Miles Ahead

Lead, co-writer and co-producer Don Cheadle shines in "Miles Ahead," also his directorial debut, embodying the foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, womanizing genius who changed clothes six times a day, the troubled trumpet player who innovated 20th century American music.

Cheadle focuses on a five-year period in the late 70s when Miles Davis' pain pill and coke addiction kept him from creating new music, much to his record label's chagrin.

"It was a moment bereft of expression," Cheadle said. "When you are pushed out, how do you get back in?"

Working on the project for decades (and learning, playing and carrying his own trumpet to other film sets), Cheadle didn't want a traditional "cradle to grave" biopic; instead, he wanted a "heist movie," the slim star says in "The Truth: Becoming Miles Davis" feature.

There are car chases, as well as gunplay, as Davis and Scottish Rolling Stone reporter Dave Braden (an engaging Ewan McGregor) race to recover a tape of Davis' music he doesn't want released. Between drug binges, business and domestic battles, Braden attempts to interview "jazz's Howard Hughes, reviled and revered." Magic musician ("mugician") Davis flashes back to his fecund periods, where he encouraged his band to improvise, to "be wrong strong."

Davis also "woke up black and knew how to play piano" and painted, and despite the drug abuse, gave himself permission to "take a long time to be able to play like yourself," and eschewed the label jazz for his preferred "social music."

The film was co-produced by his Davis' son Erin, who characterized his dad's music as "a human's voice from a horn," as well as by his nephew Vince Wilburn, who called his uncle "fearless and daring."

One of the musicians said Davis' music was "energy, it's aura, you have to hold on like a roller coaster."

Cheadle wanted to capture that spirit, a "narrative like a composition, like music," and McGregor adds, "I felt like I was in a movie with Don Cheadle AND Miles Davis."

Keyon Harrold portrays a young trumpeter in the movie, as well as recording whatever pieces weren't originally Davis' (coincidentally, both players are from St. Louis), and calls the legend "a magician who quenches your soul."

The takeaway from this stylish slice-of-strife comes from Davis: "sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself."

"Miles Ahead"
Blu-ray
$22.00
https://www.milesdavis.com/miles-ahead