Category Archives: jazz

Miles Davis The Painter? Who Knew?

Turns out Miles Davis painted and drew for many hours each day.

His art is damn good. Some reminds me of Basquiat.

A book, “Miles Davis: The Collected Artwork,” was published recently.

You can see 12 examples of his painting and drawing at The Daily Beast.

Miles’ heirs are working away at keeping the legendary jazz musician in the spotlight, and bringing Davis’ music to younger generations. Some of their plans — remixes by hip DJs — seem sketchy, others — ties and scarves? — seem sacreligious. But a biopic is a great idea, and I welcome more music.

A story in todays New York Times details some of what his three heirs are up to.

Watch: Jolie Holland Sing “Mexico City” & “Delia”

When I was Editor in Chief at MOG I executive produced these videos of Jolie Holland performing “Mexico City” and “Delia.”

“Mexico City” is one of Holland’s own compositions, and the studio version appears on her album, The Living And The Dead. “Delia” is a Blind Willie McTell song that Bob Dylan also covered. Jolie’s studio version appeared as the B-side of a single released in Europe. Both are favorites of mine.

Jolie Holland has the most soulful voice. She doesn’t sound like anyone but herself. There’s so much depth, so much emotion.

Stanley Crouch Finally Delivers His Charlie Parker Bio

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Poet and culture critic Stanley Crouch has been working on a book about legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker for 32 years. Now volume one, “Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker,” is being published next week by HarperCollins. The first volume covers Parker’s early years — 1920 to 1940. New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff talks to Crouch about the book here.