Cross-media picks for Miles Davis fans — films, series, games and books in the same vein.
The picks here share something Miles Davis fans tend to feel in the music: art treated as urgent business, and the friction between creative vision and the world pushing back. From jazz musicians playing forbidden music in Half-Blood Blues to the consuming obsession of All That Jazz, from Ken Burns's ten-part Jazz to a puzzle-adventure built around a band's grief in The Forest Quartet — these are works where sound matters, and the stakes are real.
Film
Miles Ahead
A film built around Davis himself — exploring the life and music of the man whose work brought you here.
Film
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
An immersive documentary portrait of Davis's eventful life and brilliant artistic career (1926–1991).
Film
Too Late Blues
A jazz musician who refuses to compromise his art — idealism and integrity under pressure.
Film
'Round Midnight
An aging jazzman in 1959 Paris finds friendship through music — intimate, elegiac, and unmistakably jazz.
Film
Chasing Trane
A documentary on John Coltrane — gifted saxophonist whose original, avant-garde work influenced people worldwide.
Film
Second Chorus
Rival trumpeters in a college band compete for the same woman — light comedy with real trumpet obsession.
Film
High Note
A drunk note derails a classical performance — animated musical chaos, played for laughs.
Film
All That Jazz
A choreographer at the top of his field whose obsession with work is quietly destroying him.
Series
Jazz
Ken Burns's definitive ten-part history of jazz — the art form Davis spent his life inside.
Series
Vinyl
A 1970s New York record exec trying to save his label while chasing the city's new sound.
Series
Banyon
A 1930s Los Angeles private eye named Miles Banyon — period noir, sharing the first name only.
Series
Beethoven Virus
Musicians who quit their careers return under a demanding conductor — about dedication and hard work.
Series
Mozart in the Jungle
An insider's look at the secret world of classical musicians — behind the performance and the prestige.
Series
takt op.Destiny
Music is suddenly torn from the world — a sci-fi anime about sound as something worth fighting for.
Series
Classic Albums
A documentary series on landmark pop and rock albums — the making of records that changed music.
Series
Sunny Mood
A lighthearted reality show escape — an outlier here, but a genuine change-of-pace breather.
Game
Friday night funkin: whitty mod (lo-fight) with music
A rhythm game mod where the music drives every beat — straightforward, joyful engagement with sound.
Game
The Forest Quartet
Play a spirit guiding bandmates to a final concert — grief and music as the whole point.
Game
Mixtape (2025)
Three friends on their last high school night, playing through memories set to a real music soundtrack.
Game
Rock Band 2
A band-instrument music game where mastering guitar, bass, drums, and vocals is the whole challenge.
Game
Trombone Champ
A trombone rhythm game where you can freely play any note — you're actually making the music, not just following it.
Game
Scale the Depths
A dopamine-loop fishing game — meditative and tactile, a complete mood shift.
Game
Sort the Court!
A kingdom-building decision game — low-key and charming, a full change of pace.
Game
The Beatles: Rock Band
Play through The Beatles' career from Liverpool to Abbey Road — music history made interactive.
Book
Duke Ellington
A brief account of Duke Ellington's career — jazz musician and composer whose music was, as his collaborators said, beyond category.
Book
Jazz-Rock
A history of jazz-rock fusion — the controversial wedding of jazz improvisation with rock music, traced over three decades.
Book
Half-blood blues
Jazz musicians in Nazi-occupied Europe play forbidden music — art persisting under violent suppression.
Book
Everybody needs a rock
A children's classic about choosing the perfect rock — a gentle, sensory outlier in this collection.
Book
This Jazz Man
Nine jazz musicians introduced through rhythm and song — a warm entry point into the jazz tradition.
Book
Any Way the Wind Blows
A singer remakes herself as a mega-diva after a broken engagement — character-driven fiction with music at its center.
Book
Early blues
The story of blues and guitar from the early 1900s through the rise of nationally known stars.
Book
Africa and the Blues (American Made Music)
Traces African musical roots to American blues — a scholarly account of where the sound came from.
Start with Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool for a definitive documentary portrait, or 'Round Midnight for a fictional but deeply felt jazz film. Ken Burns's Jazz series is essential for the broader world of jazz Davis spent his life inside.
Yes — Half-Blood Blues is a gripping novel about jazz musicians playing forbidden music under Nazi occupation, and Jazz-Rock chronicles three decades of jazz-rock fusion. Both treat jazz as something worth arguing and sacrificing for.
Music-forward games like The Forest Quartet — a puzzle adventure built around a band's loss — and Trombone Champ, which lets you freely play any note rather than just follow along, share jazz's spirit of play and expressive freedom.