[Jazz & Song] Davis, Miles. (1926–1991)
Autograph Musical Manuscripts
Important collection of working musical manuscripts dating from the end of Davis' career, as follows:Autograph Musical Manuscript, 2 pp, on bifoliate leaves of staff paper and featuring 10 bars of melody and chords in Davis' hand, in pencil and ink, tune unidentified.
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Autograph Musical Manuscript, 4 pp recto and verso, on 2 bifoliate leaves of staff paper with approximately 24 bars of melody and chords in Davis' hand and with sketch of head to p 2 and additional textual notations, moderately toned, tune unidentified.
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Autograph Musical Manuscript, 2 pp recto and verso, on staff paper, with musical notations in black and blue in, 2 1/2 inch cut at lower left corner, tune unidentified.
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Autograph Musical Manuscript, 2 pp, on bifoliate leaves of staff paper with 5 bars of melody in Davis' hand and additionally titled "Vanity." heavily creased, chipped at edges, and toned
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Autograph Musical Manuscript in scribal hand, 8 pp recto and verso, on bifoliate staff paper, n.p. n.d., being the score for a work titled "Outpost," featuring trumpet, flute, keyboard and bass, with note in unknown hand at upper margin of p 1 reading "All trumpet/Flute and keyboard cures ad lib from miles / Bass & drums in 4-bar boxes as per rhythm...."
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Facsimile musical manuscript , 6 pp, legal folio, October 5, 1990, containing melody lines for Davis' character in the Australian film Dingo (1991).
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A rare collection of musical manuscripts by Davis, incomplete and unidentified. The faxed copies are from the Australian film Dingo, Davis' last appearance on film, and it is possible that the manuscript fragments also date from his final projects, suggested by a few scattered words and phrases: the indication for "rap" at a point in one melody suggests that one manuscript might be related to his posthumous album, Doo-Bop, a collaboration between Davis and several hip-hop artists of the period. Other phrases such as "scene to scene" suggest that one or two of the fragments may relate to his late film work.
Miles Davis was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, a master of bebop, hard bop, cool jazz and fusion. Davis' long career spanned from the 1940s, when he played bebop with Charlie Parker, to the 1980s when he frequently played with British new wave bands and emerging hip hop artists. The Smithsonian Institute has a printed score of Summertime with small pencil annotations in Davis' hand, but actual musical manuscripts of Davis are exceedingly rare. (7368)
Manuscript Music Jazz