Scaled in Miles
March 3, 2015 10:29 PM   Subscribe

Scaled in Miles is an interactive visualization that "... is a look at the history of Miles Davis' career and collaborations according to his recording sessions as documented by the Jazz Discography Project. Over four hundred recording sessions are shown in a timeline across the middle of the screen. The circles above it represent the nearly six hundred people who played those sessions; larger circles indicate more sessions with Miles. Scrub and click over the timeline to highlight the people who played with Miles on each date. You can also find specific artists and highlight their sessions by clicking on the circles, or by entering different names in the search box. And if your browser plays audio, you can listen to samples from iTunes in the upper left."

Fathom created the interactive discography and also created a beautiful printed poster which is available for purchase. More from Fathom and Fast Company concerning the poster.
posted by cwest (9 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
I like the colour scheme. It's kind of blue. Very neat!
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:34 PM on March 3, 2015 [3 favorites]


👆heh.
posted by univac at 11:21 PM on March 3, 2015


This is relevant to my interests.

Cliche as it is, Miles Davis is the jazz musician I've listened the most to and I constantly find new things in his music.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:33 PM on March 3, 2015 [3 favorites]


With respect, not a cliche but a baffling unproven fact.
posted by clavdivs at 12:10 AM on March 4, 2015


Fuck that--it's no cliche. Miles changed music like 5 times. A fucking TITAN.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 12:10 AM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


(Perhaps unsurprisingly) I'm with MartinWisse on this one.
posted by On the Corner at 2:24 AM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


Miles changed music like 5 times.

Yep, as he famously said to that random politician's wife at the White House.

I love the idea of this project but I can't make head nor tail of the poster or the interactive version - there's just way too much going on.
posted by kersplunk at 3:03 AM on March 4, 2015


I'm a big Miles fan, this thing is really pretty, and I want to love it, but, yeah, there's a lot going on.

Like, each dot represents a person Miles recorded with, and the size of the dot relates to the number of times they recorded together. And the vertical and horizontal positions of the dots relates to... something, probably. And if you click on a name then... the dots move around. And the data seems to be, like, not 100% reliable. Like, I'm not sure that the Doo-Bop sessions featured, on vocals, someone who was actually named 'Rappin'.' I want to click on a session and then see what album(s) it wound up on (or didn't), and I can't find a way to do that.

All that said, I'm still totally going to click around on it for another twenty minutes, and then move a bunch of Miles albums from my media server to my phone.
posted by box at 3:13 AM on March 4, 2015


Like, I'm not sure that the Doo-Bop sessions featured, on vocals, someone who was actually named 'Rappin'.'

That's Freddie Freeloader's cousin
posted by thelonius at 3:45 AM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


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