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<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a celebratory Wednesday night at Musichead Gallery on Sunset Boulevard. Jazz music drifts into the night from an open doorway guarded by a resolute figure in a black suit. Light from an old marquee shines on the sidewalk, trumpeting the evening\u2019s main event in all caps: \u201c\u2018Miles Davis: A Century of Cool,\u2019 opening Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inside, the gallery\u2019s owner and curator, Sam Milgrom, is ready to reveal his latest exhibition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a few [photos] in there that I\u2019m really excited and proud to show to everyone, moments that are so important in the history of jazz,\u201d Milgrom says, smiling. \u201cAnyone who loves music should experience this and learn a little bit about who [Davis] was and why he was so damn cool.\u201d <\/p>\n
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The show celebrates the late jazz musician\u2019s centennial through imagery captured over a career spanning nearly five decades. On this particular evening, friends, family and photographers of Davis gather in Milgrom\u2019s cozy gallery, its walls adorned with photographs, nestled together in slick black frames on either side of the room.<\/p>\n
Milgrom has been working on the exhibition in collaboration with the Miles Davis Estate, led by Davis\u2019 children, Erin and Cheryl, as well as his nephew, Vince Wilburn Jr., who are all in attendance. This isn\u2019t their first collaboration; previously, Milgrom hosted a Miles Davis book launch party and a \u201cKind of Blue\u201d Scotch whiskey tasting at the gallery.<\/p>\n
Milgrom is a longtime jazz aficionado whose love of Davis dates to the \u201870s, when he worked in various Detroit record stores and was eventually introduced to jazz rock. It was in Motor City that he spun \u201cBitches Brew\u201d countless times, and eventually promoted Davis\u2019 albums at his own shop, Sam\u2019s Jams, with help from Warner Brothers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone should know not just his name, but what he represented and his integrity for believing in himself, following his path, and following his ideas that led to so many innovations in music,\u201d Milgrom says of Davis.<\/p>\n
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Friends and family attend a private reception for Musichead Gallery\u2019s centennial celebration of legendary jazz musician and cultural icon Miles Davis on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
It wouldn\u2019t be until after the musician\u2019s comeback tour that Milgrom would actually see him in the flesh in August 1981, and it was a moment he would not forget. He recalls the crowd in particular: \u201cEveryone was dressed to the nines \u2026 it was an atmosphere I had never experienced before,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe love they had for him, [the] respect and reverence and enjoyment of what he did \u2014 it was very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Wilburn Jr. approached him last May about doing a centennial exhibition, he was quick to answer: \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been in my mind since last year, and at the beginning of this year, I started \u2014 in earnest \u2014 putting something together,\u201d Milgrom says. <\/p>\n
Images for the show came from a variety of sources. Milgrom began in-house, as the gallery represents nearly 100 celebrated music photographers, including Robert Knight, Mick Rock and William \u201cPoPsie\u201d Randolph. He later looked further afield to tell the complete story of Davis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did my research and made a wish list of people that had taken photos of Miles; ones that I knew from album covers, and ones that I\u2019d seen over the years,\u201d Milgrom recalls.<\/p>\n
Other than providing contact information for the people on his list, Milgrom says the estate was hands-off throughout the process. The first time they saw the selected photos was at the opening reception. The family wouldn\u2019t be alone in that experience \u2014 many selected photos have never before been seen by the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever I put together an exhibition, if I can say to the photographer or the estate, \u2018Do you mind if I look through the proof sheets, the contact sheets, or just give me all the files \u2014 let me look and see what\u2019s there,\u2019 it\u2019s a revelation,\u201d Milgrom says.<\/p>\n
Tom Copi, one of the exhibit\u2019s featured photographers, attends the event in a two-piece bright yellow suit. The 81-year-old says he chose the ensemble to contrast all the darker outfits in the room.<\/p>\n
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Photographers Tom Copi, center, and Bruce Talamon, left, friends for over 40 years, both have their iconic photos of Miles Davis on display at the gallery.<\/p>\n
(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Copi first met Davis in July 1963. At age 17, he hitchhiked for nine hours from Ann Arbor, Mich., to New York City to see Davis at the Village Vanguard. He followed the famed trumpeter into the venue\u2019s kitchen, where Davis had gone to grab a glass of water.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018What do you want, white boy?\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, I hitchhiked here … just to hear you play and tell you how great we in Michigan think you are,\u2019\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
The musician didn\u2019t reply, but apparently appreciated the gesture. During the second set, he motioned to Copi to come sit on the edge of the stage and listen to the band. It was the first and last time Copi ever spoke to Davis, but he would go on to photograph him eight times in total. Displayed at the exhibition are shots he snapped of him at Newport Jazz Festival in 1969. <\/p>\n
Davis\u2019 son Erin arrives early to the opening, and slowly makes his way around the room, shaking hands and greeting friends. He gazes in awe at photos of his father. He says that he\u2019s seen so many photos of his father over the years, but at Milgrom\u2019s exhibit, there\u2019s a \u201cwhole bunch of new ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool to see stuff from before I was born \u2026 in the \u201860s and the \u201850s \u2014 it seems almost like fantasy land,\u201d Erin says. \u201cThere\u2019s one with him and Spike Lee that I\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived out here in Malibu, but I heard that they went to Knicks games together with Jellybean Benitez, and I was like, \u2018What? Can we go to a Lakers game or something out here?\u2019\u201d he adds, laughing.<\/p>\n
Erin is the youngest of the relatives at 55 and didn\u2019t become directly involved with his father\u2019s music until he was 14, when he joined Davis on tour in 1985. He moved in with his father a year later.<\/p>\n
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Erin Davis, son of Miles Davis, poses for a portrait during Musichead Gallery\u2019s centennial celebration of legendary Jazz musician and cultural icon Miles Davis on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m as guilty as anybody at creating narratives about people and albums, records and concerts,\u201d Erin says. \u201cBut he has plenty of narratives out there that people cling to. To me, I had him as he was, no narrative. Midwest values but New York sophistication, attention for Italian automobiles \u2014 a very different person.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that point in his life, Erin says Davis was still constantly working on some form of art. Whether that was playing on stage with the band, drawing, or painting huge canvases, he was never \u201csitting around, doing nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t the kind of person who went on vacation and laid out in the sun by the pool,\u201d Erin says. \u201cI was just trying to get to know him as a dad and as a bandleader and the boss of our whole organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, Erin would go on to co-manage the estate. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have a better job,\u201d he says of the work, which includes constantly discovering new parts of his father\u2019s catalogue. Davis, he says, never kept any old records lying around the house.<\/p>\n
‘Miles Davis: A Century of Cool’<\/p>\n