The Day I Met Miles Davis (for chaska)

[progmom]

I was 16, and attending my second North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague. All of the musicians stayed in the same hotel, so I would get there early and hang out in the lobby with my camera and my autograph book.

Miles was expected to arrive at the hotel by noon. This was 1988, and he was filling soccer areas in Europe on his tours, so people were pretty excited. By late-morning, there was quite a little crowd of fans and press waiting for his limo.

So this long white Mercedes limo pulled up...and then past the hotel entrance and idles in the parking lot. Somehow I was the only one who recognized Miles' hair plugs pressed against the backseat window. I slipped away from the crowd with my Sharpie and my copy of Amandla and tapped on the window of his limo.

"Mr. Davis? Can I get your autograph?"

His back was to me, so I couldn't hear what he muttered in response.

"I'm sorry, what? I didn't hear you, Mr. Davis. Could I trouble you for your autograph?"

The window slid down 6 inches, and he turned those scary Miles eyes on me. Our faces weren't more than 4 inches apart.

"I said.....GO....AWAY!!" (You have to imagine this in his raspy voice)

So I went away. And I told the crowd of fans and press that Miles's limo was right there, in the parking lot. They swarmed it...sticking their cameras in the windows, yelling questions...

Miles had the driver take him to the back of the hotel. The crowd chased his limo. (Yeah, me too) Miles jumped out of the limo and ran to the door of the hotel...to find it locked.

Somewhere around here I have a picture of Miles waiting for them to unlock that door, shooting me the dirtiest looks.

So...there's my story.

[chaska]

1. Wow, Proggie. Do you know what an honor....

it is to even get yelled at by Miles? That alone puts you in a very special club. BUT TO EXACT REVENGE!!!! You are in a class by yourself.

YOU have become a GOD.

[progmom]

5. i was only 16

i would like to think i wouldn't have been looking for revenge if i was the age i am now. ;)

[tigereye]

12. wow

figured you had to be pretty young... he was an intense man.

[sundog]

2. aw pmommy

:hug:

i didn't scar you for life did it?

who knows what was happening in his soul at the time

[progmom]

3. not at all - i expected as much

In his autobiography, he told the story of getting into an elevator and getting totally disoriented. He started yelling at the other occupant of the elevator: "B*tch! Get the hell out of my motherfucking Ferrari!" :rofl:

[chaska]

6. Miles was not known to be the nicest cat on the planet...

[biscodawg]

4. sheesh

what a dick. i sat next to stephen stills on an airplane and he told me about woodstock and signed a barfbag :D. not to derail or anything

[progmom]

7. i've got lots of great stories of wonderfully kind musicians too

Miles and Sarah Vaughan were really the stand-out meanies.

Cool about Stephen Stills! :thumbsup:

[chaska]

8. Do tell....

No really, I'd like to hear them all.

[progmom]

9. You're just looking for reasons to post those scary pictures!

:scared:

[chaska]

11. Yeah. So...

No seriously, I do want to hear them. But, unfortunately, I have to leave ... on a mission. Uh, yeah, that's it.

G'night.

[biscodawg]

10. heres another one I have

back in the day I used to have my hair cut in Newport Beach (yeah the OC lol) and lo and behold one day while getting my hair cut, the drummer from Korn and the bassist from Orgy stroll in. My hairdresser introduced me to them and we shot the shit for a bit. Then while talking about the music business and such, the bassist from Orgy says "yes, we suck and are a one hit band." After he said that, my respect for him and Orgy rose 100%, yes Orgy is pretty craptacular i know but the honesty about it was refreshing (sorry revacts x( ) The End.

[tigereye]

13. Sarah Vaughn was mean?

oh, that is disappointing. :( How could the owner of such a velvety voice be mean? Bummer.

