Produced and Directed by Stanley Nelson
**** (four stars)
NOT RATED
For my Dad, Mr. Powhatan Collins, who would have absolutely loved this film...
Three years ago, I found myself enthralled by Co-Writer/Actor/Director Don Cheadle's "Miles Ahead" (2016), his defiant, unrepentant exploration of the iconic musician Miles Davis (ruthlessly portrayed by Cheadle). Like Davis himself as he ventured through his artistic odyssey and music career by breaking through every conceivable barrier in what could or could not be presented as jazz, Cheadle's film unapologetically refused to follow the cinematic rule book regarding anything resembling a biopic, which, it should be noted, "Miles Ahead" emphatically was not.
What I loved, in addition to Cheadle's searing performance, was the film's sheer audacity within its primary conceit. To create an impressionistic portrait of the artist when he is not creating, illustrating his inner world via a non-linear structure of memories, dreams, and surreal touches resulting in an experience that was not only electrifying but one that felt as if it could have been the very film Miles Davis could have made about himself.
And my Dad hated it.
Yes indeed, Miles Davis has existed within the spectrum of my life for the entirety of my life and not because I have been a fan myself, which I actually had not been. Miles Davis has existed as a towering artistic figure within my household because he existed as my Dad's #1 favorite artist of all time, the one figure above all who would inspire my Dad to seek and follow from one giant artistic shift to another, as his idiosyncratic qualities were second to none and there would never be another like him again.
For my Dad, "Miles Ahead" did not do the legend the proper justice he felt that Miles Davis deserved. While my Dad did indeed love the language and artistry of the movies, he grew irritated when films became overly esoteric and did not just get to the point. It was not that he did not appreciate nuance. But if the work, to him, felt to be designed to make you, the viewer, work just for the sake of working and not because you found yourself lost in the story, he became distrustful and frustrated. And furthermore, with "Miles Ahead," he simply did not wish to see his lifelong hero presented in the way Cheadle envisioned him. My Dad wanted something more straightforward certainly but something more all encompassing and worthy of the life story being told.
Stanley Nelson's superlative documentary, "Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool," is not only precisely the film I am certain that my Dad had always wanted to witness about his hero, it is an excellent film for absolutely anyone and everyone who wishes to gaze into the mind and musical world of one of our most feverishly adventurous artists of any conceivable genre. Much like Miles Davis himself, Nelson creates a portrait and overall film experience that is cool, sophisticated, angry, and clean and as with the finest documentaries I have seen in recent years, it is also a film that transcends its subject matter to bring into focus larger themes, all of which enhance and enlighten the man and his artistic legacy, while also expanding into our shared existence. Raw and remarkable, Stanley Nelson's film serves as a masterful tribute to one of our most formidable artistic masters.
Stanley Nelson's "Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool" takes its full linear cradle-to-grave narrative and structure and utilizes the life story of Miles Davis as both a primer to the artist as well as a rich enhancement to all we may already know about the mercurial, fearless, always forward thinking artist.
Through an enormous arsenal of photographs and visual footage, some of which has never been previously released, plus interviews with Davis' musical collaborators (including bassist Ron Carter, pianist/keyboardist Herbie Hancock, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and bassist/multi-instrumentalist Marcus Miller among others), writers, journalists, scholars, friends and family members, the film is anchored by Miles Davis's own words and voice as narrator--that is the voice of actor Carl Lumbly evoking Davis' signature throaty rasp. And of course, from end to end, we have Miles Davis' musical legacy as the untouchable soundtrack, a collection of music that remains so profound in its depth that it still continues to reveal itself to our ears.
For Miles Davis devotees and novices, Stanley Nelson's film is meticulously and lovingly researched and therefore, beautifully contextualized into a rich, luxuriously executed narrative that is briskly paced and yet never rushed and by its conclusion, feels wholly complete. I truly found it to being remarkable that Nelson was able to condense so much material into a just under two hour running time, when he clearly had several mountains of material to work with regarding Miles Davis' life.
As I regard Davis now, realizing that he passed away at a very young 65 in 1991, it feels that the man experienced and lived several lives within the one he possessed, and in turn, it feels as if Nelson could have made three two hour documentary films about Davis' odyssey. That comment is not to suggest that I felt anything to be lacking. On the contrary, I feel it demands tremendous praise for Stanley Nelson as he was diligent and focused enough in being able to sift through all of the material and determine precisely what needed to be included to create a multi-layered experience, one, I would gather, would hopefully mirror any Miles Davis album, where we continuously discover and re-discover its gifts.
As previously stated, "Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool" is one more documentary that extends itself far beyond the reaches of what could have served as simply a "music biopic." Through witnessing Miles Davis' upbringing in the exceedingly rare confines of an affluent African-American family in Illinois and East St. Louis in the late 1920's and 1930's, his eventual musical studies at Julliard, the intense diligence and cultivation of his prodigious talents in New York City directly alongside the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and eventually his peerless, restless creativity and innovation that would cement him as one of the 20th century's greatest artistic minds and talents, we are also learning of the African-American experience as it relates to race and class and the similarities and differences as experienced by Davis in America and Europe, plus even larger themes of child abuse, depression, addiction, toxic masculinity, female subjugation and empowerment and finally, Black masculinity and Black excellence as it relates to artistic expression.
