Miles Davis Way (West 77th Street)
Miles Davis slept here. As a matter of fact, Miles Davis resided at 312 West 77th Street for about 25 years. His public persona, described by the media as strange at times, was quite different from the Miles Davis his neighbors on West 77th Street came to know. “He interacted with the community on the street,” said, Shirley Zafirau, a neighbor of Davis, who still lives on the block. “He really liked being here.” His presence on the block also attracted many visitors, jazz greats like Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey and Tony William could often be seen coming and going from this landmarked red brick and brownstone townhouse . Davis was said to have created the music for “Kind of Blue” and “Bitches Brew” while living there. Davis died in 1991, but Shirley Zafirau never forgot the good times when Miles lived on the block, so in 2009 she began a campaign to have the block named after him. In 2012, Mayor. Bloomberg signed a bill renaming West 77th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue as “Miles Davis Way.”
312 West 77th Street was built in 1891 as one of a row of thirteen houses (#308-322) in the style of Renaissance Revival. Numbers 314 and 316 were demolished in the 1920’s, but the rest remain. 312 sits on the south side of the block and has a bowed window that extends out from the 3rd floor.
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