JH Reference Library: In Tune With the Finer Things
A visual sweep of one of Miles Davis’ most prized sartorial contributions (and unsurprisingly the most interesting to us): his pinky ring.
Image cred: Mile Davis Performs Live At The North Sea Jazz Festival 1988. Photo by Paul Bergen/Redferns.
Image cred: Miles Davis at Massey Hall, Toronto, 1974. Photo by Paul Hoeffler.
The jazz icon was flamboyant, future-forward, and fresh. He was known to shun the stale and the hackneyed — what he called “warmed-over turkey.”
“He grew up like that,” said the tenor saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter, who also played with Davis. “He always dressed well*, always in tune with fine things, and he didn’t see any reason why [they] should be denied to anyone.”
*GQ magazine named Miles Davis the best-dressed musician.
Image cred: Miles Davis plays trumpet, New York, July 1981.Photo by Chuck Fishman/Getty Images.
Image cred: Miles Davis at the Newport jazz festival, Rhode Island, 1969.
Whether single-handedly inventing the musical genre of fusion (with his seminal album “Bitches Brew”), or conjuring new sartorial conventions, Davis’ experiments could not be replicated.
As much as he was protean — inclined towards constant movement and change — one thing remained: his commitment to the pinky ring (as pictured above and in many photographs of the musician over the life of his career).
Image cred: Miles Davis, Newport, 1955.
Exhibit A.
Image cred: Miles Davis performing in Aarhus Denmark June 1987. Photo by Jan Persson/Getty Images.
Exhibit B.
Image cred:Miles Davis, New York health club, circa 1985, photo by Oliver Morris.
Exhibit C.
Image cred:Miles Davis, New York 1986, photo by Roxanne Lowit.Slide 9
As the saying goes, it’s not what you wear but how you wear it.
Image cred: Miles Davis, image source unknown.
