Miles Davis could be funny, but he could also be nasty This picture was taken at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London. I don't remember much about that particular evening, but I remember the quintet - it was incredible: Dave Holland on bass, Chick Corea on piano, Wayne Shorter on saxophone, me on drums and Miles Davis on trumpet. We played together on and off for about two years. Miles liked musicians who thought for themselves; we all had strong personal voices when we played, so that's why he hired us. Ronnie himself was very funny. He loved jazz - he played really good saxophone - and he used to tell jokes all the time. He would repeat them over and over again. He had one where he used to say the club was 'just like home: filthy and full of strangers. Ronnie used to have month-long engagements, so I played there for a month in "68 with Bill Evans. I loved to jam, so I would round up the British and American musicians who normally didn't get to hang out together and we would play all day at Ronnie Scott's. Then we'd play a show at night. I didn't get tired; playing was my spiritual food. Playing with Miles was a really high honour. Miles had heard me playing a couple of years earlier - he always had an ear out for drummers - so when his drummer Tony Williams was unavailable he would call me. Miles liked me because I knew how to anchor; I would lay out a groove. I worked with him on the Bitches Brew album [released in 1970]. Miles would come into the studio with some sketches, and then ask different people to play solo. At the time, we had no idea that it was going to be a historical document. Miles had different personalities. He could be really funny, really very nice, and he could also be nasty. Everything was secondary to the music. If he didn't say anything after the performance, that meant you were doing OK. If you were doing something he didn't like, he would tell you. You had to be on your toes with Miles. I left Miles's band late in 1971 because I wanted to be a band leader and to write my own music. I felt it was very important to be a composer, not just a drummer, and the music was getting more predictable. I wanted to keep doing exploratory things. I think people always have ideas about African-Americans being able to swing a little differently, but I don't buy that. Music is a universal language.