Jack Johnson
Johnson portrayed Freedom….
My father’s rich. My mother’s good-looking. And I can play the blues. I’ve never suffered and don’t intend to suffer.
-Miles Davis
Growing up in the 1970s, my family, at least my dad and my brothers and me, loved to watch boxing on TV. There was always a copy or two of The Ring magazine floating around the house. The fight I remember most was the first Ali vs. Frazier fight.
On March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York, two undefeated heavyweight boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier entered the ring for “The Fight of the Century”. This was a monumental event, and all the stars were out.
Burt Lancaster was the analyst for the closed-circuit broadcast. Frank Sinatra sat next to Lancaster taking photos for Life magazine. Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, and Dustin Hoffman were at ringside. Others in the house included Bill Cosby, Diana Ross, Diane Keaton, Woody Allen, and Sammy Davis Jr. Bob Dylan was there. Members of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers were there. Future heavyweight champion George Foreman was there. And Leroy Neiman painted Ali and Frazier as they fought.
Miles Davis was there too.
As it turns out, Ali vs. Frazier was actually the second “Fight of the Century.” The first took place in Reno, Nevada in 1910 between James J. Jeffries and Jack Johnson. Miles Davis was enamored of Jack Johnson. He identified with him both as a boxer and as an embodiment of black freedom.
This week on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dive into Miles Davis’ classic 1971 soundtrack album Jack Johnson, a story I’d like to begin in Michigan.
While I was in Michigan last week, I thought about “The Michigan Assassin.”
If you drive through Grand Rapids, you might see his statue, but few people remember who he was or where he came from.
Ketchel was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in September 1886. At twelve years old, he ran away from home and became a child hobo. As a teenager, he lived in Butte, Montana, where he worked first as a hotel bellhop and then as a bouncer, a job that led to many scraps. He soon established a reputation as the best fist fighter in town. At sixteen Stanley was making twenty dollars a week fighting local challengers in bars. Only four years later, he was making thousands of dollars a fight.
In September 1907 in San Francisco, Ketchel beat Joe Morris to claim the world middleweight championship belt. Nat Fleischman, editor of The Ring magazine, argued that Ketchel was the greatest middleweight boxer of all time. Rocky Graziano considered himself the second Stanley Ketchel:
However, Ketchel is most well known for the fight he lost to the “Galveston Giant” Jack Johnson. Stanley Ketchel was extremely popular in his time, but his star faded quickly after he was murdered at the breakfast table at a ranch in Conway, Missouri. Johnson on the other hand has gained notoriety over the years.
Jack Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas on March 31, 1878, the third of nine children of Henry and Tina Johnson, former slaves who worked service jobs as a janitor and a dishwasher. From these humble beginnings, he became an American hero and in 1954 was indicted into The Ring magazine’s Boxing Hall of Fame and in 1990 the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
On December 26, 1908, Jack Johnson fought the reigning world heavyweight champion Canadian Tommy Burns at Sydney Stadium in Australia.
The fight lasted fourteen rounds before it was stopped by the police. Johnson was named the winner and became the first Black heavyweight champion of the world.
From the moment Johnson won, holding the crown was seen as unacceptable in an era of Jim Crow and global white supremacy. From that moment on, white Americans searched for what Jack London coined "The Great White Hope" to defeat him. This led to Johnson’s fight with Stanley Ketchel, the world middleweight champion.
On October 16, 1909, in Colma, California, Ketchel went twelve rounds before Johnson's knocked him out. The fight is famous for showing on film Johnson brushing something from his glove, allegedly Ketchel’s teeth, which were embedded in it.
Then, In 1910, former undefeated heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries came out of retirement to challenge Johnson in what was “The Fight of the Century”.
The fight took place on the 4th of July in front of 20,000 people at a ring built just for the occasion in downtown Reno, Nevada. Jeffries was dominated by Johnson during the fight. By the 15th round, after Jeffries had been knocked down twice for the first time in his career, Jeffries' corner threw in the towel to end the fight.
Johnson was finally dethroned in 1915 in a fight that he allegedly threw. After losing his title, Johnson never fought again. However, his popularity remained strong, and he even recorded for Ajax Records in the 1920s:
He died in 1946 when his car ran into a telegraph pole on Highway 1 near Raleigh, North Carolina.
Interest in Johnson reemerged in 1970 when New York boxing promoter and film archivist William Cayton released Jack Johnson, a documentary film about Johnson’s life. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature but lost out to Bob Maurice’s Woodstock. You can watch Jack Johnson here:
The film is great, but the soundtrack is sublime. For the soundtrack, Cayton went looking for a musician who was a big boxing fan. He found Miles Davis.
At the time of the recording, as he explains in his autobiography, Davis was still training regularly with Bobby McQuillen at Bobby Gleason’s Gym in the Bronx.
He was in top shape and his solo on Right Off channels that strength. Guitarist John McLaughlin recalled, “I’ve never heard Miles play so long in the studio, and so great. I mean, he was killing it. The jam was basically Miles at his most beautiful, totally spontaneous, and at his peak… it was unbelievable.” It’s strange to me that this album seldom comes up when discussing Davis’ best recordings - it’s like Ketchel, it just gets “lost in the shuffle.”
It’s easy for certain works to be undervalued or overlooked in light of the musician’s personal myth-making, and Davis’ persona at the beginning of the 1970s was huge. Perhaps it overshadowed his music. I think Davis’ Jack Johnson, recorded on February 18 and April 7, 1970, and released in late February 1971, fits that category.
Although Bitches Brew (1970) recorded on August 19–21, 1969, and Miles Davis at Fillmore (1970) recorded on June 17–20, 1970 overshadowed the release of Jack Johnson. According to McLaughlin, Miles Davis considered it his best jazz-rock album, and I tend to agree with him.
Jack Johnson is a powerhouse. Even more than on Bitches Brew released the week of the Johnson sessions, Davis encouraged his musicians to integrate amplified rock instruments and funk riffs into their sounds. During this time Davis was heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys, Eric Mercury’s Electric Black Man, and Sly & the Family Stone’s Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). Davis wanted to incorporate these sounds into his music.
The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions CD is also outstanding. It includes priceless music recorded at the sessions but released years later. For example, I like Honky Tonk (take 5):
This was Keith Jarrett’s debut with Miles Davis. The final take was released four years later on Davis’ Get Up With It.
Here’s one more for the road. Much of the track Yesternow is slightly built around the bassline from the James Brown song Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud:
It ends with a voiceover by actor Brock Peters: "I'm Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion of the world. I'm black. They never let me forget it. I'm black all right. I'll never let them forget it."
Next week, on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll stay in Michigan and dig our paddles in and explore the early years of Berry Gordy.
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Until then, keep on walking….
Make sure you get the right documentary. The one in my post is the first one. I don't get ESPN+, so I can't verify that it is the first one and not the later 2020 one. But you'll know if it's the right one right away because you'll hear Miles right off the bat.
Good one Tyler. I’m going to watch that Jack Johnson movie - found it on ESPN+ and play some Miles Davis.