Sugar Ray Robinson and Miles Davis
How a Boxing Legend Inspired a Jazz Legend
Miles Davis was a genius in jazz, but his addiction to heroin nearly killed him. The influence of Sugar Ray Robinson saved his life.
When Miles Davis, the jazz legend, needed help kicking his heroin addiction he looked to Sugar Ray Robinson for inspiration. A sports fan since his childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, Davis played baseball, football, and basketball while growing up, but it was boxing that inspired him when he needed it most.
Miles Heroin Habit
A rising star in the jazz scene, Davis moved to New York in 1951 to play his trumpet with the greats; Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach et al, but as exciting as the jazz scene was, the drug scene--specifically heroin--that accompanied it had just as much, if not more allure. By 1952 Miles was pimping prostitutes to help support his heroin habit. In his book Miles: The Autobiography (Simon and Schuster Inc., 1989) he wrote that since he had always loved boxing, he could use it to help him get off of drugs.
Davis approached Bobby McQuillen, a trainer at Gleason's Gym in Manhattan about training him. McQuillen told him to get off of drugs first. He tried to quit but couldn't make it stick until he moved to Detroit, Michigan. Like Ernest Hemingway, Miles admired the discipline that boxers had, and no fighter impressed him more than Ray Robinson. "...I really kicked my habit because of the example of Sugar Ray Robinson; I figured if he could be as disciplined as he was, then I could do it too," he wrote.
Once Miles beat addiction, McQuillen let him back into Gleason's. He never boxed competitively--even in sparring he had to avoid being hit in the mouth, he was becoming one of the greatest trumpet players in history after all--but trained mostly for fitness and the challenge it presented.
The Discipline of Boxing
McQuillen trained him aggressively which Davis appreciated, along with his knowledge of the game and his grasp of what Davis called "the swivel"--generating more punching power by swiveling one's hips with the blow. Davis observed that Joe Louis had the swivel--as did Ray Robinson-- and he likened the discipline of boxing technique to learning a musical instrument.
"It’s like a musical instrument;" wrote Miles, "you have to keep practicing over and over and over again.” It's that discipline to practice the same thing until it was right that Davis drew from Robinson.
Robinson had a lot of things that Davis admired: the way he dressed, the women he kept on his arm, his confidence, and his mastery in the ring. With McQuillen's help Davis noticed how Robinson set traps in the ring, trying different techniques to see how his opponent reacted, then when he smelled blood, he pounced.
Davis admired boxers, like Sugar Ray Robinson, who had their own style and he believed that no matter what one does, they should develop their own style. The discipline Miles Davis learned from Sugar Ray Robinson got him off of heroin, and gave him legendary style.
Source:
Davis, Miles: "Miles: The Autobiography", Simon and Schuster Inc., 1989
