Miles Davis

Overview

Biography

Miles Davis (1926–1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer who stands as the single most influential figure in the post-war development of jazz. Born in Alton, Illinois, into an upper-middle-class African American family, he arrived in New York at 18 ostensibly to study at Juilliard, but instead immersed himself in the bebop revolution happening in the clubs of 52nd Street, playing alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

Davis did not merely participate in the history of jazz — he instigated it. His nonet recordings of 1949–50, collected as Birth of the Cool, launched the "cool jazz" movement. Kind of Blue (1959) — recorded in just two sessions, almost entirely in single takes — is the best-selling jazz album of all time and the definitive example of modal jazz, abandoning the rapid chord changes of bebop for spacious improvisation over scales. Bitches Brew (1970) fused jazz with electric rock and funk, creating jazz-rock fusion and influencing everything from Herbie Hancock to Radiohead.

Each of Davis's key bands introduced musicians who went on to define jazz's next era: John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin. His tone — muted, lyrical, full of space and silence — was as distinctive as a human voice. In seven decades of musical evolution, Davis remained always restless, always seeking the next sound, making him the supreme model of creative reinvention.