He was born in Alton, and raised in East St. Louis and the jazz world knew him as one of the best of all time. Miles Davis passed away nearly 32 years ago, and Thursday night the Missouri History Museum hosts a unique event celebrating him. "Cool Deconstructed: Miles Davis in Reverse" runs between 5:30 and 8 p.m.
Emily Underwood from the Missouri Historical Society and Lauren Parks from the House of Miles in East St. Louis joined KMOX to talk more about the special exhibit honoring Davis and what he means to the East St. Louis community.
"Miles Davis was an innovator, an exciting and multifaceted gentleman. He was not one to be defined," Parks said. "He did not allow you to put him in the proverbial box. He defined himself. He was a very impactful figure, decades of his music still today impacting musicians and artists all over the world."
The event on Thursday night starts out with the museum's weekly happy hour, with food and drinks from Sugarfire.
"And you can, I hope, go visit our St. Louis sound exhibit which does feature some of Miles Davis's items," Underwood said. "We've got a jacket of Miles Davis's and a trumpet in there. Of course, he was a huge figure in our regional music history. And the exhibit covers all of that."
Underwood said she thinks the exhibit will have something for new Davis fans and people who've listened to him for their whole lives.
"Bringing in the top quality musicians who really will appeal to somebody who's got that ear for jazz and knows the music, and then sprinkling in a little bit of that history and his story — hopefully, even people who are seasoned Miles fans will learn something new out of it," she said. "But certainly they'll enjoy the music and maybe hear the music in a different way than they're used to."
Parks, who's one of the co-founders of the Miles Davis House in East St. Louis, agreed, saying visitors who come to the house learn and feel something regardless of how much they know about the jazz legend.
"When we have visitors, some of them are novice, and some of them are experts," she said. "But when you come and visit the space where he received his inspiration, a lot of things you find in that house, or that we talked about on the tour, you cannot find on Google. You can google Miles Davis, but there are some aspects of his life that we love to share in that space."
Hear more from Lauren Parks and Emily Underwood on the event at the Missouri History Museum honoring Miles Davis on Thursday:
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