I have recently turned my attention back to the music
that was my first love – the Black American Music known as jazz (BAM). And as I
listen to the music and the recordings that I stayed entrenched in all of the
time, and the new ones that I am discovering, I come back to myself. I have
found Maya again. My radio show has helped bring me back to life. I think soon
I will start to perform again. I have noticed, however, that my perspective on
the musicians has changed, now that I am an older and more seasoned person
(smile). No longer do I have a blind reverence for the elders in the music. Nor
do I overlook or excuse those who set poor examples for the young with their
bad behavior. I have also had to come to
grips with another paradox that is ever present in the music. How can some of
the most beautiful music be created by folks who at times acted so ugly? (The
answer is revealed if I look at myself - I do not act in a beautiful manner all
of the time, but my music and my art are beautiful. No one is all bad and no
one is all good.)
Before I get to my beef with the Great Miles
Davis, I would like to reflect on how elders like him in the music were so very
similar to and different from the other black folks in their generation. Take
for instance the Adderley brothers – Cannonball and Nat. They are from Florida,
like my grandparents. In fact, they both attended Florida A&M with my grandmother
and grandfather. My grandmother dated Nat Adderley and my grandfather sang with
their band. Both of my grandparents were very conventional people. They were both
educators and a part of people in their twenties and thirties who made up the
black middle class of the 1950s. My grandfather eventually received a PhD in education. Now
compare them to the Adderley brothers. It seems that both brothers had a
reputation for stability (When I met him in South Africa, Nat Adderley Jr. told
me that they always showed up to the gig and were always on time). But compared
to their peers at Florida A&M, they were anomalies…aberrations in their
generation. I mean, think of the hipness of that Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley recording…listen to those horn
lines on Never Will I Marry. Think of
Cannonball’s solo on that track. Think of Cannonball on the Somethin’ Else album with Miles. As classic, gracious and elegant as my grandparents and their friends were, I
just do not associate the hipness of the Adderley brothers’ music with them.
But that’s probably because I wasn’t there…
A twelve-year-old African American boy was invited to play
trumpet for Miles. This was a time when young black men were being shot and
killed at the height of the crack epidemic. This young man was wearing a dress
shirt, slacks, a belt and a tie, had a fresh hair cut, and
was being featured on television. He could have been doing a hundred other
miscreant deeds with his peers. He played “On Green Dolphin Street.” He sounded
pretty good but made mistakes. I mean, he was only 12! The host, thinking that
he was dealing with a person with at least a modicum of graciousness, asked
Davis how he thought the boy sounded. Now before I tell you what he said, I am
going to say something that I hope we all know about children. Children need
encouragement: especially our young African American children, and especially
our black boys. I learned from a pastor’s teaching that before you say any
negatives to someone, you must share at least double or triple the number of positives
and say those first. You also have to share criticisms gently. This is called "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). And if a person is insensitive they might say at least one
good thing before they spew their negativity on someone. But not good old
Miles. He sat up there with his black pantyhose on (or knee highs or whatever) and only said in response
“He knows how he sounded. You need to practice!” When he said this, the
audience laughed at the boy – with mean laughter. And that’s it. To a child - a
black child from his community. He treated the older boys who played for him
no better. When the host asked Miles to respond to the last boy, he looked at
him coolly and asked the host “Who was on the organ?” Plain rude. And that, my
fellow Black Music folks, was for me the proverbial straw that broke the
camels back. I now speak these words to a Miles Davis who died twenty-eight
years ago. Who do you think you are? How
dare you treat one of our black children that way. How did your behind sound at
12?
inappropriately put him down, Davis’ behavior towards him exposed his true
character, just as the little boy did to the proverbial emperor. And now I come
to the lesson that we can learn from all of this.
