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Miles Davis would have turned 80 this past week. Damn, where to begin …

Miles was one of my biggest influences in early life. (While I ended up in school as a pianist, I originally was a trombonist; my lack of vibrato and short, sparse soloing was because of Miles.) One of the first LPs I ever bought was Bitches Brew, a psychodelic trip of rock and jazz that was viewed by many at the time as a sell out. But on the contrary, it was the evolution not only of Miles himself but of Jazz and the fusion between it and rock. (I remember sitting in the dark with my big clunky headphones listening to this album over and over again, wearing out the vinyl and having to buy another copy.) These extended compositions also were more than just studio sessions; they recorded these pieces and then Miles and legendary producer Teo Macero went back to the studio and added more improvisations and effects like multi-tape loops and other multi-tracking techniques. Their affect on so many forms of music was epoch.

Miles kept changing and moving forward, whether people liked it or not. He constantly pushed himself and jazz beyond comfortable boundaries.

There’s so much to know and to say about Miles. Miles turning 80 this week was big play on XM radio, which was really cool because they played not only the obvious but the obscure as well.

Miles rules. Miles was a Mutha.

I finally bought my first album from iTunes.

In my new car I have XM radio built in and received a three-month subscription when we bought the thing. I love some of the stations, especially the latin jazz and groove stations. But one day, while listening in the car, I heard this really beautiful ensemble, cool soulful percussion, driving rythmns, wailing saxophone. Really great stuff. All I could see on the display was the creator of the album, a guy named Manu Katche. Then, after that, I heard this great jamming thing by Herbie Hancock, one of my true inspirations.

I made mental notes to Google these guys and their albums when I got to work. Then I thought to check iTunes to see if perhaps that had something I could listen to as well. I was hugely impressed with their catalogue; enough so that I decided I would type in the debit card and try buying something from them. I was surprised how easy the process was; I entered my iPod login information, then added all my debit card numbers, and shortly was downloading the entire Herbie Hancock album I had heard for the first time just minutes ago. The sound quality is excellent and it loaded right into the iPod automatically.

The downside, and one which I assume others have written about, is that I can play this music on only five machines. I don’t really care about that. If I can play it on my laptop or home machine or iPod I am happy. I plan to buy one of those Bose iPod stations soon, and that should give me everything I would care about (those Bose stations are truly amazing!).

I love that I can find albums by people like Bill Frisell and Jack DeJohnette and Jan Garbarek on something so pedestrian as iTunes. I love that I can download the albums for 10 bucks. And I think it is just brilliant how Apple revolutionized the music industry while not even being a player in that space.