'Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool'

Few biographical documentaries touch all the bases — chronicling its subject’s life, analyzing the subject’s work, and providing the context for the subject’s legacy — as masterfully and as effectively as “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” does.

Miles Davis had quite the life to recount. He left East St. Louis, Ill., where his father was a well-to-do dentist who sometimes beat Davis’ mother, for New York, to play the jazz clubs of 52nd Street. He worked early with such greats as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and with them created what became bebop. Davis was after a different sound, a tone more pure, more polished. more personal.

Forming his own quintet, with a young John Coltrane on tenor sax, Davis revolutionized jazz with his improvisation-heavy 1959 album “Kind of Blue.” His later combos brought in other fresh talent, such as a 23-year-old Herbie Hancock, and he explored flamenco (“Sketches of Spain,” 1960), Disney melodies (“Someday My Prince Will Come,” 1961) and a radical departure into funk and rock (“Bitches Brew,” 1970).

His personal life was marked with substance abuse — heroin in the ‘50s, cocaine and alcohol at other times in his life, and painkillers after a botched hip surgery — and a string of marriages and lovers. Some of those women speak up in the film, describing incidents of domestic abuse, often fueled by the drugs.

Director Stanley Nelson — whose past films have covered such topics as Marcus Garvey, the Jonestown massacre, black colleges, Freedom Riders and the Black Panthers — collects a wide range of interviews. They include Davis’ old friends, fellow musicians (including Carlos Santana and Quincy Jones), and historians and music experts who help explain to the uninitiated the importance of Davis’ musical evolution and his status as a prosperous, proud African American man.

But Nelson’s best two weapons are Davis’ words, read by the actor Carl Lumbly, and his music, which speaks volumes with every note. “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” will be a treat for jazz fans, and an essential guide for anyone looking to understand the mark Davis left on the second half of the 20th century.

——

‘Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool’

★★★1/2

Opened August 23 in select cities; opens Friday, October 18, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably R for language, and descriptions of substance abuse and domestic violence. Running time: 115 minutes.