Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #658689 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
"A major work on Miles Davis ... [Tingen's] research ... his intellectual acumen ... and his fairness ... are simply exemplary."

Synopsis
One of the 20th-century's authentic musical geniuses, Miles Davis was a pioneer of such jazz styles as cool, hardbop, and the fusion of orchestral music and jazz in his work with arranger Gil Evans. Yet, when he made his boldest move in the late 1960s and began to experiment with rock and African music, giving birth to what became known as "fusion" or "jazz-rock", Davis alienated many of his jazz fans. This biography offers an in-depth exploration of Miles Davis's controversial electric period and the violent split of sentiment that it produced within the jazz community. Based on research, both primary material and first-hand recollections by over 50 musicians, partners, producers and artists, author Paul Tingen offers facts, insights and stories about Miles's remarkable artistic and personal life. In doing so, he provides a perspective on Miles's working methods as well as an in-depth analysis of the music, in historical order, offering an understanding of the development of Miles's music from 1967 to 1991, a period that has been both neglected and misunderstood.

Among those interviewed are musicians Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Billy Cobham, Michael Henderson, Dave Liebman, Pete Cosey and others; Sony reissue producer Bob Belden and producer Bill Laswell; Sony reissue remixer Mark Wilder; road manager Jim Rose; manager Mark Rothman; lawyer, manager and caretaker of the Miles Davis estate, Peter Shukat; former partners Marguerite Eskridge and Jo Gelbard; and recording artists and fans Mark Isham and Jah Wobble. In addition, the book contains a discography of Miles's music from 1967 to 1991.

From the Publisher
Book description
The first in-depth exploration and analysis of Miles Davis's controversial electric period, 1967-1991, and his unorthodox working methods. Based on new research as well as first-hand recollections by over 50 musicians, partners, producers, and artists, Miles Beyond offeres hundreds of never-before-revealed facts, insights, and revelations about Miles's remarkable artistic and personal life. Readers will discover new perspectives on Miles's approach to music, his spiritual awareness, his working methods, the impact he had on those around him, and his neglected and misunderstood electric music. Includes, from Miles discographer Enrico Merlin, the most detailed and complete discography compiled on Miles's music from 1967-1991. Features interviews with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Michael Henderson, Dave Liebman, James Mtume, Pete Cosey, Lenny White, Marguerite Eskridge, Marcus Miller, George Duke, Billy Cobham, John Scofield, Mike Stern, Robert Irving, Ricky Wellman, Adam Holzman, Jo Gelbard, and more.

Advance Praise:

"While reading, I felt so close to the man, that tears came to my eyes: 'My God, what a full life, in all its aspects.' I think Paul Tingen has written a fantastic book, and I'm very pleased by his sensitive and true version of Aura and the Copenhagen sessions." - PALLE MIKKELBORG, trumpeter and composer.

"An extraordinary book, brilliant in its conception and delivery, about one of the great musical geniuses of our times. Highly recommended." - KEN WILBER author of A Brief History of Everything; Sex, Ecology, Spirituality; and One Taste.

"Paul Tingen's engaging and well-researched book at last puts the spotlight on Miles Davis' scandalously neglected post-1970 music, and takes us inside that small group of musicians who changed jazz and pop music forever. Miles Beyond is a real contribution and a pleasure to read." - JOHN SZWED, professor of anthropology, African and African-American studies, music, and American studies at Yale University. Author of Jazz 101 : A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Jazz and Space Is the Place : The Lives and Times of Sun Ra.

"Paul Tingen has done an extraordinary job in filling in the blanks and shedding new light on Miles's working methods during the volatile '70s while providing a detailed, track-by-track analysis of controversial recordings like Agharta, Pangaea, Live-Evil and On The Corner. I was gratified to read an assessment of Miles's most provocative and misunderstood phase by someone who really 'GETS IT.'" - BILL MILKOWSKI, contributor to Jazz Times; author of Jaco: The Extraordinary And Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius and Swing It! An Annotated History of Jive.

About the author:

Dutch-born Paul Tingen is based in California and Scotland. He has worked as a writer and journalist for musicians magazines across the world since 1986, and as a guitarist since the early '80s, initially as an electric player, the last decade writing and playing his own music on acoustic guitar. His debut CD, May The Road Rise To Meet You, was issued in 1997, and his second album, Metamorphosis, in 2001.

Customer Reviews

At last - a Book about Miles Davis' Electric years.
A rare occasion is when a book appears, that unveils a whole era, which by some reason has been forgotten or disregarded. An even rarer occasion is when the same book manages to prove that this overlooked era is shimmering by magic treasures of purest gold.
To all of us, who for three centuries now have wondered why an appropriate treatment of the most powerful and dynamic period in the career of Miles Davis have been almost completely suppressed, relief has finally became brought. Because it is to us, who spent the late seventies wondering in despair if Miles was dead, and then – when the occultation finally was broken – realised that he was, to all of us Paul Tingen has dedicated this pioneering piece of work.
It is with a feeling of redress and revenge one reads The True Story as told by the former sidemen of Miles: Jack de Johnette, Herbie Hancock, John Mc Laughlin, Mtume, Joe Zawinul, Pete Cosey, Michael Henderson and Sonny Fortune. History drives close as everyone confesses his particular experience of the sheer magic that adhered to Miles. It is also with deep recognition and satisfaction one reads Tingen’s solid and personal analyses of Miles’ explorations into what contemporary jazz-authorities regarded as cheap rock-business. And it is with brave new ears you again and again will let the timeless flow of that red trumpet reappear from your speakers during reading. And you will find that that particular kind of energy that still keeps you thunderstruck when you’re exposed to Agartha or Pangaea, certainly IS a landmark if not a climax in 20th century western music. Just as you’ve always felt.
The book is a revelation. Get it!

Closest yet !
There's several books out there on Miles,most of them pretty useful,but "Miles Beyond" gets closest of all to its subject.Although he's confined his probings to Miles' electric period,author Paul Tingen seems to have shed a great deal more light on the paradoxes and contradictions that constituted this great spirit.
Tingen has achieved this with clarity and sympathy,no judgmentalism here,and points the reader firmly back into the music that still amazes ,baffles,and inspires.
A great read for all Miles fans,even the electro-puritans.

At last - a Book about Miles Davis' Electric years.
A rare occasion is when a book appears, that unveils a whole era, which by some reason has been forgotten or disregarded. An even rarer occasion is when the same book manages to prove that this overlooked era is shimmering by magic treasures of purest gold.
To all of us, who for three centuries now have wondered why an appropriate treatment of the most powerful and dynamic period in the career of Miles Davis have been almost completely suppressed, relief has finally became brought. Because it is to us, who spent the late seventies wondering in despair if Miles was dead, and then – when the occultation finally was broken – realised that he was, to all of us Paul Tingen has dedicated this pioneering piece of work.
It is with a feeling of redress and revenge one reads the true story as told by the former sidemen of Miles: Jack de Johnette, Herbie Hancock, John Mc Laughlin, Mtume, Joe Zawinul, Pete Cosey, Michael Henderson and Sonny Fortune. History drives close as everyone confesses his own experience of the sheer magic that adhered to Miles. It is also with deep recognition and satisfaction one reads Tingen’s solid and personal analyses of Miles’ explorations into what contemporary jazz-authorities regarded as cheap rock-business. And it is with brave new ears you again and again will let the timeless flow of that red trumpet reappear from your speakers during reading. And you will find that that particular kind of energy that still keeps you thunderstruck when you’re exposed to Agartha or Pangaea, certainly IS a landmark if not a climax in 20th century western music. Just as you’ve always felt.
The book is a revelation. Get it!