Jazz & Boxing
Miles Davis was a boxing fan because he could relate to it in two ways: boxing (like jazz) is a remarkably honest sport, and boxing (like jazz) is a remarkably rough business. The work of great boxers, like the work of great jazz musicians, speaks for itself. Boxers and jazz players share a mutual mandate: transcending human limitation. Fight fans live for such resilience. Jazz fans are the same.
Jazz and boxing share tales of redemption and destruction. The elements of brutality and grace dignify human performance, whether that happens in a ring or on a stage. Most of the greatest tales are borne in the margins of our understanding. Those who excel in boxing and in jazz learn to test and redefine the limits of that understanding.
- Gregory J. Robb
