
Rethinking Miles Davis
Oxford University Press Inc
Will be published approx. on 1. August 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
264 pages
978-0-19-008580-3 (ISBN)
Description
What hasn't been said about Miles Davis?
Much has been written about the jazz trumpeter and band leader, yet studies of Davis are often restricted to the groundbreaking acoustic jazz he produced between the 1940s and 50s. While more recent studies revisit his 1960s and 1970s work, Davis' later engagements with music, fashion, and the mainstream media are ripe for reassessment. Rethinking Miles Davis confronts familiar narratives about Davis and his music through a range of perspectives: from the ways Davis pushed jazz into new genre forms, re-envisioned jazz standards, and collaborated musically, to his role in the record companies that released his music, the persona he developed in video, film, and fashion, and how his masculinity manifested both professionally and personally. The collection includes a photo-essay of international jazz musicians' take on Davis' albums in which each musician explains the personal significance of a favourite recording. Ultimately, Rethinking Miles Davis challenges the orthodoxy of jazz criticism, repositioning Miles Davis within a larger framework of modernism and mass culture.
Much has been written about the jazz trumpeter and band leader, yet studies of Davis are often restricted to the groundbreaking acoustic jazz he produced between the 1940s and 50s. While more recent studies revisit his 1960s and 1970s work, Davis' later engagements with music, fashion, and the mainstream media are ripe for reassessment. Rethinking Miles Davis confronts familiar narratives about Davis and his music through a range of perspectives: from the ways Davis pushed jazz into new genre forms, re-envisioned jazz standards, and collaborated musically, to his role in the record companies that released his music, the persona he developed in video, film, and fashion, and how his masculinity manifested both professionally and personally. The collection includes a photo-essay of international jazz musicians' take on Davis' albums in which each musician explains the personal significance of a favourite recording. Ultimately, Rethinking Miles Davis challenges the orthodoxy of jazz criticism, repositioning Miles Davis within a larger framework of modernism and mass culture.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
20
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
449 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-008580-3 (9780190085803)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Roger Fagge | Nicolas Pillai | Tim Wall
Rethinking Miles Davis
Book
05/2026
Oxford University Press Inc
€112.66
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Roger Fagge is Associate Professor of History at the University of Warwick. His publications include The Vision of J.B. Priestley (2012), and with Nicolas Pillai, New Jazz Conceptions: History, Theory, Practice (2017). Recent work includes, with Nicholas Gebhardt, an AHRC research network, 'Jazz and Everyday Aesthetics', which led to a jointly-edited special issue of Jazz Research Journal.
Nicolas Pillai is Assistant Professor in Creative and Critical Practice at University College Dublin. He is the author of Jazz as Visual Language: Film, Television and the Dissonant Image (2016) and a former editor of Jazz Research Journal. His AHRC project Jazz on BBC-TV 1960-1969 was the basis for the award-winning BBC Four documentary Jazz 625 Live!
Tim Wall is Professor of Radio and Popular Music Studies in the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Studies at Birmingham City University. He is the author of Studying Popular Music Culture (2003, 2013), and, with
Sarah Raine and Nicola Watchman Smith, the co-editor of The Northern Soul Scene (2019). He has published dozens of articles on jazz, radio, and popular music studies. He is currently writing the history of Jazz on BBC Radio 1922 - 1972.
Nicolas Pillai is Assistant Professor in Creative and Critical Practice at University College Dublin. He is the author of Jazz as Visual Language: Film, Television and the Dissonant Image (2016) and a former editor of Jazz Research Journal. His AHRC project Jazz on BBC-TV 1960-1969 was the basis for the award-winning BBC Four documentary Jazz 625 Live!
Tim Wall is Professor of Radio and Popular Music Studies in the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Studies at Birmingham City University. He is the author of Studying Popular Music Culture (2003, 2013), and, with
Sarah Raine and Nicola Watchman Smith, the co-editor of The Northern Soul Scene (2019). He has published dozens of articles on jazz, radio, and popular music studies. He is currently writing the history of Jazz on BBC Radio 1922 - 1972.
Editor
Associate Professor, Department of HistoryAssociate Professor, Department of History, University of Warwick
Assistant Professor of Creative & Critical PracticeAssistant Professor of Creative & Critical Practice, University College Dublin
Professor of Radio and Popular Music Studies, Department of English and MediaProfessor of Radio and Popular Music Studies, Department of English and Media, Birmingham City University
Content
- Introduction
- 1. Miles Behind: Jazz Studies, Masculinity and #MeToo -- Tony Whyton
- 2. "Just Kickin' that Doo-Bop Sound": Miles Davis, Jazz, and Hip-Hop -- Roger Fagge
- 3. Locating Tutu -- Tim Wall
- 4. Miles on a Second Major: Miles Davis' Career from Columbia to Warner Bros Records -- Tim Wall
- 5. Resurrecting Miles in Dingo (1991): Michel Legrand, Billy Cross, and Miles Davis -- Will L Finch
- 6. Fashioning Miles Davis: Dressing and Undressing Television Stardom -- Nicolas Pillai
- 7. My One Miles Davis LP: A Photo Essay on the Personal Resonance of Miles Davis' Recorded Music -- Tim Wall and William Ellis
- 8. Orchestrating Miles: Collaborations with Gil Evans, George Avakian, Marcus Miller, and Tommy LiPuma -- Bobbie-Jane Gardner and Tim Wall
- 9. Encounter, Surprise, and Acceptance: Revisiting Miles Davis On and Off stage in Portugal -- Pedro Cravinho
- 10. It's Never Too Late: Miles Davis and Modernism -- Nicholas Gebhardt
- References
- Index