Episode cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Carl Lumbly | ... | Miles Davis (voice) | |
Miles Davis | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
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Reginald Petty | ... | Self |
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Quincy Troupe | ... | Self |
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Farah Griffin | ... | Self - co-author of 'Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever' |
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Lee Annie Bonner | ... | Self - Miles Davis' childhood friend |
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Ashley Kahn | ... | Self |
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Benjamin Cawthra | ... | Self |
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Billy Eckstine | ... | Self (archive footage) |
Walter Cronkite | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Jimmy Heath | ... | Self | |
Jimmy Cobb | ... | Self | |
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Dan Morgenstern | ... | Self |
Charlie Parker | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
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Greg Tate | ... | Self |
Musicians, scholars, family and friends reflect on the life of jazzer Miles Davis to reveal the man behind the legend. Full access to Davis' estate provides rare footage and photos, outtakes from recording sessions and new interviews.
A decent biography. As a younger fan I certainly learnt quite a bit. But while it is interesting to hear about Miles' personal life, relationships, addiction issues, etc I would have liked the film to balance the screen time a little more towards the music and essentially, why we are all sat here in 2020 watching a documentary about this guy - his musical genius. The most interesting parts of the film to me were where we were given insight into Miles' musical motivations, what it was like in the studio with the interview commentary from Hancock, Shorter etc. The part about Miles' improvised score for the French film 'elevator to the gallows' was great - a work of music I wasn't aware of and made me desperate to watch that film. On the other hand sad to see in a silent way given no mention - very signficant as the stepping stone to the full on fusion of brew, and an incredible album. 5 minutes of personal life stuff could certainly have given way for some discussion of the musical ideas behind that project in my opinion. Still, if you want to know more about Miles, his personality, his life story this will fill you in pretty well.