Miles To Go: The Lost Years: An Intimate Memoir of Life on the Road with Miles Davis

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

36-37

text excerpt

The last gig I did before the world tour was at Pine Knob Pavilion in Michigan--a lovely outdoor venue with a covered stage and seating, and open seating on the grassy hills beyond. It was a very mellow scene, with people hanging out and playing frisbee on the lawn.

Miles was now playing keyboards. He had recently asked me to hook up a wah-wah pedal on the organ to supplement the volume pedal, but he'd never gotten around to learning how it worked. I repeatedly asked him to try the pedal out so he could learn how to operate it, but he was having none of that. Now the band was in their dressing room at Pine Knob and the crowd was stirring in anticipation when Miles finally turned to me and said, "Okay, show me how it works."

[…]

I looked at him and replied, "Sure." We walked out on the stage together, his arm around my shoulders. I held his trumpet in one hand while I showed him how the pedals on the keyboard worked. The pre-show background music was still playing and the band was nowhere in sight. Taken by surprise, the crowd reacted slowly at first, and then the applause grew. Meanwhile, Miles calmly asked me questions as he learned to use his new toys, fiddling around with the organ and cranking out fat chords that he'd run from bass to full treble using the wah-wah. […] Finally Miles was satisfied, and he thanked me as I handed him his trumpet. Then he turned to the band and seemed startled to see them. He quickly glanced over his shoulder, and seemed even more shocked to see the audience sitting there. Then he started the show.

excerpt from 'Miles To Go: The Lost Years: An Intimate Memoir of Life on the Road with Miles Davis' pp. 36-37 (289 words)

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