(I discarded numerous “mental” letters before this writing, but one final letter formed last night as I looked through some pictures of Bird that Bob Parent had taken at a Village session.) If a picture needs to go with this story, it should be this picture of Bird, standing and looking down at Monk with more love than I think we’ll ever find in this jazz business!… +++++Four editions of Down Beat come to my mind’s eye–Bird’s “Blindfold Test,” mine, Miles’, and Miles’ recent “comeback story”–as I sit down and attempt to honestly write my thoughts in an open letter to Miles Davis. +++++The beginning soloist wasn’t in Duke’s band, the band wouldn’t be Duke…They take in all schools of jazz. …Cat Anderson sounds good on that Ray ALWAYS sounds good. Yes, everybody should bow to Duke and Strayhorn – and Charlie Parker and Diz. Especially Mingus, who always idolized Duke and wanted to play with him and why he didn’t mention it in his blindfold test, I don’t know. I think the musicians should get together one certain day and get down on their knees and thank Duke. That sounded like Billy Strayhorn’s arrangement it’s warmer than Duke usually writes. +++++Oh, God! You can give that twenty-five stars! I love Duke. Harry Carney, baritone saxophone Willie Cook, Ray Nance, Cat Anderson, trumpets Billy Strayhorn, arranger. Duke Ellington – Stormy Weather (Capitol) I don’t know who that other trumpet player would be.Ĩ. I’d rate it three stars on account of Terry. I know it must be Terry’s tune, ’cause it sounds like him. I like him when he plays down, instead up, always upward, phrases. +++++He’s much better when he plays soft, when he sounds like Buck. He’s a very original trumpet player but I don’t like to hear him strong-arming the horn just to try to be exciting. So I started trying to play like Terry I idolized him. He was playing like Buck Clayton then – but fast, just the way he is now. Louis when I was about thirteen and playing in a school band. …For a moment it sounded like Maynard but I guess Maynard would be doing more acrobatics. I know Duke didn’t write these arrangements. +++++That was Clark Terry and somebody I don’t know who the other trumpet was. He explained briefly how the different jazz styles were connected and interwoven.Ħ.
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+++++He said that they were professional musicians and these divisions and contempt for other styles did not exist among professionals, except with some of the younger ones.
Right off Miles said, “You’ve been reading that asshole Leonard Feather, haven’t you?” I nodded and Miles neatly and briefly explained that the divisions in jazz were artificial and promoted by writers like Feather. I stammered out something to the effect that I couldn’t believe that he was there playing with Scobey as I had it in my mind from what I read that stylistically they could never play together and they must dislike each other. +++++During a break I got up my nerve and went up to Miles. They did middle-of-the-road stuff that everyone was comfortable with and they seemed to be having a good time musically. Yet here was Miles who was very congenial and joined right in.
I was stunned…I could not believe this because in my mind these guys had to hate each other. I walked in there one Sunday and Miles Davis was the guest artist. I was usually there and Scobey’s sessions were in the traditional-dixieland-mainstream bag. Bob Scobey was having a bi-weekly Sunday jazz session with guest artists at another club. +++++At one point Miles Davis was at the Blackhawk. But even the modern musicians became targets of his poison pen.
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Almost every article or review was negative in tone and usually full of contempt and vicious remarks about “Dixieland” or pre-bop musicians. +++++I began reading the jazz publications and Feather was a predominant writer. Thanks to Alessandro Forghieri for collecting these online.Īn excerpt from Leonard Feather (An Encounter with Miles Davis) – by Jim Beebe : An Open Letter to Miles Davis by Charles Mingus, 30th Nov 1955 All blindfold tests conducted by Leonard Feather for Down Beat magazine.Ĭlick on the song titles to load the youtube video in a new window.
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