One of my favorite TV shows is Parks and Recreation. So I was mighty pleased to hear the name Miles Davis called out in the show’s cold open Thursday night (11/29). Designed as an NPR spoof, the opening set-up takes place in Wamapoke County Public Radio station.
Becasue their listeners love their jazz music, the decision is made to play a recording of Benny Goodman played over a separate recording of Miles Davis.
Jazz rules!
Tucked away near the bottom of a Hollywood Reporter interview (wrapped around an expensive watch advertisement) on Don Cheadle, we get this morsel of info:
On the set of House of Lies, the sound of Cheadle practicing trumpet is a regular lunchtime treat, says Bell, part of his prep for a Miles Davis biopic he intends to produce and topline.
The key word here is ‘intends’, which means this project is still a ways off from production.
But he’s practicing the trumpet, and that’s a good sign for Miles Davis Biopic watchers.
We recently reported that the film’s title, as of this second, is Kill the Trumpet Player. No comments so far from Cheadle on the movie title.
The always enjoyable Letters of Note recently posted a terrific memo, sent by record producer Teo Macero to executives at Columbia Records regarding the title of the next Miles Davis album – that would end up being Bitches Brew.
Transcript
CBS MEMORANDUM
FROM: Teo Macero
TO: JOHN BERG, JOE AGRESTI, PHYLLIS MASON
DATE: November 14, 1969
RE: MILES DAVIS CS 9961 XSM 151732/3 PROJECT # 03802
Miles just called and said he wants this album to be titled:
“BITCHES BREW”
Please advise.
cc
(Signed, ‘Teo’)
Here is a cool YouTube mash-up of Miles Davis playing a selection of music from the film Elevator To The Gallows along with LCD Soundsystem’s “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down.”
A news round-up of TV deals on Deadline.com alerted me to the fact that the upcoming Miles Davis Biopic will be titled Kill The Trumpet Player.
[Steven] Baigelman, repped by UTA and Management 360, is developing the Miles Davis feature biopic Kill The Trumpet Player for Don Cheadle to star.
Also, film producer Michael Cerenzie (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Deuces Wild) is now part of the movie project.
Antoine Fuqua was recently – without much fanfare – named the director of the long-in-development movie project about Miles Davis.
Cheadle had originally planned to handle both directing duties and playing the leading role in his non-linear biopic about the jazz legend. No specific reasons have been giving as to why Cheadle made the change, but no doubt the addition of Fuqua can be considered a positive one.
Thoughts on the film title?
Cheadle did say in an interview, jokingly or not, that the project is, “not a biopic, per se. It’s a gangster pic.”
Kill The Trumpet Player does fit the bill, I guess, if he is really going for that type of narrative.
A Weekly Round-Up Of Miles Davis News & Notes
Bill Cosby on Miles Davis [austin chronicle]
Legendary Artists Such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane and John Lee Hooker Now Available via Rumblefish for Use in Online User-Generated Videos [broadcast newsroom]
If Miles Davis’s mid-century trumpet solos can be described by a single phrase, it might be “doing more with less.” [ny times]
If there’s going to be a documentary about the past, present and future of Funk, certainly Miles Davis is going to come up somewhere in the conversation. The jazz great is one of many notable artists highlighted in Finding the Funk, a forthcoming documentary from author/filmmaker Nelson George and music producer Arthur Baker.
A nice breakdown of the project can be viewed on Kickstarter, where Finding the Funk is currently holding a pledge drive for donations to help the documentary team, “pay for the soundtrack, editing and graphics, all critical aspects of post-production.”
Inspired by an idea from legendary record producer Arthur Baker, Finding the Funk is a road trip in search of the past, present and future of Funk music. We start in Dayton the birthplace of so many of Funk’s originators, then onto Detroit where from the ashes of Motown, P-Funk’s Mothership arose and then to LA where a new crop of musicians, like Dam Funk, are creating their own Funk history.
