There has been a lot of excitement over the arrival yesterday in Denmark of one Miles Davis’s paintings. It is a painting gifted by Davis to saxophonist Bill Evans for the latter’s work in helping revive Davis’s career in the early 1980s. Evans has now loaned the painting to Danish pianist Sir Niels Lan Doky to enhance Epicurus, Lan Doky’s new jazz and dining venture in Copenhagen.
Sir Niels said: “I am forever indebted to Bill for giving jazz and Miles lovers in Copenhagen a chance to experience this. Especially because it’s such a personal piece to Bill. Aside from being arguably the most iconic, innovative, and influential artist in jazz history, Miles was also a prolific painter. And to have one of his pieces in Copenhagen is just incredible.”
Lan Doky himself escorted the painting from New York, saying he did not sleep a wink on the plane, keeping one hand on the painting the entire way across the Atlantic. In Epicurus the painting resides in a burglary-proof frame protected by alarm systems, video surveillance, locks and other measures.
Epicurus, a two-storey venue located in the medieval section of Copenhagen, will open 23 April with music from Harvey Mason, Felix Pastorius and Lan Doky. Among other musical offerings mentioned so far on the venue’s website are Alvin Queen, Camilla Sledge and Lan Doky himself.
Epicurus says it “invites guests to indulge in expertly curated cocktails, designed to complement both the culinary artistry and the rhythm of live jazz. Every sip, every note, and every bite is a celebration of life’s finest pleasures”. It adds that Epicurus is “where the art of fine dining meets the soul of jazz”. The editor, for himself, always felt that eating to jazz was firstly bad manners and secondly a distraction from a sublimity and objective which food cannot match. Synesthetes may find differently.
As for the significance of Davis’s painting (which he began only in his 50s), Quincy Jones offered an ambitious interpretation in the foreword to the 2013 book Miles Davis: The Collected Artwork, saying “When he drew faces and shapes, he drew heads in all different directions. It was always an experiment, a chance to break boundaries.”
