As musical legends go, they don’t get much more legendary than the jazz innovator and game changer Miles Davis, so much so that you can imagine him , if the fates had allowed, forming a supergroup with Jimi Hendrix and changing the direction of rock and roll for the better in some alternative reality.
In this reality, we got Dark Magus as a taste of where rock and roll might have but never quite did reach again. The great, revolutionary black superstar died in 1991 at the too young age of 61. Miles was sure pissed at white America. America seems to ululate between sexual panic and sexual hysteria when it comes to the Black Male. Unable to put its collective supergo to decent use, it jails the Black Male at every possible opportunity instead of dealing with its ingrained sense of inferiority. But his reputations as one of the greatest musicians of all time and Davis is being honored on what would have been his 88th birthday on May 26th (Memorial Day). “Miles Davis Way Block party in NYC on 5/26 (birthday of Miles)!? NYC is officially re-naming West 77th Street to “Miles Davis Way.” The celebration will include Miles alumni, special guests and unveiling. We will set up a commemorative photo op with the musicians as well. 312 West 77th Street is the address of the Brownstone where Miles created many of his classic works including “Kind Of Blue” and “Bitches Brew.”
It’s hard to imagine a more enjoyable way of spending Memorial Day, especially since the rain is supposed to have stopped. With Davis there is this sense of a real man doing real things, of an American life lived out in the darkest and harshest of lights as the black man, possibly the most problematic of all races and types for America, fighting and beating the white racists who ruled the county, with a sound so different, so alarming , so artistically sublime, it changed the world.
Now that’s something worth a Memorial.
