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50 Years of the Playboy Interview
Miles Davis: The Playboy Interview (Singles Classic)
In mid-1962, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner was given a partial transcript of an interview with Miles Davis. It covered jazz, of course, but it also included Davis’s ruminations on race, politics and culture. Fascinated, Hef sent the writer—future Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Alex Haley, an unknown at the time—back to glean even more opinion and insight from Davis. The resulting exchange, published in the September 1962 issue, became the first official Playboy Interview and kicked off a remarkable run of public inquisition that continues today—and that has featured just about every cultural titan of the last half century.
To celebrate the Interview’s 50th anniversary, the editors of Playboy have culled 50 of its most (in)famous Interviews and will publish them over the course of 50 weekdays (from September 4, 2012 to November 12, 2012) via Amazon’s Kindle Direct platform. Here is that first Interview with Miles Davis.
To celebrate the Interview’s 50th anniversary, the editors of Playboy have culled 50 of its most (in)famous Interviews and will publish them over the course of 50 weekdays (from September 4, 2012 to November 12, 2012) via Amazon’s Kindle Direct platform. Here is that first Interview with Miles Davis.
- GenresNonfictionMusic
14 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 4, 2012
23 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Miles Davis
253 books115 followersWith warm, muted style on albums, such as
Kind of Blue
(1959), noted American trumpeter Miles Dewey Davis, Junior, later experimented with jazz-fusion.
Recordings of Armando Anthony Corea with group of Davis from 1968 to 1970 contributed to the development of jazz-fusion.
Miles Dewey Davis III led a band and composed.
From World War II, people widely considered Davis at the forefront of almost every major development as the most influential musicians of the 20th century, to the 1990s. He played various early bebop and one of the first cool records. He partially responsibly developed modal, and his work with other musicians in the late 1960s and early 1970s arose.
Davis belongs to the great tradition that started with Buddy Bolden and ran through Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, and Dizzy Gillespie, although people never considered his high level of technical ability unlike those of those musicians. His greatest achievement, however, moved beyond regard as a distinctive influence on his own instrument and shaped whole ways through the work of his bands, in which many of the most important musicians of the second half of the 20th century made their names.
The hall of fame for rock and roll posthumously inducted Davis on 13 March 2006. The walk of fame of Saint Louis and the halls for big band and jazz and downbeat jazz also inducted him.
Recordings of Armando Anthony Corea with group of Davis from 1968 to 1970 contributed to the development of jazz-fusion.
Miles Dewey Davis III led a band and composed.
From World War II, people widely considered Davis at the forefront of almost every major development as the most influential musicians of the 20th century, to the 1990s. He played various early bebop and one of the first cool records. He partially responsibly developed modal, and his work with other musicians in the late 1960s and early 1970s arose.
Davis belongs to the great tradition that started with Buddy Bolden and ran through Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, and Dizzy Gillespie, although people never considered his high level of technical ability unlike those of those musicians. His greatest achievement, however, moved beyond regard as a distinctive influence on his own instrument and shaped whole ways through the work of his bands, in which many of the most important musicians of the second half of the 20th century made their names.
The hall of fame for rock and roll posthumously inducted Davis on 13 March 2006. The walk of fame of Saint Louis and the halls for big band and jazz and downbeat jazz also inducted him.
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March 22, 2023My view of Miles Davis over the years have been extremely negative for a variety of reasons. There is even a book by Pearl Cleage, "Mad at Miles: A Black Woman's Guide to Truth" published in 1990.
Miles Davis says in this interview that he is just a musician and to view him as this.
This interview was conducted in 1962 and was the first interview in this series of Playboy interviews.
If you read it please remember the context of the world in 1962. So much going on with heightened racial tension.
President John F Kennedy was still alive.
Malcolm X was still alive.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was still alive.
Although Davis doesn't directly talk about them except for "the Kennedy boys," you get a sense of his political psyche and how he operates.
It's worth the read.
Though I have been judgmental of him for decades, this interview is the first time I can actually directly say to view him as a musician and nothing more.
Thank you, Miles Davis, for saying this which gives me a better sense of how to digest his music. That's it.
I have a sense as to why he named his album, "Bitches Brew" which was released in 1970 which was 8 years from this interview.
Miles Davis says in this interview that he is just a musician and to view him as this.
This interview was conducted in 1962 and was the first interview in this series of Playboy interviews.
If you read it please remember the context of the world in 1962. So much going on with heightened racial tension.
President John F Kennedy was still alive.
Malcolm X was still alive.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was still alive.