Many ‘funky’ people are interviewed for the doc, including Sly Stone, Bootsy Collins, Mike D of the Beastie Boys, D’Angelo, Marcus Miller, Mtume, Sheila E, and Diplo. The doc is hosted by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of the Roots.
The jazz/funk chapter in Miles Davis’ career is discussed in Finding the Funk by Marcus Miller and Mtume – two musicians well-qualified to chat about Miles’ Electric Years, where he pushed ‘jazz’ in yet another new and exciting direction.
Rewards for those who contribute include film credits, a digital funk mix-tape curated by Stone’s Throw label head Peanut Butter Wolf, a special sneak peek screening of Finding the Funk at Converse’s Rubber Tracks in NYC, and an opportunity to get your music track re-mixed by Baker.
Vh1 is hoping to air Finding the Funk next spring.
Get funky and pledge your support here!
There is a new illustrated history of Miles Davis on the way, which features 300 pictures and words by people from Bill Cosby and George Wein to the legendary Sonny Rollins.
“Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History” by Voyageur Press is due out Nov. 17. A terrific gift for the holidays!
“Miles Davis – The Complete Illustrated History” is Written by an all-star team, including Sonny Rollins, Bill Cosby, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Clark Terry, Lenny White, Greg Tate, Ashley Kahn, Robin D. G. Kelley, Francis Davis, George Wein, Vincent Bessières, Gerald Early, Nate Chinen, Nalini Jones, Dave Liebman, Garth Cartwright, and more.
Miles Davis is one of many jazz greats found in the impressive new Blue Note App developed for the iPad from Chicago-based Groovebug.
The new iPad app is free to download and features 30-second music clips; a monthly subscription of $1.99 gets you all of the app’s music tracks played in full.
The initial catalog which includes over one thousand songs.
Other features include amazing photos, in-depth bios, album notes, performance videos and newspaper articles. The Blue Note App also offers playlists curated by jazz experts, plus new audio monthly, and the option to dedicate songs to your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
Download the Blue Note App here
This is a not a new story, but one I find rather terrific. With the 2012 presidential election just around the corner, it’s fun to look back at Dizzy Gillespie’s historic 1964 challenge to incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson and Republican nominee Barry Goldwater.
Writing a few years back on the Night Lights blog, David Brent Johnson puts together an excellent look back at Dizzy’s short-lived race for the White House.
Pushed into his own style of jazz politics by jazz writer Ralph Gleason and his wife Jean, Johnson writes that Dizzy had plans to rename the White House ‘the Blues House’ and, “proposed a presidential cabinet with Duke Ellington as minister of state, Max Roach as minister of defense, Charles Mingus as minister of peace, Peggy Lee as minister of labor, and Miles Davis as the director of the CIA.”
Miles Davis taking charge of the CIA sounds about right.
Gillespie was in swinging campaign mode at his 1963 Monterey concert, featuring a rewrite of “Salt Peanuts” by Jon Hendricks with lyrics that included the lines, “Your politics oughta be a groovier thing/so get a good president who’s willing to swing/Vote Dizzy! Vote Dizzy!”
That particular concert can be heard on the CD Dizzy for President.
Two hours. Well worth a viewing if you haven’t seen it already. It’s not perfect, not the ultra-comprehensive, 4-hour doc I believe is necessary to tell the whole story of Miles Davis. But it is still a very solid overview of the man and his music.
There’s always the possibility it just isn’t going to happen for Don Cheadle’s cubist approach to the movie biopic about jazz legend Miles Davis.
As with most non-blockbuster films, money is usually the issue. Cheadle acknowledged this in a 2010 interview with the Hollywood Reporter. Of course scheduling also plays a part, as Cheadle is busy with a variety of TV and film projects.
As of now there is no word of a studio, or independent production company, ready to team up with Cheadle and his Miles Davis Movie project. Or perhaps Cheadle isn’t ready to reveal any big news.
Cheadle did mention a studio deal back in December (2011), but no word about such a deal since.
