K O’Melveny
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Lost in Music of a Genius
Cool, cool, ineffably cool,
his trumpet grieves with
a restraint barely able to be
embraced by listeners, his music
is pain on ice, whiskey frozen
on tongue and lips;
his song will be carried
to listeners’ graves;
Miles has reached his resting place,
but his music which froze
heart and mind, allowed grief
to seep out slowly, still lives on
in audio and video; listeners
not alive when he died
listen and exude tears,
salt water that oozes into a world
of astonishing beauty that cares not
about us, yet sorrow and perfection
fill the world we see and the world
we hear from music left behind
by a flawed genius who knew beauty’s
pain and pain’s marriage to beauty.
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by Michael L. Newell
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Listen to the 1957 recording of Miles Davis performing the Thelonious Monk composition “‘Round Midnight” with John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Red Garland (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); and Philly Joe Jones (drums). [Miles Davis official audio]
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Michael L. Newell lives on the Atlantic Coast of Florida. His most recent book of poems is Passage of a Heart. Click here to read “What is this Path” – a collection of his poems published on Jerry Jazz Musician
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Mary K O’Melveny, retired labor rights lawyer, lives with her wife near Woodstock, NY. Mary became a fan of Jazz as a very young girl listening to Louis Armstrong and Lester Young on her grandparents’ Victrola record player. Mary’s award-nominated poetry appears in many print and on-line literary journals, anthologies and national blog sites. Mary has authored three poetry collections. Her just-released fourth book, Flight Patterns, is available by clicking here
Click here to read If You Want to Go to Heaven, Follow a Songbird – Mary K O’Melveny’s album of poetry and music, published by Jerry Jazz Musician
Click here to visit her web site
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Click for:
Remembering Sonny Rollins: a collection of poetry
Information about the book Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry, Vol. II (featuring women poets)
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
“Where the Music Wasn’t Allowed,” Jane McCarthy’s winning story in the 71st Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
More short fiction on Jerry Jazz Musician
Information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction
Subscribe to the (free) Jerry Jazz Musician quarterly newsletter
Helping to support the ongoing publication of Jerry Jazz Musician, and to keep it commercial-free (thank you!)
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Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced since 1999
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