The music known as jazz is deep – it has been deeply
colonized, and not only through the white controlled music industry. The
mindset of some of the elders, with all due respect to them, (and some of the
“youngers”) was/is a colonized mindset in many ways. It was/is an embodiment of
the wider colonial mindset of many other black folks of their time. Malcom X
reveals in his autobiography this colonized mindset that was evident in the
music and musicians in the mid twentieth century: particularly patronage colonialism and the chemical colonialism
of heroin. But all of that is for another essay.
 |
| My Grandparents, Joe and Ardis Orr |
Another example. I met Wayne Shorter years ago here in DC
at some sort of luncheon at the Vice President’s house in the late 1990s. We
stood together in the buffet line. When I talked to him, who did he sound like?
My grandfather. This makes perfect sense – Wayne Shorter was born in 1933 to
Southern parents. My grandfather was born in 1930 to Southern parents. They
were age mates from the same culture. In my opinion, Wayne Shorter has written some
of the most beautiful music on earth. He lived a musician’s life in New York.
My grandfather an educator’s life in West Palm Beach, Florida. Yet, they had
the same rhythm in their speech and the same mannerisms. [And on a related subject,
a side note. I recently heard the voices of the Jazz Messengers during one of
their Blue Note recording sessions – they sounded like regular black men…like
the black men that I grew up with. That was a paradigm shift for me right then
– black men like those I knew and know creating that kind of beauty – but why
am I surprised? Because hip hop has hijacked the black male identity – but again,
that is for another essay.]
And as we continue to consider jazz musicians as
generational anomalies, the line of inquiry gets even deeper when we consider
Miles Davis. He was just a few years older than my grandparents…certainly in
the same generation as my granddad and his sisters, my great aunts. And this is
where I turn to our focus for the day – Miles. I cannot help but to try to
illustrate my earlier point with this photo comparison. On the left is my
grandfather Dr. Joseph A. Orr, on the right, Miles Dewey Davis. Two men of the
same generation, but as evidenced in their appearance, vastly different from
each other. They were both in their 50s.
If most black folks were like my fore parents, then Miles
was an absolute irregularity – a sort of peculiarity in his generation. Yet he
embodied and carried on the very black culture that marked his generation. He
was a culture bearer, and a cultural innovator, who was at the center of the
music known as jazz, which is arguably one of the most tremendous cultural
accomplishments of African America. And Miles had everything to do with moving
the music forward. He made many of the classic recordings of the music that
represent the best of our people. There is no doubt that he lived a special life
and accomplishing all that he did was his special purpose. Perhaps this is why
it seems, especially towards the end of his life, that he exhibited some
extremely narcissistic attitudes and behaviors.
Now…I am going to talk about this
and will proceed with caution. Why? Because in the Black American Music known
as jazz (BAM) we tend to revere the elders in the music. Figures like Louis
Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and others loom large in the music as fathers to be
studied and respected. And Miles is one of the most revered and admired by
musicians. And, musically we should
respect Miles. But let’s face it, Miles was human, and he was not the best man.
That is very clear in his autobiography. He was a misogynist, abandoned his
first wife and children, ran around on and abused his second wife Frances, the supposed
love of his life, and used drugs. When he spoke, his speech was a mixture of
cutting (and even refreshing) truths mixed in with a whirlwind of vile
profanity. I think we admire Miles because the man was fearlessly blunt, forthright
and seemed to have a supreme kind of confidence. And despite all of his
abovementioned shortcomings, up until a few days ago, I still held the kind of
respect for him that we all do. However, this all changed for me when I
watched one particular interview.
First, Miles had long since abandoned the hip
sophistication that marked the men musicians of his generation – the suits,
ties, fedoras and the like. He stated in his autobiography that his third wife,
the rock singer Betty Davis, got him into wearing eccentric hippie/ “rock n
roll” fashions. But…umm… he was twenty years her senior. She was twenty and he was forty. By the time
of the mid-1980s interview that is our focal point, Miles was still dressing that
way and he was a man in his sixties. On this interview he decided to wear black
stockings, not socks, but literally stockings,
with shiny black pleather pants. (“pleather is the plastic version of
leather”) And you know what? With the dark glasses, his gold jewelry and jacket against
his rich dark brown skin, and his trade mark cavalier attitude, he did indeed
look cool. As for his peculiar hairstyle, well...he revealed in his
autobiography that he was very upset when he started to lose his hair, so, he
said, “I got me a hair weave.” But many
men go bald at his age. Look at my grandad (Smile). Miles, however, was unable to
accept that, and that’s what the hair is all about in the photo below.
