Jazz, Comics, and the Search for Sound

Artist and musician Dave Chisholm ’13E (DMA) presents a graphic novel on jazz legend Miles Davis.

Dave Chisholm ’13E (DMA) became fascinated with Miles Davis as a child listening to his parents’ jazz records. At 11, he started playing the trumpet, and in college and at the Eastman School of Music, he studied Davis and other jazz greats.

Now the jazz trumpeter, composer, and visual artist has realized a dream: crafting a graphic novel about the legendary musician, with participation from Davis’s own family members. In collaboration with Z2 Comics and the Miles Davis estate, Chisholm has published Miles Davis and the Search for Sound, a brilliantly colored, 150-plus-page exploration of Davis’s storied life and career, told through the jazz icon’s own words.

Chisholm and Z2 had previously collaborated on several jazz-themed books, including Chasin’ the Bird, a graphic novel about Charlie Parker, which piqued the interest of Davis’s son, Erin. As Erin Davis writes in the foreword to Chisholm’s latest book, “I was completely drawn in by Dave’s approach to Bird’s story.”

Erin Davis was connected with Z2 to explore the idea of a similar book about his father. When the project got under way, Chisholm spent several months researching and scripting the story, and nine or so months more creating the artwork. Erin Davis and Miles’s nephew, Vincent, provided Chisholm some additional insights along the way, with Vincent sharing recollections of visits to see “Uncle Miles” in New York City.

The title of the book alludes to Davis’s lifelong quest for sound. Raised in East St. Louis, Illinois, he made visits to see extended family in rural Arkansas. There, he was captivated by the sounds of blues, gospel, and honky-tonk coming from the homes he walked by. Those early experiences sparked Davis’s relentless innovation in the pursuit of “that” sound, Chisholm explains.

Later in life, after Davis suffered a debilitating stroke that left his right hand temporarily paralyzed, his doctor handed him a pencil, encouraging him to draw as a form of therapy to regain hand strength. “The pencil gave him another voice,” says Chisholm.

In his foreword, Erin Davis tells how Miles’s capacity for expressing himself through his artwork grew. “He went deep into sketching with pencils, pens, and light markers, eventually filling up dozens (maybe hundreds) of sketchbooks,” he writes. “To me, his fine-line work really has its own identity that speaks to the viewer like his trumpet and his music speak to the listener.”

Chisholm has a similar, innate grasp of the connection between visual and sound art. He adapted his artistic style to mirror the diverse phases of Davis’s music, as chronicled in the narrative.

For the text, Chisholm drew from a wealth of published interviews and Davis’s autobiography. Davis’s unapologetic and candid self-portrayal inspired Chisholm to use the icon’s own words, allowing readers to delve into Davis’s intricate character. “Davis was such a complicated person, gifted musically but with his share of personal challenges,” Chisholm says.

If Davis could have read the book, Chisholm would like to think he would have appreciated seeing his candor reflected. And what does Chisholm hope readers take away? “If readers put down this novel and then want to learn more about Miles Davis and jazz music, I’d be happy.”