The Genius of Miles Davis

Verdine White (Elise Thompson)

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Last Wednesday Zune Space LA in partnership with Sony Music's Icon Collectibles presented "The Genius of Miles Davis - the Columbia Years". The photography exhibit contained works by Don Hunstein, Bob Cato, Sandy Speisner, Charles Reilly and Urve Kuusik.

The evening was relaxed and elegant. The Davis family is as friendly and welcoming as if they were greeting you in their own home. Mile's Davis' nephew, Vince, is particularly jovial. Then a bunch of South Bay rockers showed up out of the blue and everyone was laughing and yakking it up for the rest of the night. It was just an example of the wide-ranging influence of Miles Davis.

The photographs are stunning; MIles Davis had the cheekbones and dramatic presence to photograph well. The shadows and lights are particularly striking. The photographs will be offered in limited editions - numbered and signed by the photographers.

Gerald Early writes in the liner notes of the new Kind of Blue box set, "Ironically, what made the music seem so fresh and appealing to listeners, even to people who liked jazz, was that it always seemed so familiar. The music never put you on the spot as a listener by revealing your inadequacies to appreciate it." That's one of the things I have always loved about photography as an artistic medium - its accessibility. Photographs are easy to digest, even when they are at their most complex. Just like Kind of Blue.