YRB Magazine

If you haven't kept up with jazz, then there's no better place to start than with Miles Davis. But for an artist that's put out an outstanding amount of music over the years, it's tough to know where to begin. So if you happen to have wads of cash laying around, then look no further than The Complete Miles Davis Columbia Album Collection, a 70-CD box set that includes 52 Davis albums recorded from 1949 to 1985, a bonus DVD of the Miles Davis Quintet playing live in Europe in '65 and a 250-page booklet that features an 11,000-word biographical essay by Frédéric Goaty. In anticipation of the box set's November 24th release, YRB chatted with Erin Davis (Miles' son) and Vince Wilburn, Jr. (Miles' nephew) about how it all came together. Hit the jump to read our exclusive interview with the pair.

Erin: I think the idea came about originally for the release to come in conjunction with the art exhibition in Paris called We Want Miles, and it's an exhibition on his life and music. And the idea was thought up by Sony France, and everybody loved the idea, so we put it together.

YRB: The box contains 70 CDs, which is an extraordinary amount of music. Have you two actually listened to all of that music?

Vince: [Laughs] Yeah, the majority of it. We've probably heard everything once or twice.

YRB: What about the behind the scenes stuff? Was it difficult to cut through any red tape that might have been in place?

Erin: We have a pretty good system of doing things, and this is all Sony and Columbia's works, so there was very little – if any – red tape. We had a meeting with Sony about the project, went back and forth with a lot of e-mails and designs, and they did a great job and here it is.

YRB: What exactly prompted you to continue Miles Davis' legacy and take on this project?

Vince: It's what we do in addition to our personal projects. Erin's scoring a movie, I have a band. I just got back from Paris doing a gig. It's like – I don't want to say annointment, but it's what we do, to further the legacy. Erin's the son and I'm the nephew, so it's his wishes, you know?

YRB: You have a band of your. Are both of you involved with music, your own music careers?

Vince: Yes.

YRB: Is it jazz?

Vince: I have a production company, so I work with all types of different artists from R&B to hip-hop. I had a classical violinist from Iran, so my musical tastes vary.

Erin: I rent a room at a studio called The Village in L.A., and I'm scoring a movie that stars 50 Cent, Adam Rodriguez and Chris Klein called Caught in the Crossfire. I also work with other artists. I work with all my friends, work with other people and I used to be in a band called Bloodline, we toured all over the States. Vince and I used to both be in Miles' group.

YRB: What sort of things did you learn from playing with him?

Vince: To take the music seriously, and being a drummer, never take my eyes off of him on stage. [Laughs]. You know what I mean? Because he had a wireless mic, so I was looking all up under the cymbals like, “Where's Miles?” We learned to just be serious about the music, in the studio or live or in Harlem. Whenever you approach the music, make that your priority and take it seriously.

Erin: When I was studying music, he used to look into my book and see doodling in the margins, and he would be like “Why are you not taking it seriously?” And I would be like oh. [Laughs] If you're going to be anything, then you've got to strive to be the best at it and keep learning and evolving. So I think that's what we learned from him in that respect. He always was practicing and coming up with new ideas and putting sounds from in his head and out into the street and to his contemporaries and to his kids. So he was always evolving and moving, and we would try to emulate that.

YRB: Since you've had these experiences, what's an emblematic experience or funny circumstance that comes to mind when you think of Miles?

Erin: In the band, I was playing electronic percussion, which was like samplers and an octopad. I was trying to figure it out the whole time I was with him and play what he wanted to hear, so I kind of stumbled my way through the first couple of weeks on the road and was finally like, “You know? I'm just going to do this thing and hope it kind of works out.” Miles used to have these little name signs that, instead of talking into the microphone, he would have signs with the names of the guys of the band on it. And when it came time for you to play your solo, he would hold your card up to the audience. And I remember he would always hold mine up when I would do my solo, but I remember one time, he held it up and looked at me like, “Hey, that wasn't bad!” And I was like, “Whew!” I don't remember feeling that way too many times, I was so nervous about it, but I kept the card for a while. I think I have it stored somewhere. But I just remember all the other guys in the band had been on the road with him. I'd been on the road too, but I was working with the road crew most of the time. Finally, when I joined the band, I was so nervous because I never played electronic percussion before. I'd played the drums, but I was just kind of winging it and figuring out how he wanted it. I remember that one night, he seemed to be happy.

Vince: I remember we were playing in New Orleans, and he had a tendency to play while he was walking. We were playing a slow song and he was backing up playing, and he fell over this floor monitor, this monitor on the stage. And I jumped off the drums to get him and help him up, and – you really want to know what he said?

YRB: Lay it on me!

Vince: He said, “Fuck me, get my trumpet!” I was like, wow, he's more concerned about whether or not his horn was OK! But he was fine, he continued playing, you know?

YRB: Now that the box set is out, how do you plan on taking his legacy further?

Erin: There's a lot of different things in the works. We can talk about it when there's more stuff, but Vince is also producing a movie of his life.

Vince: Yeah, Herbie Hancock's going to score it and Don Cheadle's directing and starring.

YRB: Yeah, tell me about that. How far along are you?

Vince: We're in the process of OK'ing the script with a new writer. Don didn't like the other writer that was attached to the movie, so there's a new writer named Steven Vegelman that Don's writing with. Once is the script is OK'd by the family, then we go into production. Erin and I are putting together some live concerts and he recorded everything, more tapes from the soundboard. And there's a vast amount of music in the vaults, so we'll get back to you when we get some projects together. We've got another thing coming out on Warner/Rhino, he left Sony and signed with Warner. I think it's called The Warner Years or the Rubberband Sessions, he had a song called “Rubberband.” But we'll hit you back when we know when it's coming out.