Interview with Miles Davis: Black Prince of Jazz, 1984: Videos

While Miles Davis was on tour in Baltimore in 1984, he agreed to appear on a daytime public-affairs talk show on WJZ-TV called City Line.

For whatever reason, the co-hosts didn’t bother to do a lick of research and made the fatal mistake of admitting as much to Davis. One of the hosts even asks Davis if he played with Charlie Parker. Astonished by the inane questions, Davis lets the pair have it. Their questions are so clueless you see Davis start to feel sorry for them and those in the audience and on the phone. Davis also seems to be working overtime to seem cool and detached. Lousy hosts and Davis’s growing impatience aside, the trumpeter was hugely entertaining and insightful, and his answers were as soft and dry as his horn. Killer fashion to boot. [Above. Decoy, from 1984]

A special thanks to Milan Simich for sending along these links…

Here’s Part 1…

And here’s Part 2…