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Unless otherwise indicated, the lectures are presented free of charge at the Maxwell
Cummings Auditorium, Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion, 1379 Sherbrooke Street West.
Doors open 30 minutes before the event begins. Places are limited and are available
on a first-come, first-served basis.
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MILES DAVIS: JAZZ'S ECUMENICAL PROPHET
[ Activities reserved exclusively for Museum VIPs ]
Wednesday, April 28
at 11.30 a.m., in English
by David Brackett, Department of Music Research (Schulich School of Music),
McGill University
The career of Miles Davis stands out in the history of jazz for both its longevity and
its eclecticism. An artist of numerous contradictions, Davis maintained a complicated relationship to popular music while being at the forefront of many of the most significant, avant-garde developments in postwar jazz.
CONVERSATION AVEC ANDRÉ MÉNARD
[ Activities reserved exclusively for Museum VIPs ]
Wednesday, April 28
at 1.30 p.m., in French
Last summer, the Montreal International Jazz Festival celebrated its thirtieth
anniversary. Since the beginning, it has hosted the greatest musicians from
around the world. The Festival's co-founder and artistic director, André Ménard,
will tell of his meeting with Miles Davis.
MILES DAVIS : LE JAZZ FACE À SA LÉGENDE
Thursday, April 29
at 4.30 p.m., in French
by Vincent Bessières, journalist, columnist and author specializing in jazz,
and exhibition curator in Paris and Montreal
This major retrospective dedicated to one of the twentieth century's greatest
musicians presents a look at the life of Miles Davis, from his childhood in East
St. Louis where he was born in 1926 to his death in 1991. Vincent Bessières
explains how this complex and inventive artist continually crafted his persona
and pushed the boundaries of jazz.
MILES DAVIS : LA QUÊTE DE LA QUINTESSENCE
Wednesday, May 5
at 6 p.m., in French
by Jean-François Rivest, conductor
Miles Davis left behind a rich legacy of concerts, recordings, collaborative projects, films
and musical innovations of all kinds. Throughout his life, he appears to have sought a
fundamental musical truth, minimalist, stripped clean of artifice and yet unquestionably
vital. The intensity of his quest left in its wake several generations of great musicians,
some of whom continue to keep this legacy alive even today.
WHITE, YELLOW, RED, BLUE, BLACK: MILES AS VISUAL ARTIST
Wednesday, May 12
at 6 p.m., in English
by Scott Gutterman, author of The Art of Miles Davis and deputy director of the Neue Galerie New York
In the last decade of his life, Miles Davis devoted considerable energy to drawing and painting.
Scott Gutterman, who wrote a book with Miles on his visual art, will discuss this lesser-known manifestation of his creative energies.
MILES, L'ICÔNE
Wednesday, May 19
at 6 p.m., in French
by Patrick Beauduin, senior vice-president, creative, Cossette
Louis Armstrong created the image of the comical, clownish jazz musician,
a reflection of the childish vision that white audiences had of the jazz
players of the 1930s. Beyond his music, Miles Davis projected an altogether
different image – that of the proud and free black musician. Through his
on-stage persona, his choice of musicians and his relationships with women,
he created a provocative icon that was resolutely different. A fascinating
look at a jazz legend.
MONTRÉAL ET LE MOUVEMENT DE LA RENAISSANCE NOIRE
DES ANNÉES 1960
Wednesday, June 2
at 6 p.m., in French
by Michèle Dagenais, tenured professor, Department of History, University of Montreal
In the 1960s, Montreal was home to a wide range of movements that were struggling to gain
recognition for minority rights. The city became one of the centres of the black cultural
and political renaissance. This lecture will explore this decisive decade in the history
of Montreal's black community.
MILES AND ME: REMINISCENCES FROM 1945 INTO THE 1980s
Wednesday, June 9
at 6 p.m., in English
by Ira Gitler, former editor-in-chief, DownBeat magazine, and contributor to the Miles Davis exhibition catalogue
Ira Gitler's stories come from hours spent listening to Miles Davis play, time
spent with him in the '40s and his career at Prestige Records in the '50s, both
as liner-note writer and studio producer. He also tells of personal encounters
with Davis at the Cafe Bohemia, at the Newport Jazz Festival, at his apartment
and later at his house on 77th Street in Manhattan, at Italian Jazz Festivals
and during a particularly touching club performance in the '80s.
L'AMOUR DU JAZZ
Wednesday, June 16
at 6 p.m., in French
by Gilles Archambault, writer and jazz lover
What prompts a seven-year-old child growing up in a working-class neighbourhood of
Montreal to take an interest in jazz? The writer recalls an uncle who was fascinated
by this music. What began as an attraction to the rhythms of jazz would become a way
of life. Archambault believes he would have turned out differently had his sensibility
not been shaped by his contact with such luminaries as Lester Young and Billie Holiday.
MILES DAVIS: THE JAZZ MUSICIAN AS DANDY
Wednesday, June 30
at 6 p.m., in English
by John Szwed, professor of music and jazz studies, Columbia University
Miles Davis's fame went well beyond jazz. His stance, clothing, stagecraft,
attitude and speech all signaled a new type of musician, what Baudelaire
described as a certain kind of bohemian, rooted in opposition and revolt,
a personage with a "haughty, patrician attitude, aggressive even in its coldness."
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© 2010 The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. All rights reserved.
Miles Davis, Newport Festival, Palais des Sports, Paris. November 15, 1973. After photos © Christian Rose
Important notice: copyright and reproduction rights
http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/milesdavis
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