Talk:Miles Davis

melody of "Dig" on Miles Davis's gravesite

The opening notes of "Dig," Miles Davis's contrafact on "Sweet Georgia Brown," are inscribed on his headstone.Cdg1072 (talk) 16:52, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

Discography Section

The discography list on this page (separate from the main article: Miles Davis discography) is bothering me. I can't figure out what it's trying to list. It feels like a bunch of listed releases have counter examples not included.

• Compilations: Some of this is just because Davis was active during an interesting time during the history of how music was released: I noticed some edit history where someone tried to split the section to have his 10" LPs and 12" LPs listed which I feel wasn't a terrible idea. A lot of his earlier material released on 10" was later compiled together in 12" releases that are more well known than the original releases (Dig (Miles Davis album) is probably better known than The New Sounds and Blue Period (album) - all three are listed for now). Birth of the Cool (also a compilation) is certainly more well known than many of his other releases and yet isn't listed, and Classics in Jazz doesn't even have its own Wiki article.
  • I think we should either add Birth of the Cool or remove Dig, Miles Davis and Horns, Blue Haze, Walkin', Bag's Groove, and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants
  • I think we should also add Modern Jazz Trumpets which is marked as a "compilation" right now, but I'd argue it's a split (compiled from a few artists) rather than a "compilation" (like, in the sense of a "best of"/re-issue release)
• Live material: Live-Evil (Miles Davis album) and We Want Miles are live albums and listed, yet plenty more live albums aren't. Live-Evil is a bit special since it includes a bit of extra studio material (roughly 16 min of the album's 101 min of material).
  • I understand why we'd keep Live-Evil, but it should arguably be removed. We should definitely drop We Want Miles.
• Soundtracks: Jack Johnson (album) is listed but not Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (soundtrack) or Jazz Track? Should we list Ascenseur (France/Europe only release originally) or Jazz Track as that was in his home market? Both? What about other soundtracks like Siesta? Dingo? Hot Spot?
  • Jazz Track can also have a similar discussion to the compilation stuff, what about releases that are mostly compilations but have one/few new recording(s) added? Since Jazz Track was Ascenseur with three additional unreleased tracks, and ones that are quite interesting/important in the Miles Davis chronology.
  • I really don't know what is best for this. I think it'd be a bit weird to have stuff like Dingo and Siesta listed, but at the same time Jack Johnson and Ascenseur make sense to me as those are well known.

There's probably some good cleaning up to be had at Miles Davis discography and Template:Miles Davis as well, but starting the conversation here for now, and I'll start by removing We Want Miles which seems to be the most egregious issue on this page for now. Hopefully a discussion can be had and an agreement reached. --WillMak050389 03:49, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Well, I let this sit for a month and no one responded, so I'm making the changes I think are best. If there's pushback, let's discuss reasoning here. I think my only additional note is that I included both Ascenseur and Jazz Track, but on the same numbered list item, since the former was the original release, and the latter was the release in his primary market (US), so I think both have a clear claim for being included.

We might also want to consider archival stuff like Circle in the Round and Directions (Miles Davis album).

--WillMak050389 02:26, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

WP:WPMAG says to "provide a summary of the musician's major works". How "major" they are can be determined from the literature available on them, including the translated coverage at their articles. For Jack Johnson, the story of that album paints it as a soundtrack effort that evolved into a stand-alone studio album, and marketed as such (independently from the documentary film), and having notability (and notoriety) in Davis' artistic development. Live albums like Agharta also are key releases that I wouldn't think should be omitted. I don't see nearly the same level of importance attached to Dingo or The Hot Spot, for example. Piotr Jr. (talk) 20:52, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

Very late to this but I have the same problems! I would love to help with this if I can get some consensus. Davis released albums after Columbia released the LP but before the 12" won the format war. The 12" reissues being called "comps" when they're effectively albums bothers me, and I also think the live albums need cleaning up TlonicChronic (talk) 06:32, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

Gravestone

His gravestone says ‘Sir Miles Davis’. Was he knighted. 86.156.2.208 (talk) 17:30, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

probably just a way of showing respect. Like how you call people "sir" in completely informal situations. Rateb4isik (talk) 17:40, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

Disambiguation

Another optional full name of Miles Morales, who atypically has the last name of his mother, Rio Morales, rather than of his father, Jefferson Davis (brother of the Prowler)

הראש (talk) 15:15, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

That would be original research as Morales never goes by "Miles Davis". It seems very unlikely that anyone would be searching for "Miles Davis" in the expectation of finding Morales Grachester (talk) 16:11, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Label

Should Fontana (or Capitol) be listed as one of Davis's labels? My understanding is he released Ascenseur pour l'échafaud on Fontana, but he had contracts with Prestige, Columbia and Warner. And if Capitol is there, my guess is Blue Note and Debut should be added as well. It feels like there should be more or less, but I don't feel confident enough to boldly edit. TlonicChronic (talk) 06:28, 30 December 2023 (UTC)