I met Betty Carter once at a lecture, and she was totally cool.

whoops, this is not where I meant it to be! :)

[progmom]

14. "mean" might be overstating it

i was 15.
she burst into the lobby of the hotel and proclaimed, to no one in particular: "i need a cigarette. and a glass of water. WITH ICE. and turn up the god damned air conditioning!"

she settled herself in to a soft chair across from me as she waited for her room. i gave her a couple of minutes and then shyly approached her for an autograph.

"shit baby! i'm tired! leave me alone!!"

but you know....i was just so thrilled to be in the room with her, it didn't even really bother me. :)

[Misunderestimator]

28. She called you "baby"... YOU should feel lucky.

:silly:

[progmom]

29. and that's exactly how i felt

:hi:

[Zomby Woof]

15. His genius was matched by his assholishness

I love his music like no other, but your story rings 100% true based on multiple accounts. "Temperamental" doesn't begin to describe him. Great story though!

Wish I saw him live.

[progmom]

17. i saw him three times

:)

[Zomby Woof]

18. Dammit!

First the Guinness, and now this!

I am debating whether to give you this dark chocolate I have handy. :D

[enigmatic]

16. That's Miles...

He was only 5'4, but he could make you feel like you were 5 inches tall.

Still, the blew horn like nobody before or since. A true genius, but as supreme asshole..

[misanthrope]

20. Others can only make you feel small...

...when you give them that power over you. Laughing in the face of pricks like that can be really fun 'cause it leaves them impotent.

Also, that arrogant cop that beat his ass out on the NYC sidewalk when Miles stupidly shot his mouth off surely didn't feel five inches tall.

I have a real love/hate relationship with Davis.

[misanthrope]

19. Sounds about par for the course...

...Miles was someone who was tolerated only because of his genius. In every other respect he was a miserable prick who made everyone around him feel like shit, would lie as soon as open his mouth and beat his wives.

George Wein once said, "I loved Dizzy. I didn't love Miles. I was proud of having worked with Miles, but I didn't love him." Others echo the same to this day.

I respect the hell out of his music, but I wouldn't have wanted to meet him. There are/were a lot of those guys with comparable talent who are/were much better human beings, people it would have been much more productive to spend time around than to have wasted it with Miles.

Oh, and kudos for making him suffer a little.

[Dukkha]

21. sound right to me too

when I first moved to S.F. I was cleaning houses between jobs. I did Jazz musician John Handy's house one day. He was telling me bout others he worked with, stating Stanley Jordon was the nicest guy and Miles Davis was the biggest asshole.

[hfojvt]

22. I do not get it

surprise, surprise.
It sounds to me like you invaded his personal space, and him telling you to go away makes him an a$$hole? Then you basically incited an assault on him, and that makes you clever? What is that, papparazzi ethics?
Sorry, I gotta take his side here, and did I read that he is a trumpet player? Then I stand with a fellow trumpeter.

[progmom]

23. Are there sides to take?

Go ahead. I'll join you. I was 16. I too am embarrassed at what I did. I wasn't bragging. See my response here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=3682177&mesg_id=3682327

[hfojvt]

24. she was too young

to fall in love, and I was too young to know.

[progmom]

25. ok...dr. hook.

but seriously - are you serious?


well...that ended up being an oddly phrased question. :P

[hfojvt]

27. and this was 1988

That means you are about a decade younger than I am. Way too young to be my mom.

But in the earlier thread you said that this musician was "rude to your face", but in the incident he was as much the offendee as the offender. Not like Lech Walesa did to me when I stood in line for about fifteen minutes to ask him a question at a talk he was giving, and he quit taking questions even though I was the only one waiting. There would have been time if he had not taken ten minutes to answer the question before, and he could have answered my question in about ten seconds, or Thomas Frank who sorta scribbled all over the book he was autographing for me.

Those acts were more uncalled for, whereas your incident seems more about an over-zealous fan being told to back off. His rudeness was not unprovoked.

[mulsh]

26. "sing a sus 5tth "

miles was an asshole, even when he was trying to be nice. told me to try to sing a suspended 5th chord if I was a real musician. told me to try to sing an a minor. hell, he even played basketball in john lennon's driveway, just ask yoko.