Tea Break
A series where musicians and others stop by for an imaginary Tea Break to talk about their music and projects. We usually talk with current musicians about their projects but on this occasion we wondered how a Tea Break might have gone with Miles Davis? The answers he gives to the questions here are all built around some of his actual quotations.
Miles Davis
It must have been a busy morning at the Café Le Rêve as Natalie was still clearing tables. She looked up and smiled as I came in. Arthur was in his usual seat by the window, his scruffy dog, Alfie, asleep under the table. Arthur must have been here for a while as he was now half way through the crossword in his newspaper.
“Morning, Arthur”. Alfie opened one eye.
“Morning”.
Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue album was playing quietly in the background, and the ‘reserved’ card for me had been placed in one of the booths at the back of the café. Ferdinand, the owner, appeared from the kitchen, waved, grabbed something from behind the counter and disappeared again.
Natalie asked who was coming today and did I have the CD?
"It's your favourite American trumpet player, Miles Davis, Natalie. Here's his Cookin' album, he should be here soon so I’ll wait to order, thank you”.
A few minutes later, Miles arrived, - dark glasses. his hat pulled down. Under the table Alfie opened an eye and wagged his tail. Natalie immediately knew who he was, welcomed him, and brought him over to the booth.
Hi Miles, great to see you. You found the cafe then. How are things?
Yeah, cool, thankyou. It's like my future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life. It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.
That's a good thought to start the day.
Sure. It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.
Can I get you a coffee, Miles? I read a piece from a coffee roasting company that says: "If Miles Davis roasted coffee, his style would evolve over time, developing new techniques to bring out the best flavor while never losing sight of fundamentals. If Miles Davis roasted coffee, he would be willing to change with the times while always staying true to his own voice. If Miles Davis roasted coffee, we think it would taste a lot like Three Keys."
That's cool! A lot of people ask me where music is going today. I think it's going in short phrases. If you listen, anybody with an ear can hear that. Music is always changing. It changes because of the times and the technology that's available, the material that things are made of, like plastic cars instead of steel. So when you hear an accident today it sounds different, not all the metal colliding like it was in the forties and fifties. Musicians pick up sounds and incorporate that into their playing, so the music that they make will be different.
True. I remember this place I used to work where someone had put up a card on the door saying "Change Is Here To Stay'. How about a pastry with the coffee, Miles?
I'm a fiend when it comes to good pastry, and the French make the best as far as I'm concerned!
I'll ask Natalie to bring some over. Natalie came over here from France a couple of years ago so she'll like that. She loves your music, too as you can probably tell! I'll get her to play something from the Cookin' album as she often helps the chef, Joe, in the kitchen. How about My Funny Valentine?
I realise it is a long way back, but as it is your centenary, can you remember anything from your early days?
The very first thing I remember in my early childhood is a flame, a blue flame jumping off a gas stove somebody lit - I remember being shocked by the whoosh of the blue flame jumping off the burner, the suddenness of it - I saw that flame and felt that hotness of it close to my face. I felt fear, real fear, for the first time in my life. But I remember it also like some kind of adventure, some kind of weird joy, too. I guess that experience took me someplace in my head I hadn't been before... The fear I had was almost like an invitation, a challenge to go forward into something I knew nothing about. That's where I think my personal philosophy of life and my commitment to everything I believe in started ... In my mind I have always believed and thought since then that my motion had to be forward, away from the heat of that flame.
And now, so many years later, here you are - a legend!
I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me “a legend”. A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it.
Sorry .... change the subject! When you play, you always seem to get really involved in your playing?
If I got my mind on something about my band or something else, well, hell, no, I don’t want to talk. When I’m working I’m concentrating. I bet you if I was a doctor sewing on some son of a bitch’s heart, they wouldn’t want me to talk. I always listen to what I can leave out.
Ah, here's Ferdinand. It's his café. How about another coffee? What's your favourite Miles album, Ferdinand?
Well, talking about coffee, I have to say Bitches Brew! Man! That was quite an important album for you in 1970, Miles, with the introduction of fusion and electricity!
Hi Ferdinand, Yeah, I had seen the way to the future and I was going for it like I had always done. I had to change course to continue to love what I was playing.
It split the jazz world at the time!
So what! Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is. Yeah, another coffee would be good.
Well, here's what some of the guys in that band say:
I know you have to go, you've got a session with Gabriel, I think. How's it going?
Man, that cat can play the horn, but he has no idea what to do to make my music ... been playing with those angels and all that shit too much, I guess. I tell him "Don't play what's there, play what's not there." 'What if I make mistakes?' I say: '"Don't fear mistakes, there are none. It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong." He doesn't get it. I say “Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.”
These things take time, I guess, but you've got plenty. You'll get there. Thanks for dropping by and chatting, Miles. People say you don't talk much but this has been a real pleasure. We must get together again in another hundred years.
Yeah, thanks, talked too much today! Some day I'm gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up!
No, don't do that. Tell them that it's Human Nature! Anyway, we know what to say to those people .....
And so Miles picked up his hat and left. He stopped when Natalie opened the door for him; he took off his glasses, held her hand, smiled, and said "Thank you". She couldn't concentrate for the rest of the day and Ferdinand let her go home early.
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