MILES DAVIS PAR DANY GIGNOUX

Selection

Miles Davis

«Jazz is an Uncle Tom word. They should stop using that word… just music, man.»

Miles Davis.

Miles Davis, Lyon

1983 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 470.–

Miles Davis, A musical CHAMELEON.

Text by Lucas Sabbatini
Photographs by Dany Gignoux

Both a musical chameleon constantly on the lookout for new sounds and an inflexible personality who always demanded the respect (and the fees!) that were his due, Miles Davis (1926-1991) accompanied - and often anticipated - the evolution of black American music for almost half a century. In his final years, he became something more than just a star: a true myth.

Miles Davis

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 550.–

Miles Davis

1987 circa – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 1450.–

Miles Davis, Budapest

1989 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 620.–

The more he seemed to play only for himself, the more his aura grew. The influence of Miles Davis on the music of his time is inversely proportional to the parsimony of his trumpet playing. From 1944 until his death, Miles participated, successively and sometimes simultaneously, in all the revolutions of the blue note: pioneer of bebop alongside Charlie Parker, inventor of cool jazz (Birth of the Cool), genius of film music (Lift to the Scaffold), great master of hard-bop at the head of his various quintets, hero of orchestral jazz thanks to Gil Evans' arrangements (Sketches of Spain), forerunner of electronic music (In A Silent Way), precursor of jazz-rock (Bitches Brew), wizard of jazz-funk (Dark Magus), and finally, at the end of his career, icon of a universal fusion between jazz and its pop or even hip-hop derivatives!

Miles Davis

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 590.–

Miles Davis, Paris

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 1750.–

Miles Davis, Paris

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 460.–

Miles is also - and perhaps above all - an extraordinary talent scout, a leader with unparalleled flair. With each new adventure, he picks the musicians best able to do justice to his creative vision: John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Keith Jarrett, John McLaughlin, Marcus Miller or Joe Zawinul have all joined Miles as promising talents, as diamonds in the rough. And they all became stars as soon as they left him...

Miles Davis & Herbie Hancock, Paris

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 330.–

Herbie Hancock & Joe Zawinul, Paris

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 270.–

Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea & Bill Evans, Paris

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 270.–

Miles Davis, Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Paris

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 390.–

From 1984 onwards, the trumpeter plays every year (except 1987) at the Montreux Jazz Festival. It was there, in July 1991, at the instigation of Quincy Jones, that Miles returns to his past for the first and only time in his career, playing excerpts from the famous arrangements that Gil Evans had written for him over 30 years earlier.

Miles Davis, Montreux

1985 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 530.–

Miles Davis, Montreux

1984 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 590.–

Miles Davis, Montreux

1985 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 330.–

MILES DAVIS PAR DANY GIGNOUX

Dany Gignoux regularly photographed Miles Davis in concert between 1983 and the year of his death. She attended most of his performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and documented the various stages of his long European tours: Lyon, Lausanne, Lugano, Nice, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Cologne, Graz, Budapest...

Miles Davis, Lausanne

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 1150.–

Miles Davis, Lugano

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 460.–

Miles Davis, Paris

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 270.–

Miles Davis, Budapest

1989 – Dany GIGNOUX

Sold

As a rare privilege, she accompanied Miles to France and Italy, including backstage at one of his last major concerts in Paris in July 1991. In black and white or, more rarely, in colour, Dany Gignoux's photos bear witness to Miles's undiminished flamboyance in his last decade, characterised by his flashy stage costumes.

Miles Davis

1987 circa – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 1050.–

Miles Davis, Lyon

1983 – Dany GIGNOUX

Sold

The comparison with Dizzy Gillespie, whom Dany Gignoux has also photographed extensively, is a fascinating exercise. Dizzy blows a special trumpet with the bell raised to the sky, his cheeks full, his smile radiant; on stage, Miles stands hunched forward, trumpet pointed at the ground, as if he were playing for the spirit of the Earth.

Miles Davis, Lugano

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 1150.–

When it is not hidden behind dark glasses, his stare is intense, scrutinising, almost threatening.

Miles Davis, Budapest

1989 – Dany GIGNOUX

Sold

His impressive stage presence commands the utmost respect from his musicians, who anticipate his every wish.

Miles Davis & Foley McCreary, Montreux

1988 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 1550.–

Miles Davis & Darryl Jones

1989 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 330.–

Miles Davis & Darryl Jones, Montreux

1985 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 1420.–

If Dany Gignoux captures Miles' mythical dimension, she also reveals another aspect of his personality: his almost fraternal complicity with his musicians, through exchanges on stage or backstage dialogues. Making the myth human is not the least quality of this unique and precious body of photographs.