Original image by There Stands the Glass.
Numerous posts from copycat social media accounts that appear uninvited in my feeds depict an intrusive interrogator posing a question to passerby: if you were able to listen to the music of a single artist for the remainder of your life, who would you choose? Invariably, people name superstars like Drake and Taylor Swift.
I’d consider William “Count” Basie, John Coltrane, Hilary Hahn, the Isley Brothers, Sviatoslav Richter, Joan Sutherland and Stevie Wonder before deciding on Miles Davis. The determination would be based on factors including genius, variety and quantity.
The latter consideration isn’t an afterthought. Even though the relentless barrage of observances of Davis’ 1926 birth is exhausting, I reluctantly read several such features every week. A recent piece in The New York Times included Erykah Badu’s recollection of her reworking of "Maiysha" from Davis’ 1974 album Get Up With It.
Confession: I’d never listened to the odds-and-sods collection until last week. My favorite Get Up With It track is the 32-minute jam “Calypso Frelimo”. The likelihood that even more brilliant works await discovery amid more than forty years of recordings means I could go weeks on a Davis-only listening diet before once considering turning to the hopelessly played-out Kind of Blue.