Jazz…

Dear Editor,

I have to congratulate Tim Henney for his hilarious and satirical article “Miles and Me” as he did a marvelous job pretending to be a name dropping ego maniac run amuck (I wonder if I coulda pulled that off).

BTW Tim, “Miles and Me” is also the title of a book by the poet Quincy Troupe. He and jazz great and long time Miles bassist Ron Carter played at the Panida Theater May 3, 2003.

Here is another Miles Davis story:

In early January 1966, and while waiting to be shipped to Europe by the U.S. Army, I went to the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village, NYC to see Miles. The main floor area was packed and the only table available was on the mezzanine behind a pillar. Playing with Miles were Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. I consider this quintet to be Miles’ second greatest band. Miles’ greatest band is easily the one featuring John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley of the late 1950s and that is primarily because of Coltrane.

After playing for awhile, Miles’ second greatest band took a break. To get a better view of the bandstand I moved my chair into the aisle a bit so I wasn’t behind the pillar. On his way back to the bandstand Miles tripped on my chair, kept walking, and grumbled all the way to the stage. I don’t know if tripping over my chair caused Miles to be in a bad mood, but he obviously was for the rest of the evening (this Miles Davis story is in my book “A Journey into Jazz” which can be found at the East Bonner County Library).

So Tim, since you find bebop too intense for your musical palate, you best stay away from what I listen to as I’m sure it would cause your head to explode (like Ben’s did).

Lee Santa
Sandpoint

Ooh, you wild hep cat, Lee. My head certainly has no choice to explode when pitted next to the absolute mastery you have over bebop. Nice book plug.

-Ben Olson