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The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991.

Article Excerpt
The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. By George Cole. (Jazz Perspectives.) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. [xi, 534 p. ISBN 0-472-11501-4. $35.] Index, discography, photographs.

Despite the presence of numerous musical and biographical studies of Miles Davis, there has been a notable lack of scholarly interest in the music of his final decade. Aside from Paul Tingen's 2001 work (Miles Beyond: The Electric Explorations of Miles Davis, 1967-1991 [New York: Billboard, 2001]), there exists no extended study of Davis's music from 1980 to 1991. Tingen himself acknowledges that his book focuses primarily on Davis's music from the 1970s, leaving room for only a sketch of his later music. As Tingen points out, "While the process of rediscovering and reevaluating Miles's electric experiments of the '60s and '70s is ongoing, no similar interest is discernible regarding his music from 1981 to 1991" (Tingen, p. 266). George Cole's The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991 is a clear statement of interest in just that music.

After dealing with Davis's pre-1980 music in roughly the first forty pages, Cole devotes the remaining 500 pages to Davis's studio recordings and live performances from 1980 to 1991. Each of the ten commercial recordings from this decade is the focus of at least one entire chapter, with Tutu receiving four chapters of attention. Additionally, the most substantial chapter in the book, totaling sixty-nine pages, addresses Davis's live performances during that decade, and a...

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