The Last Miles

After five years on sabbatical, Miles Davis made a comeback in 1980 and continued to create controversial music until his death in 1991. In The Last Miles, George Cole spent almost 450 pages covering every track from The Man With The Horn all the way up to Doo-Bop. Cole interviewed musicians who worked with Miles and quoted critics who had written about Miles. While Cole’s focused and thorough research makes The Last Miles informative and insightful, particularly Tutu, which alone takes up four chapters of the book, his lacking of “definitive assessment” makes a weak case for Miles’s final decade. Cole informed us both sides of the controversy, but hardly from the author’s point of view. Perhaps Cole is being too respectful of Miles music?