Miles to Go: The Lost Years

Told by Chris Murphy, a young, down-on-his-luck, Irish-American guitarist who devoted himself to Miles Davis, first as his roadie and assistant, and then as one of his most trusted road managers, Miles to Go is a frank and intimate exploration of Davis’s eccentric working life, drug habits, paranoia, depression, and subsequent recovery. It also deals with Davis’s troubled relationship with his children and the controversial role Cicely Tyson played in his life. Murphy explores the dynamics that made Davis’s band work so well together, placing Davis’s work in a historic, literary, and musical framework. It corrects Davis’s own almost self-hating autobiography, and attempts to treat with some balance the rumors about Davis being bisexual and HIV positive upon his death. Willie Nelson, Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, and a very unlikely Mother Theresa all have walk-on parts in this engaging, intelligent, and often hilarious narrative that takes us from the small seedy jazz clubs that Davis was always at home in, to the world tours, and then finally to Davis’s triumphant return with his celebrated concerts at Lincoln Center in the early ‘80s. Eight pages of black-and-white photos are included.