Miles Davis- Birth of the Cool

Today we celebrate the birth of the man who gave us the Birth of the Cool, Miles Davis.  Miles, in spite of his demons, oozed cool.

Instead of recreating the wheel I present in full a post from one of my favorite sites A Hymn to Intellectual Beauty:Creative Minds and Fashion.  by the inimitable Deborah Parker:
Toad


Miles Davis

...behind a mask that seemed incapable of expressing anything, one sensed sensitivity and strength as well as a deeper level of expressivity. Small gestures, no matter how studied, expressed their awareness of their bodies and drew attention to their provocative sexuality, together conveying a new form of American naturalism.

These gestures, the relaxed posture, the studied inarticulateness, a calculated detachment, a certain angle of descent, merge with elements of the cool, a powerful metaphor for twentieth-century life. John Szwed, So What: The Life of Miles Davis.

I was changing my attitude about a lot of things, like the look of my wardrobe. I was working all these clubs where there was a lot of smoke, and it would get in the fabric of my suits. Plus, everyone was starting to dress a little looser at concerts, at least the rock musicians were, and that might have affected me. Everybody was into blackness, you know, the black consciousness movement, and so a lot of African and Indian fabrics were being worn. I started wearing African dashikis and robes and looser clothing plus a lot of Indian tops by a guy named Hernando, who was from Argentina and who had a place in Greenwich Village. That’s where Jimi Hendrix bought most of his clothes. So I started buying wraparound Indian shirts from him, patch suede pants from a black designer named Steven Burrows, and shoes from a place in London called Chelsea Cobblers…I had moved away from the cool Brooks Brothers look and into this other thing, which for me was more what was happening with the times. I found I could move around on the stage much better. I wanted to move on stage, play in different places, because there are areas on stage where the music and sound are much better than other places. I was starting to explore for those places. Miles Davis. Autobiography of Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe.

Before his performance, Mr. Davis will wear a single-breasted (one button) beige pongee suit, combining the French and Italian influence on pants and jacket. When Mr. Davis is playing on stage, he will be wearing a double-breasted gray imported silk (two buttons) featuring only two pockets to create an extra slim line. After his performance, Miles will relax in a pink, single-breasted seersucker jacket with matching pants, hand-made loafers of doeskin, and white sports shirt worn with a pink silk square. Press release for Randall Island Jazz Festival, 1961.

I wish I had a photo of Davis from the Randall Island Jazz Festival. The details of the top center photo are notable: the way the scarf is tied, the wide leather bracelet, the woven belt, and the snake-leather pants. Miles Davis has long been hailed as a fashion icon. The creator of Birth of the Cool has been placed on innumerable Fashion Hall of Fame lists. His style has ranged from Brooks Brothers prep to African-inspired dress. In April 1961 GQ chose Davis as “Fashion Personality of the Month; Esquire named Davis one the best dressed men in America in 1960. No one played the trumpet like him, no one embodied cool with such throwaway ease. Listen to some of his classic pieces.

Deborah Parker

Before Facebook

Once upon a time, before Facebook turned status declarations digital  it was a custom amongst teens for the guys to give their class ring to their steady girlfriend as a public demonstration that they were a couple, which often as not p***** off the girl's mother.  Naturally, the ring never fit her and ingenious ways were created to make it fit.

Having the ring resized was not an option, so some girls purchased a ring guard, which was placed around the shank of the ring.  If memory serves it rarely worked, so the next best option was to wear the ring on a necklace.  Most girls however settled for a strip of athletic tape wound through the band.

I have never removed my wedding band, and I rarely take off the signet ring. However, on 3 occasions since Friday my wedding band has slipped off, twice I didn't notice it gone but Mrs.T did, fortunately quickly.  I will have it professionally resized, just not yet.  In the meantime I've stocked up on tape.

Toad

John Tyler

Once out of office American Presidents are pretty much forgotten about.  Students may be required learn the   presidents names and the order they served, but that sort of info is forgotten immediately.  As adults we can recite the names the first half dozen, skip to #16 (Lincoln) then jump to Franklin Roosevelt.  There is even one, John Tyler of Virginia, our 10th, whose death was never formally acknowledged by the US government.

Born in 1790, Tyler was elected in 1840 as Wm. Henry Harrison's vice president.  Tyler became president when Harrison died one month after his inauguration, serving 1 term. A fervent Virginian, Tyler was elected to the Confederate Congress at the start of the Civil War, but died before taking his seat in the new congress. Then at war with the Confederacy, the US pointedly ignored his service to the US at the time of his death.

