After legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis lived in the townhouse at 312 W. 77th St. from about 1960 until he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, the five-story turn-of-the-century brownstone was carved into six units.
A roughly 700-square-foot one-bedroom unit in the building — which has an outmoded kitchen but the good bones of its pre-war pedigree, like high ceilings, exposed brick, a fireplace and large bay windows — hit the market this week.
It’s asking $495,000, with a monthly maintenance of $1,025.
An image of the living room. Photo courtesy of Corcoran.
Part of Davis’ time living on the Upper West Side in the 1970s — captured in the new fictionalized biopic, Miles Ahead, written, directed and starring Don Cheadle — was spent away from music and instead in a “reclusive haze of debauchery, pornography, cocaine, and dissolution,” according to The Atlantic.
But Davis, who died in 1991, was also known by his neighbors as a strong and welcoming presence on his stoop.
“He interacted with the community on the street,” Shirley Zafirau, a neighbor of Davis told the New York Times in 2013. “He really liked being here.”
An image of the kitchen. Photo courtesy of Corcoran.
He frequently hosted other jazz greats like Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey and Tony Williams — who rented an apartment in the building. And he created the music for renowned albums including “Kind of Blue” and “Bitches Brew” at the townhouse, the Times noted.
Zafirau led an effort to get his old block, between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, memorialized two years ago as “Miles Davis Way.” It would have been Davis’ 88th birthday.
“He was a musical genius,” said Corcoran’s Irini Lygnos. Because of that, she noted, “people really want to get in” and see the apartment at its first open house Sunday.
“And it’s really well-priced,” she added.
An image of the bedroom. Photo courtesy of Corcoran.