Now, I am not at all poking fun at the elder. Miles' eccentricity was a part of his persona…his charisma. And the black
stockings?...that’s just something that old folks do sometimes. What provoked
my posthumous beef with Miles was the way he treated a young black child on the
show. Now, I love children and have worked with hundreds of them. They have an
innocence and a fragility that is beautiful. Words count with children, and adults’
words have the potential to build a child up or permanently damage their self-esteem.
Unfortunately, the producers must have thought it was a great idea to have
three youngsters play the trumpet for Miles Davis. What a huge mistake! I will
first recount what happened and then engage in a nice, professional posthumous “telling off,” so to speak, of our dear Mr. Miles.
A twelve-year-old African American boy was invited to play
trumpet for Miles. This was a time when young black men were being shot and
killed at the height of the crack epidemic. This young man was wearing a dress
shirt, slacks, a belt and a tie, had a fresh hair cut, and
was being featured on television. He could have been doing a hundred other
miscreant deeds with his peers. He played “On Green Dolphin Street.” He sounded
pretty good but made mistakes. I mean, he was only 12! The host, thinking that
he was dealing with a person with at least a modicum of graciousness, asked
Davis how he thought the boy sounded. Now before I tell you what he said, I am
going to say something that I hope we all know about children. Children need
encouragement: especially our young African American children, and especially
our black boys. I learned from a pastor’s teaching that before you say any
negatives to someone, you must share at least double or triple the number of positives
and say those first. You also have to share criticisms gently. This is called "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). And if a person is insensitive they might say at least one
good thing before they spew their negativity on someone. But not good old
Miles. He sat up there with his black pantyhose on (or knee highs or whatever) and only said in response
“He knows how he sounded. You need to practice!” When he said this, the
audience laughed at the boy – with mean laughter. And that’s it. To a child - a
black child from his community. He treated the older boys who played for him
no better. When the host asked Miles to respond to the last boy, he looked at
him coolly and asked the host “Who was on the organ?” Plain rude. And that, my
fellow Black Music folks, was for me the proverbial straw that broke the
camels back. I now speak these words to a Miles Davis who died twenty-eight
years ago. Who do you think you are? How
dare you treat one of our black children that way. How did your behind sound at
12?
When it gets to the point that a musician has become a
curmudgeon, a rude person who can’t crack a smile or be gracious to little
children, then I say in response the
emperor has no clothes. Even worse, the only
time he smiled was when the host closed the show by asking the audience to
“give a round of applause for the great Miles Davis.” It was only then that he
split his face open. It wasn't really even a smile, it was more like a grimace. Sorry folks. This is not Black Power. This is Black Vanity. How can one so plainly and
unattractively revel in praise and yet cannot even say one encouraging word to
the young? The answer is in this six-letter word:
Vanity: excessive
pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements.
Or
He had a complete lack of humility.
Or
Vainglory: inordinate pride in oneself or one's achievements; excessive vanity
He had a complete lack of humility.
Any
musical gift that a musician has was given by the Creator. God gives the
creative/artistic gift. I knew a trumpet player long ago who had perfect pitch.
When someone played a note, he saw colors. He saw a specific and consistent color for each pitch each time he heard them. That gift was from God. God even
places children with musical talent in circumstances when they are young that
allows them to develop the gift – in musical families, with musician parents, in musical
neighborhoods, in musical cities, band programs at school, in specialized arts high schools, in families
with the resources and foresight to pay for lessons, with scholarships for lessons, with community
support, etc. For example, Eunice Waymon could not have developed her gift to
become Nina Simone if she did not grow up in a small town and belong to a big
church where her mother was a minister. The church folks and town folks pooled their collective
finances together so that she could study piano - for years. It was in that same church that
her musical genius was uncovered and from which she drew much of the material
she performed later in her life. She got her soul power from the church. Let us
ask – who placed her in the life circumstance that planted and nurtured the seeds of her
greatness? She could have been born in Kansas instead of North Carolina (no
offense).