Although Davis doesn't directly talk about them except for "the Kennedy boys," you get a sense of his political psyche and how he operates.
It's worth the read.
Though I have been judgmental of him for decades, this interview is the first time I can actually directly say to view him as a musician and nothing more.
Thank you, Miles Davis, for saying this which gives me a better sense of how to digest his music. That's it.
I have a sense as to why he named his album, "Bitches Brew" which was released in 1970 which was 8 years from this interview.
December 3, 2016
Like Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame speech, which was also a torrent of boast and grievance, this interview reveals a man who is, above all, a competitor. And like Mike, Mile would have been great at anything tried--because he refused to lose. Yes he's eloquent throughout about Jim Crow, civil rights, and race. And yes he says a few important things about music. But this interview is valuable because it reveals the man's fire. The prince of the cool burned pretty hot.
March 31, 2021
Fascinating!
My knowledge of Miles Davis has mostly been negative. This interview threw him into an entirely different light. Great reading.
My knowledge of Miles Davis has mostly been negative. This interview threw him into an entirely different light. Great reading.
November 22, 2023
Miles es Miles
El libro me ha gustado por la franqueza de Davis al enfrentar el tema racial. Simple y directo. Un genio.
El libro me ha gustado por la franqueza de Davis al enfrentar el tema racial. Simple y directo. Un genio.
December 22, 2016
I had never read this interview regarding the mind of Miles Davis, the genius musician and family man. This is a quick glimpse into how Davis thought about his music, his life, and his relationship with a society that was still somewhat entrenched in stereotyping how a Black Musician should perform, act, and present himself. Miles struggled with this, and it is apparent in this interview. He loved people, yet had a hard time with how Black Artists were treated and how they were expected to act. This sometimes came across as aloof or combative, when in fact Miles was dealing with this in his own way, and it on occasion caused him to pace the floors at night.
As he stated in the interview, he did not like the boxes that you were supposed to be in because of your race, and rudeness seemed especially rub him raw. Those that come to a club not to hear great music but to see and be seen while being loud and boisterous really disturbed him. And I don't blame him. I'm a serious Jazz Aficionado and I do not like it when I go to a Jazz Club looking forward to a great performance and a table next to me is hooting and hollering and not even listening to the music. It's rude to the performer and rude to the audience.
On a deeper level, Miles was a sensitive man, and if you read this with understanding, you will see that. His music was not just his passion, it was his life - apart from his children, his wife and his Ferrari. He was conflicted at times, he was genius at times, and he was human. In my opinion, this is what made him great. Well, actually, to me, it is what made him the greatest.
As he stated in the interview, he did not like the boxes that you were supposed to be in because of your race, and rudeness seemed especially rub him raw. Those that come to a club not to hear great music but to see and be seen while being loud and boisterous really disturbed him. And I don't blame him. I'm a serious Jazz Aficionado and I do not like it when I go to a Jazz Club looking forward to a great performance and a table next to me is hooting and hollering and not even listening to the music. It's rude to the performer and rude to the audience.
On a deeper level, Miles was a sensitive man, and if you read this with understanding, you will see that. His music was not just his passion, it was his life - apart from his children, his wife and his Ferrari. He was conflicted at times, he was genius at times, and he was human. In my opinion, this is what made him great. Well, actually, to me, it is what made him the greatest.
February 5, 2017
"Troubles started when I learned to play the trumpet and hadn't learned to dance." I wish this article was 200 pages.
July 2, 2014
I'm often conflicted about Davis in the context of his relationship with women; as a performer he is brilliant, and sensitive, and I would like to have seen more unfolding of his sensitive side into his personal life. However, reading about the mind of this masterful performer is engaging.
March 6, 2018
Our by bank
From all i read of miles Davis before, I will point out that he is cosistent in his views. He does not just rant but backs his words with thought and you can tell he has lived what he s peaks of. This interview is a must read for all miles Davis fans.
From all i read of miles Davis before, I will point out that he is cosistent in his views. He does not just rant but backs his words with thought and you can tell he has lived what he s peaks of. This interview is a must read for all miles Davis fans.
December 12, 2016
Miles
Is there really anything more to say?? ok, I will so it prints in another useless pit nobody will read.
Is there really anything more to say?? ok, I will so it prints in another useless pit nobody will read.
January 20, 2018
Honest recollection from one of the greatest jazz musicians to pick up a horn!
Love how direct and to the point Mr Davis' responses are. We need more truth tellers! Society would benefit from more folks like Miles.
Love how direct and to the point Mr Davis' responses are. We need more truth tellers! Society would benefit from more folks like Miles.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews