Kind of Blue (Music for the Muse): Re/playing Autoethnographic Stories through Music

Abstract

Chris McRae's Miles Away from “The Cool” beautifully traverses complex mappings of place, time, memory, music, and the politics of representation. Performing powerful distillations of research and nuanced readings of Miles Davis's autobiography and music while weaving his own and Davis's life stories together, McRae urges us to “consider the spaces between the destinations, the stories, the music. You've got to listen.” Listening to these absences, I unearth my own musical citations by re/membering my lost uncle who first introduced me to life-changing music, and who taught me to listen closely, love performance, and engage deeply with artists and audiences.

Keywords:

• Miles Davis
• Performance of/and music
• Chris McRae
• Autoethnography
• West Texas

Thanks to my mother—Linda Shoemaker—, Morris Jurgensen, Chris McRae, Stacy L. Holman Jones, and the anonymous reviewers. This essay is dedicated to my grandparents Vivien and Grady, and to my Uncle Buzzy, Grady Davis Gaston Jr.

Thanks to my mother—Linda Shoemaker—, Morris Jurgensen, Chris McRae, Stacy L. Holman Jones, and the anonymous reviewers. This essay is dedicated to my grandparents Vivien and Grady, and to my Uncle Buzzy, Grady Davis Gaston Jr.