In the early 21st century president Tyler is known for 2 things.  His administration worked hard to have Texas admitted as a US state, and his 15 children by 2 wives (8 and 7).  The 5th child of wife 2, Lyon Gardiner Tyler (1853-1935), served 30 years as president of William and Mary College.

 Harrison Ruffin Tyler

Two of his sons, Harrison Ruffin Tyler and Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr are still alive. Harrison lives at President Tyler's Virginia plantation, Sherwood Forest.  In 2001 his family donated $5 million to William and Mary's Lyon Gardiner Tyler Department of History.

Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Jr.

Lyon and Harrison Tyler, now each in their 80's are grandsons of a man born in 1790.  A remarkable feat.

Toad

Victoria Day

Happy Victoria Day to our friends and neighbors to the north.

Toad

Lindbergh enroute

May 20, 1927 was a big day for Mayberry.  Charles Lindbergh, in his Mayberry funded "Spirit of St. Louis" airplane, took off from Long Island, New York's Roosevelt Field headed north then southeast towards Paris, France.  Jimmy Stewart made it look easy.

Over time St. Louis  forgot Lucky Lindy, but one artefact remains.  Perhaps the worst airport in North America may be ours, Lambert International.  The airport, named for Mr. Albert Bond Lambert, a local nabob interested in flying and the scion of the creator of Listerine Mouthwash was Lindbergh's primary financial backer.    

Toad

Lawrence

Today is the anniversary of the 1935 death of Col. Thomas Edward Lawrence DSO,CB, Croix de Guerre, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and a long time hero of mine.

In August 1922, in an attempt to evade his celebrity Lawrence enlisted in the RAF under the name John Hume Ross.  His enlistment officer believing Ross an alias, challenged Lawrence to come clean.  Lawrence admitted he lied and was dismissed from the service.  Later that day Lawrence along with an RAF messenger returned to the enlisting officer where the messenger delivered an order for Lawrence's enlistment.  It was during this RAF enlistment that Aircraftman Lawrence wrote The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.



Lawrence's notoriety caught up with him the following February when the Daily Express exposed his serving as an enlisted man causing a public embarrassment for his superiors.  Lawrence was promptly discharged by the RAF.

Later that year he changed his name to TE Shaw and joined the Royal Tank Corps, which he hated and repeatedly petitioned to rejoin the RAF, which finally relented under pressure from the PM in 1925.  The RAF hustled him off to a remote corner of India for the next 2 1/2 years.

HT Lawrence Tender

Upon his return to England, Lawrence was transferred to the RAF Marine section where he helped to develop a series of fast tenders used to ferry passengers to flying boats, fire tenders and rescue boats. His work saved many downed aircrew during the Second World War.

May he rest in peace.

Toad

A nation of homesteaders

Monday marks the 151st anniversary of one of the signing of one most generous U.S. property laws.  On May 20, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the first Homestead Act into law.  The Homestead Act which went into effect the next January 1 gave everyone, including former slaves and women, who were over 21 or a head of household and had never taken up arms against the US (this was during the Civil War) a claim for 160 acres of  unappropriated federal land.   To be awarded their deed homesteaders had to live on their claim for 5 years and  show proof of having improved the land.

The quarter section grant fulfilled Thomas Jefferson's vision that a nation of small farmers would help protect American democracy, 160 acres was in his view the perfect sized family farm.  The aim was to populate the territory of the Louisiana Purchase.

Oklahoma Land Rush

Over time the Act was amended to meet and comply with federal policy changes, and was finally .  During its 124 year history 4 million families filed claims for 270 million acres, perhaps a quarter of the claims became successful working farms.   The last deed was granted in 1988 to Kenneth Deardorff for 80 acres on the Stony River in Southwestern Alaska

Toad

Public Service Announcement IV

Topeka Capital Journal photo

One of the responsibilities of being male is bearing the burden of the "I'm right" gene.  Men know what's best, and are intolerant of those who believe otherwise.  That's why we do most of the things we do, we do it our way, not someone else's.  I am here today gentlemen to ask you to do something another way.

The fire crew in the photo above is at the home of lifelong friends of people we love.  The fire investigator suggests that the probably avoidable fire was caused by a series of events many of us are guilty of.  The day was hot and Dad having just finished cutting the grass put the lawnmower away.  It is speculated the still hot mower was parked too near a gas can in an enclosed garage.  The heat from the mower... gas fumes... fire truck.

For 50 years, that's the way he did it without a problem.  Neither dad nor anyone on his street will ever do it dad's way again.  You shouldn't either.

Toad