July 5, 2010 – The soundtrack of a museum is generally that of hushed voices and whispers, but till August 29, 2010, the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) will change its tune to that of revolutionary jazz – Miles Davis style.
We Want Miles – Miles Davis: Jazz Legend celebrates Miles Davis’ genius, inspiration and prolific work through an ambitious multimedia retrospective: musical excerpts, film and documentary clips, drawings by the musician himself, paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Mati Klarwein, photographs by Annie Liebovitz and Irving Penn, costumes, musical instruments and other rare, previously unseen artefacts all serve to highlight different elements of the man and his music throughout his long career.
Unlike traditional museum exhibits, this show puts music front and centre. Could it be any other way, considering the muse behind it all is one of the 20th century’s major musical figures and a personality pivotal to the development of jazz? Miles Davis changed the way we look at jazz and jazz musicians, proving that jazz could be popular.
Far from merely celebrating the iconic figure of Miles Davis, the show presents his life and work as a paradigm of the history of jazz itself, demonstrating how jazz is in a constant exchange with other music and art forms. It goes without saying that Miles Davis encouraged this dialogue more than any other musician; he even once said of himself that he had “changed the course of music history five or six times.”
Tour this exceptional exhibition, immersed in music, and follow Davis’ career chronologically – from his childhood in Missouri to his rise to fame – and visit all the musical genres he explored and played with along the way. You will undoubtedly be surprised and dazzled by the man and his creativity, as well as with the finesse with which this exhibition has been mounted.
