Rethinking Miles Davis

What hasn't been said about Miles Davis? Much has been written about the jazz trumpeter and band leader, yet studies of Davis are often restricted to the groundbreaking acoustic jazz he produced between the 1940s and 50s. While more recent studies revisit his 1960s and 1970s work, Davis' later engagements with music, fashion, and the mainstream media are ripe for reassessment. Rethinking Miles Davis confronts familiar narratives about Davis and his music through a range of perspectives: from the ways Davis pushed jazz into new genre forms, re-envisioned jazz standards, and collaborated musically, to his role in the record companies that released his music, the persona he developed in video, film, and fashion, and how his masculinity manifested both professionally and personally. The collection includes a photo-essay of international jazz musicians' take on Davis' albums in which each musician explains the personal significance of a favourite recording. Ultimately, Rethinking Miles Davis challenges the orthodoxy of jazz criticism, repositioning Miles Davis within a larger framework of modernism and mass culture.