Miles+Davis

Miles Davis was one of the great jazz musicians of all time. A visionary, he had a talent for hearing music in his head, and produced wildly original ideas that would serve as milestones in all forms of jazz and other music forms. He was also able to bring together some of the finest musicians of his time to create exactly the kind of sound he was looking for. Some of the jazz greats that came from Miles Davis' band include John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, Red Garland, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea. He brought members into his band regardless of race, then a controversial move but now a celebrated precedent by this legendary pioneer of the jazz trumpet.

Miles Dewey Davis was born on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois, and his family moved to East St. Louis a year later. His father was a dental surgeon who owned a ranch, so he enjoyed a well-to-do middle-class life growing up. Miles got his first trumpet when he was nine or ten, and began taking private lessons with Elwood Buchanan at twelve. After high school, he went to study at Juilliard, but quickly left to play in clubs in New York. He joined the quintet of one of the forefathers of bebop, the saxophonist Charlie Parker, whom he had met in St. Louis and who, along with Dizzy Gillespie, was an astounding influence on Davis at the time. He left, though, in 1948, to begin leading his own groups.

The most innovative of these early founded groups was a nonet (having nine members) whose goal was to create an orchestral sound using minimal instruments. The result was an unprecedented instrumentation that included a French horn and a tuba. The revolutionary new group forged a new sound known as "cool jazz" that was a reaction against the excesses of bebop, and although it made very few public appearances, it recorded several tracks for Capitol that would spawn many imitators and establish Miles as a talented trumpeter and bandleader.

Around this time, Miles Davis developed a heroin addiction that he wouldn't overcome for four years. He hardly worked at all during these years, but after conquering his addiction under inspiration by the discipline of Sugar Ray Robinson, he began recording a string of masterpieces that introduced to the world his now fully mature style. This high point of Davis' career marked the formation of his first great quintet in 1955, with members John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. He later formed a sextet that would record //Milestones// and Kind of Blue at the end of the decade, the latter of which often hailed as the greatest jazz album of all time.

By the beginning of the 1960s Miles Davis was a leading figure of the jazz world, having introduced modal improvisation, stemless harmon mutes, and flugelhorns in his music, all of which are embraced in the jazz world today. He later invented a new style of playing called "time-no changes," and its free harmonies added yet another dimension to the jazz language. He would continue to push the limits of jazz music through the 1960s, experimenting with electric keyboards and guitars and even sitar and tabla. The culmination of his avant-garde experimentation came in 1969-1970, where he developed a jazz-rock fusion exemplified in the landmark album Bitches Brew.

Davis continued to explore this vein until 1975, where illness forced him to become inactive for five years. In 1980, he began again to record and tour in the USA, Europe, and Japan. Not only did he continue to use electronics and rock rhythms, but he also began to revive all of the styles imminent in his past, becoming more versatile a musician than ever. In 1984 he became the first non-classical musician to receive the Sonning Award for a lifetime achievement in music. He died on September 28, 1901 in Santa Monica, California, of pneumonia, respiratory failure and a stroke. A dedicated player, he had continued to play until weeks before his death.

Miles Davis will forever be remembered as one of the greatest trumpeters that ever lived. His music defied previous notions of jazz, and the great span of his career may have brought more innovations into the jazz world than any other jazz musician ever. It can even be argued that he was the driving force between //all// important jazz trends from the late 40s to the early 90s. It's quite safe to say that without the illustrious career of Miles Davis, jazz wouldn't be nearly the same, or as popular, as it is today.



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