1989 - Miles Davis on Sixty Minutes

The Prince of Darkness, Miles Dewey Davis, made a rare television appearance on the popular CBS-TV show, Sixty Minutes, in 1989, just a few years before he left this world.
Miles had a very distinctive, raspy voice. That gravelly voice contributed to his general aura of coolness and mystery. But it was actually the result of an operation he had in 1955 to remove a non-cancerous polyp on his larynx. He was not supposed to speak for a number of weeks after the surgery, but he did, resulting in some damage to his vocal chords.
#milesdavis #sixtyminutes @harryreasoner

[@jaunenito]

Pure genius. He was not like us.

[@phyllispetras3369]

I am crying.......miss him so much. I am 83.....never too late for joy.

[@phyllispetras3369]

precious upper lip

[@sitarnut]

Right with you Brother, I'm 80...

[@baconlatte]

interviewer talks to one of the greatest trumpeters ever and isn't even sure what a mute is called

[@genramsey]

Any interviewer ask some of the weirdest questions. A tragic situation against a family member and the interviewer ask surviving relative, 'how do you feel'.

[@MegaMikeArnold]

Props to Reasoner, had balls to ask some difficult and uncomfortable questions. Miles was super decent in this interview. Major props brother, but no, not all white musicians lag behind the beat. Rest in peace and thank you much.

[@jackieford7472]

I am 76,he is still one of my favorites.I was raised up on jazz. I love how it relaxes me and energizes me.

[@jeffsilverman6104]

One of the most influencial musicians ever, across any genre. Just by playing, he gave everyone permission to stretch out as far as their talents would take them. Miles invented new musical languages as he went along.

[@JazzVideoGuy]

Well said.

[@thurgooddukes7381]

I'm just grateful to be living in the world and being able to hear his music!

[@phyllispetras3369]

Embouchure is the term used to describe using the lips and mouth to play brass and wind instruments. Originating from the French language, embouchure enables full musical tone without straining mouth muscles. Executed correctly, embouchure is activated by free-flowing release of breath. YAY BABY!!!

[@wggarcez]

I play the piano, I'm brazilian, I love Jazz, I love Miles! Genius, Great, any words we can say about him will not be enought! Thanks Miles. Thanks!!!!!

[@ronniescales188]

Real Talk... I learned how to play the trumpet with the mute like Miles, when I was in elementary school in the 70's.

[@jacquelamontharenberg]

Yeah man.... there are not enough words. He lived the music.

[@bassman4632]

Thanks for posting this. I remember when this aired, I was a high school "jazzer". 6 years after this I was playing "Bye Bye Blackbird" and the security guard nearby asked who was "butchering" the tune and I told him it was Miles. The guard was a big guy in his 80's and said he was a retired NYC cop in the 40s, 50s and 60s. He said he knew Miles (and other musicians during those days) by reputation and said he was a "troublemaker". I had to laugh.

[@jorymil]

Sadly, those NYC cops treated Miles like shit and got away with it. I respect officers in general, but there's a special place for the people who assaulted Miles.

[@ronj9448]

Back then you had to bow to the shield and Miles, I'm sure, would have none of that.

[@GregZO6]

Miles was a GOD. Lou Dobbs can't even conceive of Miles in anything other than stereotypes. I feel FORTUNATE to have lived in this time to enjoy

[@Jim.Marshall]

Amazing to hear Mr.Davis. Coincidentally there are “526” likes as in May 26 our birthday.

[@muradaliyev9944]

I discovered "Bitches Brew" album a week ago or so and been listening to it in the car every single day on my way to work. Can't believe I've been oblivious to his music all my life, what a genius this man was! Once in a lifetime artist!

[@JazzVideoGuy]

Better late than never. Check out "In A Silent Way"

[@muradaliyev9944]

Will definitely do, thanks for the suggestion!

[@alanrogs3990]

It's great to discover. I suggest On the Corner or Big Fun.

[@GregZO6]

Check out "Tribute To Jack Johnson" But anything with Mile's associated deserves listening, a unique genius

[@ronj9448]

63 in this video? Damn he had changed jazz a few times and played with the greats by this time. I'm 58 and need to get my act together.