From this one example (and there are many others), we see that
all of this comes from God – the artistic gifts and the life circumstances to
develop them. He sends us teachers. (Reference the movie Pride. God worked it out for good when Jim Ellis was racially discriminated against
at Main Line Academy, leading him to do the beautiful work of restoring
the pool at the Foster’s Recreation center and starting a swim team/program in
Nicetown Philly for the benefit of the black children who lived there.)
If Miles had considered the grace of God in his life, he would have been more sensitive to that little boy. He would have considered that the only reason why he learned to play trumpet well when he was young was because he was born to parents with financial means. His father had three degrees and was one of the only Black dentists in East Saint Louis. I think his mother was an educator. Who paid for the trumpet lessons? His parents. Why were his parents wealthy and educated? His grandfather owned land in Arkansas. Miles was born in East Saint Louis, no doubt because of the Great Migration, where Freddie Webster lived and was available to teach him, and for him to emulate. Who allowed for Dizzy and Bird to even come to Saint Louis to inspire him to pursue bebop and move to New York? They did not have to be there that particular week when Miles was in the city. Bird and Diz could have come when he was out of town visiting his grandfather. And finally, who gave his father the education and wealth to be able to pay his tuition to attend Julliard so that he could be in New York to participate in the bebop movement? And look at the providence of his name. Miles. Does his name not refer to the innovations that he created to move the music forward by leaps and bounds? Did he name himself? No. So, we see, Miles did nothing to control these early circumstances in his life that had everything to do with who he became as a man. It seemed that the Lord planned the advent of Miles Davis, so to speak, and the impact that he would have on Black American Music, generations before he was even born. Just look at the circumstances. That is why we have to give glory to God for our gifts and the opportunities we receive to develop them.
If Miles had considered the grace of God in his life, he would have been more sensitive to that little boy. He would have considered that the only reason why he learned to play trumpet well when he was young was because he was born to parents with financial means. His father had three degrees and was one of the only Black dentists in East Saint Louis. I think his mother was an educator. Who paid for the trumpet lessons? His parents. Why were his parents wealthy and educated? His grandfather owned land in Arkansas. Miles was born in East Saint Louis, no doubt because of the Great Migration, where Freddie Webster lived and was available to teach him, and for him to emulate. Who allowed for Dizzy and Bird to even come to Saint Louis to inspire him to pursue bebop and move to New York? They did not have to be there that particular week when Miles was in the city. Bird and Diz could have come when he was out of town visiting his grandfather. And finally, who gave his father the education and wealth to be able to pay his tuition to attend Julliard so that he could be in New York to participate in the bebop movement? And look at the providence of his name. Miles. Does his name not refer to the innovations that he created to move the music forward by leaps and bounds? Did he name himself? No. So, we see, Miles did nothing to control these early circumstances in his life that had everything to do with who he became as a man. It seemed that the Lord planned the advent of Miles Davis, so to speak, and the impact that he would have on Black American Music, generations before he was even born. Just look at the circumstances. That is why we have to give glory to God for our gifts and the opportunities we receive to develop them.
Had Miles acknowledged the hand of God in his life, rather than being drunk with the notion of his own greatness, he might have considered the
life of that twelve-year-old boy. Maybe that boy taught himself to play rather
than having lessons. Maybe his parents could not afford for him to study privately. Perhaps Miles could have financed lessons for him or connected him with a teacher. And this was the 1980s. The boy might have been in the care of his grandparents,
because of a crack addicted mother and father. Who knows! You never know how
far someone has come at the point when you meet them, because you don’t know
where they have been. You also do not know what a person will become when you are
in a position of power, and are fully developed, and they are still developing.
Therefore, the proper attitude for us musicians to have is
as follows: I am nothing, God is
everything, he gave me these gifts and I am going to use them for his glory.
