Jazz legend Miles Davis was only a teenager when he picked up the trumpet. The same is true for Justin Varnes.
Varnes was still in high school, playing in his school band, when on Sept. 28, 1991, he heard Miles Davis had died. It was the same day Varnes turned 17.
"Something about that," he said, "I mean I was a kid — but I just remember feeling like, man I don’t even really know anything about Miles Davis, and he just passed away, and it’s my birthday. So I kind of went on this deep dive into Miles Davis. And I just fell in love with his music, and it’s just been a love affair ever since."
He remembers falling extra hard for the first track on Davis' watershed album "Kind of Blue," a song titled "So What?"
"Miles plays this very beautiful trumpet solo, and it just so happens to be fairly easy to play," Varnes said. "So I tried to sit down and learn his solo, and I was able to do it. And it just gave me this big boost to like, I think — I think I can do this."
Today, Varnes is a jazz drummer based in Atlanta. This Sunday, his ensemble comes to Middle C Jazz in Charlotte to share Miles Davis’ music and stories about his life.
It’s part of The Jazz Legacy Project, which Varnes founded as a way to share the music of famous jazz musicians like Billie Holiday and John Coltrane — and their stories — in concert.
"One of the overarching goals that we have at The Jazz Legacy Project is making jazz more accessible to the casual listener," he said. "We want people to go, 'I’ve heard of Miles Davis. I want to know more about him. I just — I just don’t really listen to him much.'"
He shared more of what audiences might discover at this weekend's concert with WFAE's Nick de la Canal.
Nick de la Canal: Is there a story that you came across in your research about (Miles Davis) or his music that surprised you, or you think encapsulates who he was?
Justin Varnes: Yeah, I discovered something that I was surprised that I didn’t know, which was that Miles became famous playing with Charlie Parker and playing bebop. And then there’s kind of a little gap in his career. I didn’t know that during that time, he struggled with some substance abuse issues, and he was essentially forgotten about. And then, during the Newport Jazz Festival, there’s like a little jazz session band. And Miles comes up and sits in, and he plays, “'Round Midnight,” and he plays it with Thelonious Monk on piano — and the entire festival hushes. It was that moment at that jazz festival that turned his career around, so much so that he was signed with Columbia Records. And the first album they did was called “'Round Midnight,” and they put out this really beautiful orchestration of exactly that song, because they thought people needed to hear this. And it turns out they were right.
De la Canal: Davis lived until he was 65 when he died from a stroke in 1991, like you said on your 17th birthday. What do you think his legacy has been on jazz — and even on jazz musicians like yourself?
Varnes: Well, Miles was a great trumpet player, but he was not in the top 10 or 20 greatest in terms of proficiency on the instrument. What he is is a much, much better musician than trumpet player. So what he was able to do is look around him and pick up certain artists and put them under his wing. He became essentially a university for all of the — like John Coltrane essentially went to the school of Miles Davis. So did Wayne Shorter. So did John McLaughlin. So did Herbie Hancock ... the list goes on and on. He is incredibly influential in his ability to hear how music really should sound and deliver it to an audience.
Justin Varnes presents the first of four Jazz Legacy Projects at Middle C Jazz in Charlotte on Sunday, Jan. 12. Later this year, he’ll explore Herbie Hancock, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.