And then, we are able to regard how all of those themes are weaved into the full discography and legacy of Miles Davis' musical existence, which for him, clearly was another language, in fact, the most effective language for him in which to communicate to the world around him. I loved the story of how, as a child, he was already being perceived as being "weird" as he would wander in the fields by his home imitating the sounds of the natural world with his trumpet, thus the period in which he was beginning to develop his chosen language of music, leading the the dichotomy of his artistic life when compared with his personal life.
It is of no secret that Miles Davis was, in many ways, a hard man. A difficult individual, a figure one interview subject in the film refers to him as being "anti-social." Nelson thankfully does not shy away from these periods of Davis' life therefore ensuring the establishment of a full three dimensional portrait. Regarding race and racism, we are able to clearly see how being a Black man in Paris, in an environment that saw him standing on equal footing with Jean-Paul Sartre, and then returning to America, where this exact same Black man who could be beaten by police directly outside of the nightclub at which he is the headlining act (with his name on the marquee to boot) led to extreme confusion, depression, righteous and rightful rage as well as an eventual addiction to heroin as the constant realization that his wealth and fame could not protect him from a racist American society ate away at him.
Miles Davis' relationships with women will certainly provide the greatest sense of conflict, especially when viewed through a 21st century/Me Too context. I do think that Nelson is not asking of us to condone but to understand, as we also view Davis's adult relationships through his lens of witnessing the abusive relationship of his own parents. While a romance with French singer/actress Juliette Greco (interviewed in the film) fully disarmed him, it was his subsequent relationships that provided him with tremendous sources of inspiration and turbulence, and Nelson, wisely allows ample screen time to the women with whom Miles Davis shared his life in love and torment.
Most famously is Frances Taylor (also interviewed extensively in the film), Davis' first wife, and with whom would create an sparkling, powerful image of Black excellence, high class and sophistication throughout the African-American community. Through Taylor, we receive a full and fair reminiscence of the rise and fall of their love story, through his mental and physical abuse of her--so impactful that it led to her giving up her career as a dancer--and thus, a reclaiming of herself through her endurance, survival and re-emergence, leaving Miles Davis behind entirely.
Nelson's film also touches upon Miles Davis' turbulent romances with both Cicely Tyson and Betty Wright, which also followed suit in similar fashions as each woman served as artistic muse and combustible force. Yet, what Nelson achieves greatly, especially in our unforgiving social media climate regarding any issues of justice and fairness, is to display crucial nuance into each story. We are able to criticize behavior but Nelson never acts as judge and jury. and nor does he wish us to either. He allows us to understand the experiences as a whole, to understand each relationship's level of power struggles, dynamics as well as virtues of inspiration towards each other and the Black community as a whole, for example, the images of Miles Davis and Frances Taylor in the fullest of their respective glories was the epitome of cool, style and elegance, for the Black community and beyond.
For as much as Davis abused Frances Taylor, he also lavished upon her, most notably, placing her upon the cover of his album "Someday My Prince Will Come" (released December 11, 1961), an image that Taylor herself manipulated for even greater mystique as well as reclamation of the beauty image for Black women and society. For as turbulent as Davis and Betty Wright were together, she inspired his musical transformations in the 1970's as equally as the music of Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone and James Brown.
And in the end, and above all else, "Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool" is a celebration of the pioneering artistry that has continued to go unmatched as Davis transcended the jazz genre in enormity, thus inventing his own musical language with which to break boundaries and ultimately, to communicate.
Nelson gives us the ways in which Miles Davis utilized the teaching at Julliard and the New York City nightclubs as his educational grounds that formulated the foundation in which he could aspire to be an artist on the level of Stravinsky. Placing the bell of his trumpet directly into the microphone changed the way in which we heard the instrument and the man who held it. Nelson dives into the creation of Davis' landmark "Kind Of Blue" (released August 17, 1959) as well as the game changing "Bitches Brew" (released April 1970). We witness Davis' reliance on younger musicians to assist him in developing the sounds inside of his spirit and previously unheard in the world and finally, we continue to be awed by his fearless creative restlessness that surged him forwards, always with a refusal to look backwards. We remain amazed!
Even as we watch how he accomplished the seemingly impossible, how he re-invented the wheel over and over again, we are also amazed with how he, his musicality and the trumpet became one entity, communicating in a fashion that is formidable, difficult, demanding and accessible. Again, we understand!!!
It is incredible to watch just how the sensitivity, fury, anxiety, romanticism, and purity of his inner being so difficult to voice in standard interpersonal communication techniques became blindingly visible when he played his trumpet. I especially loved the sequences in which Nelson displays Davis composing and performing the score for the French film "Ascenseur pour L'echafaud" (1958) from Director Louis Malle. It is not what we might already know of traditional film scoring, with a conductor, orchestra and fully composed sheet music at the ready. We see Miles Davis, with trumpet in hand, performing in real time against the film images he is watching, responding intuitively to the characters upon screen, therefore, fusing his musical voice with the existential voice of the character. Absolutely mesmerizing!!
And again, I know my Dad would have loved this film. He would have loved it as much as I did.
Stanley Nelson's "Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool" is an enormously entertaining and unquestionably essential document in our continuing exploration into the legacy and mystique of Miles Davis, as well as being a brilliant addition to our finest music based documentaries as it is as informative as it is inclusive to any and all who wish to learn and know more.
It is also one of the very best films I have seen in 2019.
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