A much nicer remembrance, Al, than this one.

And for a far uglier human.

My comments on Miles and on Moynihan are based largely on their public careers. It may be that Moynihan was a much nicer guy to his family than Miles. I don't really know their private lives much, nor care particularly about them.

Miles may have kicked his dog around and been mean to the help or practiced Satanic rituals for all I know. What matters to me is that he left an extraordinary creative legacy.

Moynihan was probably very nice to his dog. I'm sure he tipped well at restaraunts. He also used the authority he won to continually and consistently support policies and spend OUR money on stuff he knew didn't work. He wrote eloquently of the failure of the welfare state, yet continued helping to run the country into the ground with it right to the end. Cheerfully, with a nice smile. He was probably also faithful to his wife. Not that this helps the rest of us.

Essentially, Miles was a creative genius who gave extraordinary benefits to mankind, regardless of whatever his personal foibles. I'm not claiming him to be a saint, only a badass musician.

As it regards the public, Miles was a creative giant who made a tremendous contribution to humanity. Moynihan was a hack politician who took our money to shove down ratholes.

Plus, Miles was just plain cooler.

Miles was indeed a creative genius and as such was also given to being a bit warped, as often true creative geniuses are. Part of appreciating a creative genius is overlooking the person for the very things they made available to the world. To discount the tremendous contribution Miles made to not only jazz but music because he may or may not have been a good person is ridiculous and incredibly simple-minded (and remember, all we really have at this point is second-hand knowledge of the man.) Regardless of his womanizing ways, his addictions, or his bad attitude, Miles is almost solely responsible for some of the most important turning points in jazz, and without him jazz would be a very different thing today - as would rock, whose more open-minded followers picked up and incorporated into their own future music his influential ideas.

(Don't forget to rush out and buy Complete Live At The Blackhawk next week. This should be a stunning release from an under-appreciated and over-ignored lineup.)