Origins of Cool: The Revolution of Bitches Brew by Miles Davis
Heroin Chic and Existentialism
Miles Davis came into musical maturity amidst a cultural phenomenon, namely that of the age of ‘cool’.
“The birth of cool took place in the shadows, among marginal characters, in cold-water flats and furnished basement rooms. Most mid-century Americans were defined by their role in World War II, but cool wasn’t drafted, and cool didn’t serve. Cool was too young, too weird, too queer, too black, too strung out, too alien to take part. Cool wasn’t part of the victory celebration,”
Author Lewis MacAdams wrote:
Miles Davis was at the epicentre of this culture and had been since the early ’50s. While not born into poverty, he threw himself, head first, into New York City’s violent drug culture and the wounds a city sustains because of this. To understand Davis’ musical creative process, one should understand the basis of existentialist philosophy, which intersected with the beboppers and the jazz cats in 1959.
“One is free to act, but one must act to be free,”
~Sartre
With this came poverty and deep heroin addiction, which Davis struggled with throughout the ’50s. Despite the heavy heart reflected in most of his music, he had a good…
