The Miles Davis Movie: Is Puff Daddy working on a Miles Davis project?

I’m not sure if this is a colossal joke, but I stumbled upon a Blog (The Obenson Report) with a link to a video interview with Puff Daddy discussing his acting ambitions and other miscellaneous Puff Daddy news. In the video clip Puffy states that he’s always wanted to play Miles Davis AND that a … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: Filming the Birdland attack

1959 was quite a year for Miles Davis. In March he recorded “Kind of Blue” on Columbia Records. On August 25, while taking a break outside the legendary Birdland nightclub in New York City, Davis was beaten by the police and arrested. And to think he had just performed for an Armed Forces Radio broadcast … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: Who is going to play Gil Evans?

The Miles Davis-Gil Evans relationship fascinates me: two creative souls producing brilliant music together. I absolutely love the work they created; Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain are simply wonderful. A musical partnership on par with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn I say. Like Miles, Gil Evans was a Jazz Pioneer. While … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: Filming the First Great Quintet

The year is 1955 and Miles Davis puts together the first version of the Miles Davis Quintet. The First Great Quintet as they are celebrated in the annals of jazz history. It doesn’t get much better than John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (double bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums). The first … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: The fanboys and the hype machine

Am I a Miles Davis fanboy? Can someone 35 years-old even be considered a fanboy? I ask because the term has become quite ubiquitous these days as it relates to movies and music, comics and TV shows, cars and video games and just about anything else a teen male can obsess over non-stop and pledge … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: The Miles Style

I have already mentioned the importance of costume design in the new Miles Davis film because, let’s face it — Miles Davis had a knack for the fashionable. A reader of the Blog directed me to their site, miles davis threads, which is dedicated to Miles Davis and his clothes. Now there’s a Blog I … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: Finding the ‘voice’

I stumbled across a somewhat notable interview Miles Davis did with Don DeMichael in 1969 for Rolling Stone (Jazz’s Picasso puts it in black and white); it’s an interesting enough read, but what caught my attention was this particular passage: There’s the one about how he lost his voice (the Davis voice is a legend … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: Who is going to play Charlie Parker?

Of course Charlie Parker will be in the film. How could he not be? His influence on Davis is significant and certainly well documented. In 1944, the Billy Eckstine band visited St. Louis. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were members of the band, and Davis was taken on as third trumpet for a couple of … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: Acting! or: Who is Miles Davis?

While researching the forthcoming Miles Davis biopic last night I found a short, news item on contactmusic.com from June of last year. It begins: Don Cheadle received no help from Miles Davis’ family while researching his role as the jazz man – because no one had any recollections about the music icon’s secret life. It’s … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: The Betty Year

“If Betty were singing today she be something like Madonna, something like Prince, only as a woman. She was the beginning of all that when she was singing as Betty Davis.” ~ Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography I’m wondering if Betty (Mabry) Davis will make an appearance in the Miles Davis biopic… Let the casting … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: what you might have missed

I’m having a blast writing about the forthcoming Miles Davis biopic, and I appreciate all the kind words from those who have dropped by the Blog to see what’s going on. For those who haven’t been visiting the Blog since it started a few months ago, I thought I would stop the presses and provide … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: Art is fun

I stumbled onto a design site called Wordle, where users can generate “word clouds” from text that you provide. It’s really simple and you can come up with some clever text designs. I, of course, created a word cloud for the Miles Davis movie. If you click the photo you’ll see the bigger version. Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: Remember when Wesley Snipes was going to play Miles Davis?

That’s correct… the star of such Hollywood films like “New Jack City,” “Passenger 57,” “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Major League” and “Mo Better Blues” was close to adding the Miles Davis story to his acting resume. It’s no big secret that a film version on the life of Miles Davis has been around the Hollywood … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: The viral marketing plan

I was inspired by a July 1 post on First Showing about the viral marketing genius behind “The Dark Knight” to speculate about such viral goodness that might be part of the Miles Davis biopic. Surely the Miles Davis movie isn’t likely to generate the same pop culture tempest “The Dark Knight” has produced in … Continue reading »

The Miles Davis Movie: Hoping for a script leak – to me!

Lots and lots of chatter across the ‘Net this week about Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards” – his latest movie project about a raucous crew of American soldiers who travel into Germany in 1944 to kill a lot of Nazis. You get the idea. It should not be surprising there’s been a lot of QT news … Continue reading »