[@thefeldgeister2961]

I dream original music a lot and wake up with it still in my head. It happens at least once a month. There are dozens of things I've hummed into my phone's voice recorder app immediately after waking. The style I'm hearing is usually classical, but sometimes it's like country rock (Eagles, Neil Young, etc.). 70/30. I wish there was a way to just download it from my brain. If I try to remember it later in the day it's gone.

[@RocketKirchner]

Miles is like Dylan . Don’t ask dumb questions . He does not fit into them .

[@ronaldboykin9755]

Heard his records in my house as a kid! My mother loved Miles Davis and said he was good as ever at his live concert so I went to a few of his last concerts!

[@tomhill4003]

it's so sad to see him all tweeked out in his later years. he was arguably the best composer/arranger/performer back in the day. RIP Miles 😪

[@joelamthach5812]

I am down with life but Miles’ music picked me up.. thank you Miles

[@arealgem9404]

God will never reject a sincere prayer. Cry out to God and it will all get better brother

[@warnerokereke4259]

Great interview! One of the few interviews you’ll see him without his shades

[@KP-td9gh]

Thanks so much.

[@sandynahar7667]

A true American hero ❤

[@keithmorgan742]

HUH???? Hero? He's a musician. Just stop it.

[@sanjivdoreswamy745]

"Pimpin, what's wrong with that?" Now, that is a BAMF!

[@JimmyBahia]

My mother was a close friend of his, having both grown up in East Saint Louis, Illinois and they would get together when he came to town. (Chicago) I saw him at the Regal in Chicago in April of "66".

[@JusNBL2000]

What was he like?

[@billydeewilliams9104]

I would've never hung out with Miles. Dude is TOO brilliant and woulda broke me down real quick. Very few humans as slick as Miles....

[@gr500music6]

Miles was from a wealthy family. When he says he went back to his parents place - "couple hundred acres" - to get clean, Harry just lets it slip by. Better to focus on the pain of being Black, even though Miles advises him that he's "never suffered and doesn't intend to." Also weird how much Miles looks like Bob Dylan when he's answering questions.

[@louise_rose]

Miles certainly knew about being treated in a rude and condescending way, or even abused, by white people - concert promoters, cops etc. That he didn't want to talk about it in this particular interview doesn't make much of a point. I'm sure he would have recognized the truth of the famous scene between Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier at the beginning of "In the Heat of the Night", where Steiger's Deep Southern police chief is telling the guy he thinks is a prime murder suspect that "A black man can't earn that kind of money in an honest way, now tell me, ehere did you EARN IT??" - only to get Mr Tibbs' (Poiter) deadpan reply "I'm a police officer!" and a good look at his service badge. :D

[@ZiggieZoo]

I noticed that. Identity politics and media involvement go way back.

[@WippSheridan]

I love you Miles

[@NURREDIN]

My Hero!

[@MrTonylith]

Genius!

[@loilt5091]

I love his preference for the mute & its human voice-like tonality. Slide guitarists can also emulate it without the barriers of frets. Whether you personally like him or his music, the man was always trying to grow & expand his vocabulary & not rest on his laurels. 🇨🇦

[@JazzVideoGuy]

Miles! only one

[@bahiras]

Great video although the interviewer sometimes asked some stupid questions.

[@keithmorgan742]

Sometimes? MOST of his questions were astonishingly stupid.

[@skillet6870]

​@@keithmorgan742He would've never asked white musicians some of these goofy questions.

[@ZiggieZoo]

Some of the questions were bizarre.

[@franco-su3dt]

♥

[@JotaOrtiz]

Max legend status achieved

[@joeshoe6184]

This interview is pretty rough, on both sides of the table. I'm headed back to the music...

[@owennovenski4794]

Miles; smart, clever, talented. Interviewer; not so much. Who in the Sixty Minutes corporate office thought THAT guy was the right man for the job? That’s what the public receives from a corporate media; celebrity over actual human artist and at the latter part of Miles career, he deserved better. So do we.

