Text-only version of video excerpts from a 2008 interview with Buddy Gist.
Miles never let anybody touch that trumpet. Miles had all of those pretty trumpets — gold, yellow, purple, green … everything. I was with my nephew. I had been asking Miles for a trumpet. He gave Sugar Ray Robinson a trumpet, and I say, “Every time you want something done, you come to me. Now, you gave Sugar Ray Robinson a trumpet…“ Sugar Ray had him up to his house. Miles was a boxing fan — crazy about Sugar Ray Robinson. And I said, “Man, when you want something, you come to me.” I say, “I want a trumpet.“ As I say, I was surprised when he came downstairs with that trumpet. Couldn't believe it.
He handed it to my nephew. My nephew thought he had given it to him, you know. But my nephew didn't want it. My nephew didn't want that raggedy old trumpet. (Chuckles.) I mean, it's got all the marks of being used. That's the thing that makes it so great.
Miles believed in the preservation of the art. Miles believed in … Miles was a great teacher. And I tell people Miles is smiling right now. Miles, up above, he say, “I told you Buddy would do what I would have done with that trumpet.“
