Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 9, 2020

A lot of recording artists perhaps understandably base the success of their careers on how much “chart action” they’re able to whip up with various releases, and in that regard it’s kind of amazing to look over Miles Davis’ long and obviously legendary life in music and realize that he had relatively few really high charting albums, and absolutely no “hit singles” of any import (I was actually kind of surprised to see that his latter day version of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" evidently never made any charts, because it got a lot of airplay back in the day in this particular market). And yet, is there another trumpet player who has had such an inimitable influence on the entire course of jazz, and perhaps more widely, music in general? There have certainly been at least a few trumpeters who probably sold more albums and had more hit singles than Miles, but I doubt even any of them would want to “compete” in any real way with Miles’ undeniable legacy. Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool should be welcomed with open arms by not just jazz lovers, or even Miles fans, but anyone with an interest in 20th century music and perhaps in a more general way, the Arts as a whole.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool takes a more or less chronological stance vis a vis its subject, and that might offer at least a few interesting tidbits to those who kind of feel Miles just “appeared” magically up next to Bird and Diz and all those other cats with cool nicknames (when your name is Miles, you probably don’t need a nickname). In that regard, the documentary shows both the pluses (a wealthy family) and minuses (who were black) of growing up in East St. Louis at a time when racism was prevalent and indeed probably even the norm. There are some great little anecdotes about Miles’ youth offered here, including some kind of sweet stories of him wandering into the forest with his trumpet to mimic birdsong he heard.

However, even this early, seemingly "halcyon", period is fraught with dysfunctions, as the documentary gets into physical abuse Miles' mother suffered at the hands of his father. Some really good voice work by Carl Lumbly reading Miles' actual words (in that kind of raspy voice Miles became famous for) mentions how Miles was certain seeing stuff like that affected him in some way, though he wasn't sure how. Sadly, the documentary makes the perhaps unsurprising point that Miles himself later became physically abusive with Frances Taylor, at least according to Taylor, who provides some of the most colorful commentary about the legend. Davis had a pretty tempestuous series of relationships through the years, and Taylor is not the only woman featured in that regard.

On that very point Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool is stuffed to the gills with great interviews, including wonderful moments with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Clive Davis and Ron Carter. There's an "unvarnished" aspect to much of what's presented and some may feel the need to reassess at least parts of how they feel about Miles. That said, the documentary also provides such a wealth of outstanding music from Miles' earliest bebop days to some of his later cross-genre efforts that few will probably come away from this piece without a renewed sense of respect for Miles' achievements. A whole sidebar of Miles as a kind of "taste maker" or as they might say in modern parlance "influencer" is also at least alluded to with a variety of comments about his sometimes interesting choices in clothes, but also perhaps more meaningfully in elements like having enough power that he could insist that black models, instead of the seemingly inevitable white model, could be featured on his album covers.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, and Universal Music Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 1.78:1 (occasional archival video and stills can be in narrower aspect ratios). This is often a very appealingly sharp and well detailed looking presentation, at least with regard to the contemporary interview sequences and many of the still photographs, all of which offer good detail levels and nice clarity. Some of the archival video and even some of the occasional stills certainly show the ravages of time, but some (like the repeated use of Miles sparring in a ring at a gym) are so fascinating that the quality deficiencies are probably easier to overlook.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool features LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks. The disc is authored to default to the stereo track, and for all intents and purposes it suffices perfectly well since the music in this piece tends to be used as interstitials and it's quite often relegated to the background while various people talk over it. The surround track does open up the music, especially in the live performance material, but probably not to the extent that some audiophiles (who would want uninterrupted songs in any case) might prefer.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray disc does not come with any supplementary material. This comes packaged in an oversized DigiBook (approximately 7.5" high by 5.5" wide by 3/4" deep) with an essay by Matt Phillips, some cool stills, technical data, and listings of the tracks that are found on the following Bonus DVD included with this release:

Miles Davis Live at Montreux Bonus DVD (480i; 1:15:16) features Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 tracks, as well as DTS 5.1 track. The following performances are included:

1973

Ife

1984 (Afternoon)

Star People




It Gets Better




Hopscotch; Star on Cicely




Lake Geneva

1985 (Evening)

Star People




Hopscotch

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Those wanting a hagiography had best stay far, far away from Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, because this riveting documentary doesn't shirk in the slightest from some of Miles' own darker impulses, some of which are shared in Miles' own inimitable words. It's hard to even try to calculate Miles' contributions to 20th century music in particular and culture in general, but Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool makes it quite clear that those contributions came with an at times pretty steep cost, including dysfunctional relationships, drug addiction and a personal style that many found out of control. Filled with memorable reminiscences by a whole coterie of people who knew, worked with and (in some cases) loved Miles Davis, along with some very smart choices of clips, stills and snippets of music make Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool a really outstanding documentary. Technical merits are solid, and Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool comes Highly recommended.