[@louise_rose]

The interview segments on the "Miles in Paris" dvd - spliced in between tracks - are very illuminating, sometimes even funny (the first thing he says is "The media have f***ed up everybody") - and they're from the same year as this conversation. But yes, the interviewer in Paris was of a different calibre I think. :)

[@electrolytics]

Miles could pick and choose whatever interviews he wanted to do. He always chose these square, white interviews. That was his main market for his music. Imagine though if you could go back in time and advise Miles on which interviews he should have done and which ones he could skip? Wow. Miles would have really appreciated your insight.

[@bassman4632]

I think Ed Bradley interviewed him on the same program a couple years later.

[@humanbeing5300]

They sent the squarest most conservative guy, lol

[@christinacascadilla4473]

Not smart enough to stay off the smack.

[@yurikostyk745]

Tick tick tick...

[@capoislamort100]

Interviewer: are you anti-white? Miles Davis: not all the time!! Lol- I’d bet he didn’t see that one coming…….

[@alanrogs3990]

It's a dumb question that gets nowhere. It's just drama.

[@skillet6870]

Miles should've asked that white man if he's anti-Black.

[@alanrogs3990]

@@skillet6870 "most of the time but not always"

[@chuckbosio2924]

Old Harry, the interviewer, is woefully ignorant and painfully inadequate to talk to Miles.

[@paulmurphy8993]

This is why you have a musician interview another musician. Sigh.

[@ZRJZZZZZ]

Benny Goodman…Bix Beiderbecke? Pa-lezzeee. Whoever wrote the copy for this piece was completely out of touch with who Miles Davis was as an artist.

[@JazzVideoGuy]

well said

[@AG-cy3em]

WTF was the ending...!?

[@jamiyabennett4503]

It shows you that the exploited people are never respected

[@JazzVideoGuy]

For sure

[@lexremillard2549]

Unfortunately he doesn’t talk about his insane coke addiction.

[@alexk9704]

Worst interviewer of all time lol

[@keithmorgan742]

So wrote a book, but he has no idea what is in the book? He didn't write a damn word of that book.

[@JazzVideoGuy]

Quincy Troupe wrote it.

[@tiborosz1825]

For some reason these famous musicians perceived as high IQ geniuses..in the end they are just simple people who are good at doodling on an instrument.

[@JazzVideoGuy]

Well said.

[@1Dubbelman]

Musicianship is a pretty advanced mental game... And to be able to put bands together, arrange, compose, find talent, foster talent, reinvent oneself, experiment, collaborate and use music politically = all signs of high intelligence. Miles Davis was a special man with a special mind who made incredibly valuable contributions to the history of music.

[@petervandolah5322]

Morley Safer is a dunderhead ...

[@JazzVideoGuy]

Interesting. He wasn't in this video. You just don't like Morley?

[@keithmorgan742]

Great musician. Crappy human.

[@JazzVideoGuy]

Mixed reviews for Mr. Davis, the man.

[@strollinwitu670]

Harry Reasoner. 👎

[@umb2692]

I don’t believe him about cicely lol he has a bad reputation w/ women.. not keeping his hands to himself.. I’m sure she didn’t play with him

[@BrettHermance-qn1oq]

An old pic easy to find online show’s Miles with Shirley Horn. She is holding a Champagne glass looking onward and he is clearly caught focusing on her chest. I can’t blame him tho. HA

[@dddddadadad1796]

Oh please. MD told the truth

[@frankbutta9344]

Leave it to the idiots on Sixty Minutes to ask racial questions. 🙄 I’m a much bigger fan of earlier Miles, but that could be because his pop renditions were played endlessly when they first came out.

[@7578229474]

So much insight!!!

[@keithmorgan742]

This interviewer is terrible. "Are black musicians better because of slavery?" --WTF?

[@JazzVideoGuy]

sadly, yes, they should have had Ed Bradley do the interview

[@derred723]

I think the reality is such questions needed to be asked enough times so that people begin to learn a little about people and culture. I'm not saying it's an intelligent question but that it's based in a stereotype that to the ignorant sounds logical. And for it to start to sound illogical they have to have the illogical question rebutted til they get the point.

[@ZiggieZoo]

Identity politics is not new. It's amplified now, but it's not new.

[@christinacascadilla4473]

A messed up guy being interviewed by a guy pretending to be a journalist.