Screening the Event: Watching Miles Davis's "My Funny Valentine"

This chapter focuses on a performance of ?My Funny Valentine? by the Miles Davis quintet, at the Teatro Dell?Arte in Milan on 11 October 1964 that was broadcast on Italian television. The concert was part of a European-wide tour by the newly formed quintet?saxophonist Wayne Shorter had joined the band only months before they left the United States?that also included performances in Germany, France, Denmark, and Finland. Along with a live recording that was made during their appearance at the inaugural 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, the Milan broadcast offers us a unique insight into the genesis of the group?s distinctive sound, as well as the modes of interaction that came to characterize the band?s conception of improvisational practice. More importantly, though, the footage raises questions about how we make sense of the visible elements of a musical performance, especially as it comes to us through television. What do we see in what we hear on a screen, and vice versa? And how do the different screens and screening formats such film and video, for example, influence what we see and hear and experience as jazz?