O puto que ousou criticar Miles Davis...



A história é engraçada e quem a conta é o puto que um dia se virou para Miles Davis e lhe disse: "You don't play correct".

Esse puto é hoje um homem de 60 e alguns anos e, além de médico, tornou-se num respeitável músico de jazz que, felizmente, tivemos já a oportunidade de ver e ouvir por várias vezes em Portugal.

Refiro-me a Eddie Henderson.

A história do(s) encontro(s) com Miles Davis conta-a ele em entrevista ao site All About Jazz.

Aqui fica:

Jazz trumpeter extraordinaire Eddie Henderson always had talent. After all, his first informal lesson on the instrument at the age of 9 was from Louis Armstrong. But his studies went well beyond that. As a teenager he was learning legitimate trumpet at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and performing with the San Francisco Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. Proper technique is always the cornerstone of such an undertaking. And so it was with a bit of brashness, and a dash of innocent ignorance, that he spoke to a friend of his parents sometime in 1957 as the two drove down a city street.

Young Eddie didn't know the man well, but had just accompanied him to a gig in San Francisco. "You don't play correct", the teenager told the driver, who promptly screeched the car to a halt.

"What the fuck are you playing?"? intoned the man in a gravely voice. "I play trumpet", the boy responded.

"Yeah. I'll BET you play trumpet", said Miles Dewey Davis III as he threw the car back in gear and drove on.

"Actually, I really didn't know who he was", says Henderson in early June, recalling the incident.

"Miles is so very special to me because when I was in high school he stayed in my parents' house when he came through town about 1957, '58 and '59 in San Francisco. I was going to the conservatory then studying classical music. I saw him do all these songs live when I was much younger".

Miles returned to the Bay area about nine months after that day in the car, Henderson recounted. "In the interim, I found out who he was and bought records. So he walked in my house. My mother was taking pictures. I got my trumpet and said, 'Man, you gotta hear this.' I played with the record. So I ran up to him and said, 'How do you like that?' and he said, [affecting Miles trademark voice] 'You sound good. But that's me.' That was my first revelation".

"These are important things for the predecessors to relay to the people coming up. You should emulate, not imitate", explained Henderson, noting that he also received other tips from Miles. ?My stepfather said, 'Show him something.' So he wrote on a napkin, four notes implying a C7 chord. I'm looking at him, and he said, 'Man, don't look at me. Look at the music!' That's about as far as it went as far as formal sitting down stuff, but by going and hearing him play, I learned so much without words".

Em 2003, Henderson gravou o disco So What, em homenagem a Miles Davis.