Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

“Music has always been like a curse with me. I’ve always felt driven to play it. It’s the first thing in my life – go to bed thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. It’s always there. It comes before everything” – Miles Davis.

One of the finest documentaries devoted to Miles Davis, the film was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2020 in the Best Music Film category. Its narrative is built around the trumpeter’s own words, interwoven with testimonies from invited guests including Wayne Shorter, Quincy Jones, Marcus Miller, Carlos Santana and many others. The film tells the story of jazz as inseparable from Davis’s artistic path, while also tracing the highs and lows of his life, the making of his iconic recordings, and the successive ensembles that bore his name. It is also a film about restless creative searching that repeatedly changed the course of jazz, from bebop and cool jazz to electric experimentation and the fusion of jazz with rock and hip-hop. In a clear and accessible way, it charts the artistic journey Miles Davis made through the twists and turns of a career spanning nearly fifty years.

Special mention should go to the recollections – and the sheer charm – of Frances Taylor, the artist’s former wife. The film may be about Davis, but in a sense, she is the one who lingers most vividly in the memory.

Jerzy Szczerbakow

Stanley Nelson (b. 1951) – American documentary filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter whose work focuses on African American history and experience. His films combine compelling storytelling with rigorous historical research, often developed in collaboration with scholars and historians. He addresses a wide range of topics related to life in the United States, with particular attention to the history of the civil rights movement.

section partner