Musical genius, visionary artist, enigma -- more than ten years after his death,
Miles Davis still looms large as a cultural icon. In this, the first new biogra
phy since Davis' death, John Szwed draws on various archives and never-before-pu
blished interviews with those who knew him to produce the richest and most revea
ling portrait of Miles Davis to date. The shy son of a dentist from Illinois, Mi
les Dewey Davis III would go through several transformations before becoming the
image of cool. Change, says Szwed, was the driving force in both Davis' life an
d music -- as quickly as he established a new direction in his music and a new i
dentity, he would radically reinvent both. He seemed to thrive on close musical
relationships -- playing with jazz greats from Charlie Parker to John Coltrane a
nd working with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, and composer Gil
Evans, among others -- and yet the enduring image of Davis is of a lone figure,
famously turning his back on the audience.
