To know that even Miles Davis can be lame.

I love Miles Davis. Kind of Blue is still one of my favorite albums.

If you don't know much about Davis, he changed the face of Jazz music multiple times. He introduced modal jazz (Kind of Blue), and fusion (In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew), among many other variations.  But this isn't a posting on jazz history.

I was reading Miles Davis' Wikipedia and discovered something new: 

In 1975, Davis stopped performing, practicing all together. Davis started sitting on his couch everyday, watching TV, and doing drugs. 

This lasted about four years.

Picture it: Miles Davis watching TV for hours on end. The coolest guy in any room he's ever been in (sorry Coltrane), and he's now a couch potato. 

What was  he watching in primetime? See for yourself.

It's kind of pathetic to think that guy who recorded Birth of the Cool is now following the story arc of Maude. Davis, who as a young trumpeter, tracked down Charlie Parker just so he could play with him, was now tracking down the next Columbo installment. 

Miles Davis during this time was lame.

It's a sad time, but I liked hearing this about Miles Davis. 

For one thing, I have finally found something I could relate to with Miles Davis. (If Davis were alive today, we could have a conversation about the Ted Baxter character in Mary Tyler Moore, for example.)

Secondly, drugs are bad, ultimately kill creativity (already knew this).

Lastly, it reinforced in me the importance of NOW as a creative.  What are you doing now? What are you pushing now? How are you challenging yourself now?

I don't want to judge Davis too harshly. He probably needed some rest after 30+ years of recording/performing, and I'm sure drugs played a major part. Also, we are talking about a small segment in a very productive life.

But,

as a creative, you are judged (by yourself and your peers), on what you are doing right now. Miles Davis could've hung all of his Gold Records/awards/pictures all around his TV, but at some point he probably looked at himself and said, "Hey! I just watch TV and do drugs."

There are times in your life where you probably felt lame, and other times you felt like a rock star. Doesn't matter. What are you doing now?

Someone once asked David Sedaris when he became a writer. He said,

"I started writing one afternoon when I was twenty, and ever since then I have written every day."

 

What you do right now, is who you are.