Or Everything that I am is because of the
blessings and grace of God and I thank him. And/or – God has given me these opportunities to perform and I thank him because
it did not have to turn out this way. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that
the musicians the Lord has blessed with careers are all Christians. The Bible
also says that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans
11:29) This means that God gives us our gifts when he creates us – even if some
decide not to serve Him, He doesn’t take them back.
It’s too bad that Miles could not recognize all of this and
therefore see himself in that child who he so carelessly criticized. He was too
puffed up with vain conceit. I wish I could find those boys and tell them that
Miles lied to them. His behavior, which messaged to them that he was somehow
better than they were, or more valuable as a person because of his talent,
success and accomplishments, was an out and out lie. They were just as
valuable. But I cannot. I can only learn, as we all can, from our elders' successes and their personal failures, so that we do not repeat the same
mistake. My hope is that some musicians in the younger generation that are
going down the path of such narcissism (or who are already far down its road)
will come back into their right minds. My hope is that they will come to their senses
before they, like Miles, make an asinine spectacle of themselves in public, and
have to be called out by the young, just like that vain, foolish and
blithely naked emperor of old.
* Note - The link to the interview is below if you would like to check it out.
Tag – Mercy for Miles
I have added this tag, a day after my initial
posting, because I know I was very hard on our elder. Please do not think I am
being judgmental – I am not. The truth is that Miles was a narcissist, and probably had narcissistic
personality disorder. (Click to hear the symptoms - describes Davis to a tee)
I first heard about this condition after being "friends" with a narcissist musician for several years (a very, very long time ago). At the time, I was too young, inexperienced and emotionally broken myself to know what I was dealing with. What I learned is that narcissists might appear to be confident, and are certainly arrogant. They often are megalomaniacs and have extreme delusions of grandeur about themselves. They constantly look for ways to feel superior to others and are attracted to people who will put them on a pedestal. But I ask, does this sound like true confidence and a healthy self-image to you? The answer is no.
Psychologists reveal that narcissists engage in these attitudes and behaviors because they have extremely low self-esteem. Psychologists share that often a narcissistic person grew up with an abusive father and an indulgent mother who tried to compensate for the fathers abuse. But this is not always the case. The musician that I mentioned above eventually told me towards the end of my time with him that his mother verbally and emotionally abused him when he was young. When she became angry with him, she would say to him “I wished I had flushed you down the toilet when you were born” and “I wish I had slammed your head against the wall when you were a baby.” Tell me, how can a seven, eight, nine or ten-year-old boy handle that kind of abuse?... Words spoken over him by his own mother that seemed to have come from the depths of hell…words designed to crush his little spirit and destroy his self-esteem? How does he compensate for being made to feel inferior by the one person on earth who is supposed to be building him up? I will tell you how. As he grows older, and no doubt experiences further emotional damage inflicted by his abusive parent (and perhaps others), he falls into grand delusions of his own superiority in order to prove the parent wrong (or whoever did the abusing). If he has a musical gift then he might use it as a launching pad for delusions of grandeur. In his twenties and thirties that same musician, if he detected the slightest hint of a put down, would loudly (and obnoxiously) reel off a ready list of his accomplishments – who he played with, the countries where he toured, etc. This is called a narcissistic rage. He also loved to put others down, exalted himself and his friends as musical geniuses (it was a men's only club), and had a negative opinion about almost every other musician, who he would designate as those who "can't play." I once heard him put Jimi Hendrix on this list! He was also a misogynist (which would be easy to fall into after having a mother like that). (He also had a raging marijuana addiction - a drug he used to try to sooth his constant anxiety and fear of failure....Also, I am sure that you can tell that this was not a true friendship.)
I know another narcissist who actually told me that he believed that he was the smartest person on earth. And he was not kidding. Narcissists also tend to adopt affectations – creating personas to mask their true self, which they feel is inferior. Perhaps that is what Miles’ appearance and behavior was all about.
