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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Miles is to Picasso as Who is to Whom

In a well-known interview with Sonny Rollins and Gary Bartz, Miles Davis is likened to Picasso. Like Miles, Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane went through cycles of intense artistic change; less so, other of the musicians in this postBix, Red Allen, Hampton and Shepp. And, like Picasso, the artists here sometimes had a dominant style and sometimes went through significant changes (not to mention working in different media). But, since this is pure subjectivity, not scholarly research, I'm using a single well-known work by the musicians and artists to present a simple case for their aesthetic linkage. Look and listen.

Bix and Joan Miro.                            


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Coleman Hawkins and John Marin
                     

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                                        John Coltrane and Isamu Noguchi
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Henry "Red" Allen and Franz Kline

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Lionel Hampton Big Bands and Romare Bearden

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Archie Shepp and Jacob Lawrence
More to come.

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