John F. Szwed Antropologist Of Miles Davis

John Szwed,

author of

So What: The Life of Miles Davis

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More than half a century after his bebop debut, and more than eleven years after his death, Miles Davis lives on. His music is used to pitch jeans, shape films, and personify an era. To this day, he is revered as the archetype of cool.

While several books have been written about Davis, including his own autobiography, due to his passion for reinvention and his extreme reticence the real story of Miles Davis has been obscured by the legend and widely misunderstood.

Yale University Professor of African American Studies and Sun Ra biographer John Szwed's So What: The Life of Miles Davis reveals a brilliant, inventive, intensely driven musician who was plagued by a host of internal conflicts and contradictions. "Miles' life as a whole is not easy to grasp," Szwed reflects, "and the meaning of it, with or without his help, is resistant to quick interpretations."*

Szwed joins us in a January, 2003 conversation about Davis' remarkable career...