I love when things come full circle. It may take years and years, but when they happen you notice and often it makes it all the more sweeter.
Way back in the day, when Max was in school, he played the trumpet. I was in the position of trying to encourage him to play and also trying to not SEEM too encouraging. He was like a deer in the headlights and to come on too strong would have sent him scurrying away into the forest.
We went to his shows where we could only see the very top of his head and cheered him on.
One particular summer, Max went to a week-long camp for school. It was the era of CD’s and I made about 10 CD’s of different albums that I considered essential. Among them was a Miles Davis CD. Can’t remember the others, but Miles Davis was the one hidden in plain sight in the pile. As I recall conversations after that camp, he never even got around to listening to them, at least at the camp.
Eventually Max was not playing the trumpet anymore in school as he moved on, but his love of music never faded. I think he still has that trumpet.
He became a DJ at the college radio station for a bit and is now very into vinyl and we sometimes share recommendations for music.
Recently Max sent me an album.
“Mile Davis – The Complete Birth Of The Cool”
It’s a double album with studio cuts on the first album and live cuts on the second.
Inside is a booklet of history of the sessions and of Miles in those years.
with some great photos from the time.
I read it as I listened to the studio side.
This album is great and I recommend it for all Miles Davis fans, especially those into this era. This is before the hard bop and fusion came into it. This is what I always hoped that Max would get into when he was playing.
That he now has this and many other Miles Davis records in his collection cannot be the result of my early encouragement and music playing around the house. I mean HE picked the trumpet. I’m just saying it might have helped?
To be fair I also played a lot of Temple Of The Dog, so… it could have gone either way.
At any rate Max, thank you for the record!
The Aural Retentive 