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Miles Davis (1926-1991),
American trumpet player and bandleader, one of the most innovative,
influential, and respected figures in the history of jazz . Davis
was a leading figure in the bebop style of jazz and in combining styles of jazz
and rock music. As a player, he was a master improviser (one
who invents melodies while playing; see Improvisation) who
played seemingly simple melodies with great subtlety and expressiveness. As a
combo (small ensemble) leader, he assembled classic groups and allowed
them the freedom to experiment and develop. The recordings of Davis and his
groups have been imitated by musicians around the world.
Born Miles Dewey Davis III in Alton, Illinois, he grew up
in East Saint Louis, Illinois. Davis began music lessons after receiving a
trumpet on his 13th birthday from his father. Two years later he joined the
musicians' union and began playing with a local band on weekends. About this
time he met trumpeter Clark Terry, who helped and encouraged him. In 1944, after
graduating from high school, he went to New York City to study classical music
at the Juilliard School of Music. While there, he also began playing with alto
saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie,
and other pioneers of the new jazz style known as bebop. In 1945, at the age of
19, he began playing in a combo led by Parker. The recordings he made with
Parker that year demonstrate that Davis had excellent tone but an immature style
of improvising. However, he refined and improved his style of improvising during
the next few years with Parker.
In 1949 and 1950, Davis made a series of recordings with a
nine-person group that appeared on the album The Birth of the Cool
(1950). The terms cool and cool jazz referred to a slower, more
subdued style of bebop. By the mid-1950s Davis had developed one of the most
distinctive styles in all of jazz. Unlike Gillespie, the first great bebop
trumpeter, Davis preferred simple, lyrical melodies to speedy, flashy ones.
Using delicate pitch-bending (a slight lowering or raising of a note) and
a light vibrato (a gentle and regular wavering of pitch), he created a
beautiful and expressive style. Often he used the harmon mute (a metal mute) to
get a pinched, quiet sound. In the 1960s he began playing louder and used high
notes and quick phrases more frequently. Still, he maintained most of his
uniquely beautiful playing style to the end of his life.
Beginning in 1955 Davis led some five- and six-person
groups that were among the finest in jazz. Between 1955 and 1970, his various
groups included saxophonists John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and Wayne
Shorter; drummers Jimmy Cobb, Philly Joe Jones, and Tony Williams; bassists Paul
Chambers and Ron Carter; and pianists Bill Evans and Herbie
Hancock. The albums recorded by these groups, such as 'Round about
Midnight (1956), Milestones (1958), Kind of Blue (1959),
E.S.P. (1965), Miles Smiles (1966), and Nefertiti (1967),
represented major landmarks in the evolution of bebop. In particular, Kind of
Blue is considered by many to be one of the finest jazz albums ever made.
His other important albums of this period include Miles Ahead (1957) and
Sketches of Spain (1960), which he recorded with big bands led by
arranger and composer Gil Evans.
At the end of the 1960s Davis began to make use of the
electronic instruments, rhythms, and song structures of rock music. His manner
of playing the trumpet did not change much, but his musical surroundings were
dramatically different. The album Bitches Brew (1969) is one of Davis's
first significant fusions of the jazz and rock music styles. Although many jazz
fans disliked his move into fusion jazz, many bebop musicians followed his lead
and took up the new style in the 1970s. His accompanists of the late 1960s and
early 1970s included guitarist John McLaughlin, keyboardists Chick
Corea and Joe Zawinul, and drummers Jack DeJohnette and Billy
Cobham.
Beginning in 1975 Davis experienced a period of inactivity
and reclusiveness because of injuries suffered in an automobile accident and the
subsequent onset of several illnesses. He returned to performing fusion jazz in
1980, playing with musicians such as guitarist John Scofield, bassists Darryl
Jones and Marcus Miller, and saxophonists Bill Evans (not the pianist of the
same name) and Branford Marsalis. Albums from this final period include The
Man with the Horn (1981); Decoy (1983); and You're Under
Arrest (1985), which contains recordings of the popular songs “Human Nature”
by singer Michael Jackson and “Time After Time” by singer Cyndi
Lauper. In 1990 Davis performed a leading role as a jazz musician in the
Australian motion picture Dingo (1991). His album Doo-Bop,
released the year after his death, was one of the first to fuse jazz with the
hip-hop and rap music styles.
Since 1960 the National Academy of Recording Arts and
Sciences (NARAS) has honored Davis with eight Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime
Achievement Award, and three Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. In 1986 the New England
Conservatory awarded him an honorary doctorate of music. |