I first heard about this condition after being "friends" with a narcissist musician for several years (a very, very long time ago). At the time, I was too young, inexperienced and emotionally broken myself to know what I was dealing with. What I learned is that narcissists might appear to be confident, and are certainly arrogant. They often are megalomaniacs and have extreme delusions of grandeur about themselves. They constantly look for ways to feel superior to others and are attracted to people who will put them on a pedestal. But I ask, does this sound like true confidence and a healthy self-image to you? The answer is no.
Psychologists reveal that narcissists engage in these attitudes and behaviors because they have extremely low self-esteem. Psychologists share that often a narcissistic person grew up with an abusive father and an indulgent mother who tried to compensate for the fathers abuse. But this is not always the case. The musician that I mentioned above eventually told me towards the end of my time with him that his mother verbally and emotionally abused him when he was young. When she became angry with him, she would say to him “I wished I had flushed you down the toilet when you were born” and “I wish I had slammed your head against the wall when you were a baby.” Tell me, how can a seven, eight, nine or ten-year-old boy handle that kind of abuse?... Words spoken over him by his own mother that seemed to have come from the depths of hell…words designed to crush his little spirit and destroy his self-esteem? How does he compensate for being made to feel inferior by the one person on earth who is supposed to be building him up? I will tell you how. As he grows older, and no doubt experiences further emotional damage inflicted by his abusive parent (and perhaps others), he falls into grand delusions of his own superiority in order to prove the parent wrong (or whoever did the abusing). If he has a musical gift then he might use it as a launching pad for delusions of grandeur. In his twenties and thirties that same musician, if he detected the slightest hint of a put down, would loudly (and obnoxiously) reel off a ready list of his accomplishments – who he played with, the countries where he toured, etc. This is called a narcissistic rage. He also loved to put others down, exalted himself and his friends as musical geniuses (it was a men's only club), and had a negative opinion about almost every other musician, who he would designate as those who "can't play." I once heard him put Jimi Hendrix on this list! He was also a misogynist (which would be easy to fall into after having a mother like that). (He also had a raging marijuana addiction - a drug he used to try to sooth his constant anxiety and fear of failure....Also, I am sure that you can tell that this was not a true friendship.)
I know another narcissist who actually told me that he believed that he was the smartest person on earth. And he was not kidding. Narcissists also tend to adopt affectations – creating personas to mask their true self, which they feel is inferior. Perhaps that is what Miles’ appearance and behavior was all about.
Another brief consideration is this. Pastor G. Craige Lewis,
who has presented a ground shaking series called The Truth About Hip Hop, said that “No one can handle fame in the
flesh.” (‘in the flesh refers to trying to do something ourselves, in our own
strength/weakness, without the supernatural power of God.) If we become famous,
we are all subject to fall into the temptation of arrogance, a superior
attitude and delusions of grandeur. I have even heard stories from
musicians about the abuse doled out by certain celebrities on the musicians
they hire. Name calling, put downs, etc. The musicians stay in the gig because
of the credentials and subsequent career advancement that they will receive
because they can say that they “played with so and so.” (This reminds me of Proverbs
15:17 – Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with
hatred.)
I don't know if Miles abused his band (Although in his autobiography he did describe times when he actually punched John Coltrane.) But not being able to handle fame also explains his behavior. The evidence is in the way people experienced him. In the documentary I Called Him
Morgan, Lee Morgan’s wife, Helen, described her interaction with Miles when
she first met him. She said when they were at a party or something like that, Miles
approached her and said “I guess you know who I am.” She responded with “I don’t
have to know you!”
Just as Pastor Craige said, no one can handle fame in the
flesh. And if one already has narcissistic personality disorder, coupled with things
that they feel ashamed of and other abuses, a person can easily slide into megalomania.
If not, well…we are all human. I have even seen a man who used his ability to
develop databases as a point of superiority over others. We have all done this
at least a little bit, at one point or the other. And don’t let a person get a little
power. Yikes!
Still, the truth remains that narcissistic personality
disorder or not, low self-esteem or not, Miles Davis was completely out of order with the way he
treated that child. And from that, we can all learn the lesson that this is definitely
not the way to be.
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