Throughout the course of his career, Don Cheadle has played a genius, a con man, a moral crusader, and a superhero. In a way, his latest role is a little bit of all of the above: the great jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. Cheadle not only stars in the new biopic Miles Ahead (in theaters April 1), but also produced and directed as well. Rather than trying to tell the whole story of jazz's most mercurial and unpredictable visionary, Cheadle's film focuses on a period in the late 1970's when Davis struggled to find his musical voice again. And to achieve verisimilitude, Cheadle had to emulate the jazz giant's technical prowess on the trumpet.   

"Maybe I only ever got as good as he was when he was 9 or 10 years old," Cheadle tells host John Schaefer, "but it was still important to me that I learn those solos, that I write them out, and that I have a really visceral relationship with this music." 

Click the player above to hear Don Cheadle talk about crawling inside the skin of one of the 20th century's greatest artists. And click here to listen to our recent conversation with Ethan Hawke about his on-screen portrayal of another jazz great, Chet Baker.