Miles Davis

Guest post by commenter B.R.:

Miles Davis (1926-1991), American jazz great, is arguably one of the greatest American musicians of all time. At his height from the 1950s to the early 1970s, he was intimately involved with changing the face of jazz at least four times, helping to create bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz and jazz fusion. By any stretch of the imagination, he is a genius.

The son of a dentist, he grew up in East St Louis. At 13 his father gave him a trumpet:

I was minding my own business when something says to me, “you ought to blow trumpet.” I have just been trying ever since.

A child prodigy, his mastery of the instrument accelerated as he came under the spell of older jazzmen Clark Terry, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, and others who passed through. He accepted admission to the Juilliard School in 1944, but it was a ruse to get to New York and hook up with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Miles was 18. Cool.

Within a year, he accomplished his goal. He can be heard on sessions led by Parker that were released on Savoy in 1945 (with Max Roach). His years on 52nd Street during the late 1940s brought him into the bop orbit of musicians whose legends he would share before he was 25.

With Parker he changed the face of jazz from “Swing Era” to “Be-Bop”.

Later, with arranger Gil Evans, he created “Cool Jazz”.

“Kind Of Blue”, indisputably the coolest jazz album ever recorded, was done in 1959 with the second edition of Miles’ “first great quintet” – John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, and Jimmy Cobb. They stayed together until 1961.

Miles’ “second great quintet” slowly coalesced over 1963-64, into the lineup of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams (who was 17 years old when he joined Miles). They recorded with producer Teo Macero and toured the world together until 1968, achieving artistic and commercial success that was unprecedented in modern jazz. They experimented with new ways to approach time within familiar structures and song forms.

The week after the Woodstock festival in August 1969 Davis recorded “Bitches Brew” with the final small group known as the “third great quintet” – Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette.

In the early 1970s Davis helped to launch the jazz-rock fusion movement. His health began to decline in the late 1970s but he continued to work till the early 1980s.

He was married briefly to Betty Davis in the late 1960s. He lost her to Jimi Hendrix. In the 1980s was married to Cicely Tyson.

Miles Davis was no stranger to racism.  He and his bandmates, these absolute geniuses, the ambassadors of one of the highest cultural expression the United States has produced, were subjected to the most humiliating treatment, on the road, and at home, especially when traveling in the deep South. But even in New York Miles Davis was beat up by the police for “loitering”.

See also:

From the First Great Quintet:“So What” from “Kind of Blue” with John Coltrane on sax, Paul Chambers on bass, Wynton Kelly on piano, Jimmy Cobb on drums:

From the Second Great Quintet: “Joshua” (1964) with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams:

From the Third Great Quintet: “Spanish Key” from “Bitches Brew” (early fusion jazz):