Start!

 The Miles Davis Podcast

Creating a "way in" to an intimidating subject by talking to fans rather than experts.

Created: 1/2009 - 6/2009
The Miles Davis Podcast Player
Home Page Subscribe via RSSSubscribe via iTunes

“Miles just had a presence that influenced the musicians around him to play differently.” -Nels Cline

Goal:

  • Create a podcast series exploring Miles’ career, focused around the albums he recorded for Columbia, and also delving into recordings for other labels.

Concept – Excite People Who Think Jazz Is Boring:

  • Create a worthy successor to the award-winning Traneumentary.
  • Avoid “typical jazz” interviewees whenever possible.
  • Keep the story accessible to non-jazz fans, as a “way in” to explore Miles and his music.

Cast – Not Your Typical Collection of Stodgy Scholars:

[wpcol_1third id=”” class=”” style=””] [/wpcol_1third] [wpcol_1third id=”” class=”” style=””] [/wpcol_1third] [wpcol_1third_end id=”” class=”” style=””] [/wpcol_1third_end]

Production Notes – A Partnership:

  • To keep it accessible, we specifically excluded “jazz scholars” from the cast and focused instead on fellow musicians from across the spectrum of genres.
  • It was not meant as an explicit ‘sequel’ to Joe’s 32-part Traneumentary (about John Coltrane) but we did intend for it to be a year-long heavily promoted and comprehensive look at Miles’ career and recordings. I’m not sure we were able to reach that lofty goal, but I do think there’s some great content in here.
  • This series was a cross-promotional effort that we organized between Legacy Recordings, Concord Music Group, Verve Records & Rhino. Everyone chipped in resources to get it done.
  • This was the last long-form podcast I did for Sony.

Credits:

  • Executive Producer, Project Lead: Jeremy Meyers
  • Interviewer, Editor, Co-Producer: Joseph Vella, Vella Interactive