Though not officially announced, it looks as if Antoine Fuqua will direct the film, which helps with both hype and substance, but even that good news might not carry the film across the finish line.
It could be that plenty of folks like the project, but wonder how much business a film about a jazz musician, even as legendary as Davis, can perform at the box office. Cheadle’s plan to eschew the traditional Hollywood biopic (like “Ray”) for something more avant-garde might also cause some to view it as yet another hurdle in trying to market the film to moviegoers who aren’t much into jazz and know little about Miles Davis.
Of course, you can be uneducated about a biopic subject and still enjoy a darn film – but without the usual blueprint of cradle-to-grave storytelling, it can be a tougher sell.
Not that this film was going to be a summer blockbuster. If anything, it should reap plenty of hype surrounding Cheadle and his performance of the famous Miles Davis. The music is a big plus, considering Cheadle has access to all the classic tunes.
Already a longtime resident of Development Hell, it’s tough to know just where the project stands in terms of an actual timeline for production. Probably far off. That doesn’t mean Cheadle isn’t working hard to try and wrap up a deal, but there might few, willing dance partners.
Let it be known that I have zero insider knowledge, but I have been following the Miles Davis Movie project since March 2007, so there’s no denying my dedication and focus on following the story until the end.
If there is an end. One wonders if Cheadle might ever reach the point when he realizes it’s not going to happen and decide to step away.
Or maybe the project stays on his shelf until all the pieces fall into place – years down the road. I imagine the Miles Davis Estate must have a strong voice in all this, but it takes money first, and distribution second – regardless what the film is about.
They could try to drum up the money, shoot the film and look for a distributor afterwards. Or maybe Cheadle wants all bases covered before he jumps into actually making the movie. And then there’s Fuqua, who has his own movie business gravitas to lend to the development.
I already think a massive film documentary – spare no expense! – might do the trick in telling the story of Miles Davis. But I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t still very excited at the thought of seeing an actor as excellent as Cheadle portray such an iconic figure.
So we’ll see….. Onward and upward.
Back in May we noted that the city of Alton, Illinois, Miles Davis’ hometown, had begun the process of honoring the jazz legend with a life-sized statue in the heart of Downtown’s entertainment district.
Pride, Inc. has taken the lead in getting the Miles statue project moving, and, according to Pride board member Patricia Ackman, they have already decided what the statue will look like.
Alton Daily News.com features an audio link to the interview with Ackman about the statue, which is going to resemble the image utilized for the recently released postage stamp.
“It just is Miles Davis,” says Ackman of the image that will be used for the statue.
Writing for the St. Louis Beacon, Paul Povse has posted a good update on Alton’s plans to commemorate the jazz icon with a statue.
Optimistic estimates put the cost of the statue at $50,000 to $100,000, with a two-three year timetable, But Brett Stawar, president of the Alton Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau, believes it could cost $200,000 and take up to five years to raise the money and finish the sculpture.
Davis was born in Alton in 1926. He lived there until only age 2 when his family moved to East St. Louis.
A Weekly Round-Up Of Miles Davis News & Notes
“Bags’ Groove” is the name of an album Miles Davis recorded in 1954 with a group of stellar musicians. It’s also the name of a track from that album – well, two tracks really, as they recorded it twice and released both versions. [elder music / times goes by]
Plans for Davis Statue Moving Forward [alton daily news]
Miles Davis Hated Everything [kotaku]
Video: The door that impersonates Miles Davis [the strut]
The Gunslinger Guide to Miles Davis #7 [If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,
There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats]
“Miles was in retirement for the second half of the seventies, from about 1975 to 1981. In 1981, I got a call from him saying that he was going back into the studio, which was a big surprise to me. I had heard rumors that he was thinking about making a comeback, but you never know whether or not to believe rumors.
The next thing I knew, I was on the phone with him and he was asking me if I could come into the studio in a couple of hours. So I ran to his studio and the next thing you know, I was working with Miles Davis. He asked me to be in his band and, of course, I said yes.” [Interview with Marcus Miller via Huffington Post]
