Miles Davis – Birth of the Cool

USA 2019, Documentary, Director: Stanley Nelson, English OF with German subtitles, 116 min.

Miles Davis: trumpeter, bandleader, innovator. Elegant, intellectual, vain. Heartless, contradictory, controversial. Magnificent, lively. Ingenious. The very embodiment of cool. The man with a sound so beautiful it could break your heart.

The central theme of Miles Davis' life was his restless determination to push boundaries and live life on his own terms. It made him a star. But for the people who loved him, he was difficult to live with. Time and again, in music and in life, Miles broke with convention - and when he thought his work would represent a new convention, he changed it again. Miles' bold defiance of tradition, his clarity of vision, his relentless drive and constant thirst for new experiences made him an inspiration to other musicians and an icon to generations of listeners. He was one of the greatest innovators in music - from bebop to "cool jazz", modern quintets, orchestral music, jazz fusion, rock 'n' roll to hip-hop.

COOL - A Miles Davis jazz film day

On May 26, Miles Davis (1926 - 1991) would have been 100 years old, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, a man of change who prided himself on having fundamentally renewed jazz several times: From bebop to the tonal sophistication of cool jazz, from the earthy passion of hard bop to the iridescence of modal jazz, from the magnetism of the swinging beat to the groove, to the trance of electronic dance music.

The UNERHÖRT! Music Film Festival Hamburg presents three films at the Metropolis Cinema that focus on Miles Davis and his music.

The trio Rückert Hughes Popple and DJ Round Table will perform in the supporting program - with jazz from bebop to dancefloor.

Hamburg-based cultural journalist Stefan Hentz, who has been awarded the German Jazz Journalism Prize and whose biography Miles Davis. Sound of a Life has just been published by Reclam, provides an overview of key stages in the trumpeter's artistic career and musical aesthetics and introduces the films.