Miles

The Autobiography

By: Miles Davis

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Universally acclaimed as a musical genius, Miles Davis was one of the most important and influential musicians in the world. Here, Miles speaks out about his extraordinary life. Miles: The Autobiography, like Miles himself, holds nothing back. For the first time Miles talks about his five-year silence. He speaks frankly and openly about his drug problem and how he overcame it. He condemns the racism he encountered in the music business and in American society generally. And he discusses the women in his life. But above all, Miles talks about music and musicians, including the legends he has played with over the years: Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Trane, Mingus, and many others. The man who gave us some of the most exciting music of the twentieth century here gives us a compelling and fascinating autobiography.

©1989 Miles Davis. All rights reserved. (P)2012 AudioGo

Great story and great narrator

So happy this book was recommended to me it was such an intriguing story. Very enlightening.

A compelling story of a complicated man

What part of the story should I rate? The fascinating narrative of American jazz by one of its masters? That aspect of the book is amazing. The way Davis talks about music is spell-binding. The complicated narrative of a complicated man? That one is harder. The best thing about the portrait of Miles Davis in his autobiography is a window onto how neither black nor white--in the ethical, not racial sense--each of us is. Davis talks lovingly and with tremendous generosity of spirit about other musicians and indeed about lots of people in his life; the same man seems blind to his own stunning shortcomings (or is revising them for his audience). Some parts are really hard to listen to: here is a man who abuses women, is a drug addict and alcoholic AND is complaining that his sons are a disappointment. In print. He calls them failures. It is just stunning in the raw shock of his self-blindness. I do think, however, this is a really worthwhile listen (with a fabulous narrator). I'm glad I've listened to it but I must say there is more about Miles Davis here than I really wanted to know. He was a musical genius and a very very flawed man.

5 Stars Outstanding in Every Respect

Superior on multiple levels: great story and absolutely the best narration performance I have ever heard--by a very wide margin! I learned a lot about jazz and US social history in this phenomenal audiobook.

Interesting view into the Jazz world

I really loved the early stories from the late 40s period since it involved so many jazz legends. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the recording sessions throughout his career. I wasn't as interested in the numerous stories of women and drugs, but that's not really a knock on the book - I just had little personal interest in that part of the story.

From the perspective of a person who was there.

The performance of Davis by Dion Graham is spot on. You would swear your listening to Mikes tell his story. "Miles" is a special snap shot of history. It show the perspective of not only a person who was there, but a person who played with the greats, became great and inspiring other great players around him. In addition Miles is very forthcoming about his own flaws as a person and how drugs were the downfall of all the greats. A great book on jazz and the life in the country in the 40's-80's

Great listen.

Loved it. Narrator did a wonderful job. I loved the stories and cleared some misconceptions.

Instead of a Book

I have to give a full disclosure before I write my review for this audiobook. I’m not a fan of jazz music and I knew very little about Miles Davis. I bought his autobiography because Audible had it on sale.

His autobiography is one of the best that I’ve listened to. It comes second to “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy” because in that audiobook, they restored most of her conversations on tape from the actual recordings. As for Miles Davis autobiography, I just wished that they would have captured his voice when telling his life story. Instead of a book, it’s more like a conversation with the artist.

Listening to Dion Graham narrating Mr. Davis’ life was addicting. I really couldn’t stop listening. It was an eye opener at reading “Miles.” He really didn’t hold anything back when writing about his life.

Miles... authentic as you can get in written form

A paradigm shift for me....in my view of life as a whole....I am grateful for the listen!

He didn’t bite his tongue!

You know the old saying,don’t judge a book by its cover. Great book this helped me understand him as a man in America. Not who the media or critics painted him to be. The narrator made you feel he was telling his story his self Dion Graham👍🏿

Blunt 💯

Bluntness to 💯 A musician would appreciate all the technical aspects. I’m not a musician so that was challenging for me to comprehend. His account of his and Cicely relationship was not very complimentary of Ms Tyson. In Cicely memoir, she paints the picture they were both broken souls deeply in love. Miles interpretation was he only liked her a little bit but appreciated some of the things she did for him. There are two sides to every story, then there’s the truth.