Paris is many things: a city of romance; a hotbed of culture, and the inspiration for countless artists, musicians and poets. It’s also a place that, for more than 40 years, had a special relationship with the jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. Paris was the first foreign city Davis ever visited, and it was one of the last major cities he played in, shortly before his death on 28 September 1991. Now the relationship between musician and city is celebrated in a new exhibition at the Musée de la Musique.
In 1949, a 22-year-old Davis travelled to Paris, as part of a quintet that included the pianist Tadd Dameron. The quintet was booked to play at the first Paris international jazz festival since the war ended. In the US, Davis was already a rising star in the jazz world, but while he was highly respected among his peers, in mainstream America he was seen as a second-class citizen. It was a time when segregation and discrimination were rife, and most US states enforced anti-miscegenation laws. But France was a different story, and nothing could have prepared Davis for the reception he would receive in Paris. “This was my first trip out of the country,” recalled Davis in his autobiography. “It changed the way I looked at things forever … I loved being in Paris and loved the way I was treated. Paris was where I understood that all white people were not the same; that some weren’t prejudiced.”
“Miles often talked about Paris,” says the Australian film director Rolf de Heer, who worked with Davis in Paris in 1990. “The French were in love with Miles and treated him like a god. He liked that because it was a form of respect he didn’t get in his own country.” French jazz pianist René Urtreger adds: “Miles was proud and touched by the fact that in France, jazz was considered to be very important music.”
The Miles Davis and Tadd Dameron quintet played at the Salle Pleyel concert hall, and Davis was soon befriended by Boris Vian, a 29-year-old French polymath, whose numerous talents included writing, poetry, engineering, songwriting and playing jazz trumpet. Vian introduced Davis to Picasso and Jean-Paul Sartre, and the group would sit together in hotels, cafes and clubs in the Saint-Germain district, using a mixture of broken French, broken English and sign language to communicate. Davis also met another acquaintance of Vian’s: the actor and singer Juliette Gréco. Gréco, who was almost the same age as Davis, first met him at the Salle Pleyel: Gréco stood in the wings with Vian’s wife, Michelle, watching Davis play. Gréco’s long black hair, large dark eyes and petite frame soon attracted Davis. Gréco in turn, was entranced: “I caught a glimpse of Miles, in profile: a real Giacometti, with a face of great beauty,” she said in a 2006 interview. They were introduced and fell in love.
Citations:
Proquest and
Fordham, J. (1982, Apr 21). Miles Davis. The Guardian (1959-2003) Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/186284381?accountid=13793
Green, B. (1970, Aug 09). Mystifying Miles Davis. The Observer (1901- 2003) Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/476007222?accountid=13793
Born: May 26, 1926 at Alton, IL
Died: September 28, 1991 at Santa Monica, CA