Excerpt from “Letters to a Young Artist”, by Anna Deavere Smith.
“I’ve been thinking about Miles Davis, and the birth of cool,” I said. (Miles Davis did a famous album called Birth of the Cool.)…”I’ve been thinking this idea,” I said hesitantly, “this idea of the death of cool.”
“It’s time for it to be dead,” [Wynton] said emphatically.
“So–what’s cool?” I asked.
“Miles was the epitome of cool,” he said….”Cool is . . . cool is you don’t show emotion. Cool is you never raise your voice. Miles never raised his voice.” Wynton shook his head. “He would talk real soft. The idea is you keep all your emotion inside in everyday life and you don’t let it out till you play….”
Right. So it’s time for cool to die.
So the death of cool . . . would do what? It would probably bring more tones, more color, more emotion, more love, more raw spirit, more argument, more energy. More authenticity? More compassion? More laughter? More tears? More open hearts?
Try it. Be uncool. As uncool as you can possibly be….Be hot.
P. 192-193