Review: Miles Davis – Birth of the Cool

Miles Davis in “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool.”

Dir. Stanley Nelson Jr. 115 minutes.
4/5

Accessible to jazz fans and non-fans alike, “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” is a brisk, rollicking introduction to the man who needs no introduction. Many music biographies, including the John Coltrane documentary “Chasing Trane,” become lumbering, somber tributes to the “great man.” Nothing would be more incompatible with the pure, elegant and mysterious power of Davis’s music, and the greatest strength of “Birth of the Cool” is its lack of dogmatism toward its subject.

“Birth of the Cool” features interviews with Herbie Hancock, Juliette Greco, Wayne Shorter and assorted biographers and music historians. With flashy visuals and a truly expansive collection of photos of Davis, the film puts a bit of fresh shine on the inevitable components of the artist’s tale: rough childhood, rise to fame, drug habit, et cetera. The story is glued together by a rasping voiceover reading profanity-laced extracts from Davis’s autobiography. Particular attention is paid to Davis’s travels outside the U.S.

Stanley Nelson Jr., who also helmed significant documentaries on the Black Panthers and on the Peoples Temple cult, is as much interested in the music as the man. This is not another formulaic exposition of the “mad genius” artist. This is a film for anyone curious about jazz: where it came from, what it was rebelling against and what gave Davis’s trumpet its power.

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