Miles Davis is acknowledged as one of the greatest innovators of jazz music of the mid-20 th century. He composed songs, blew the trumpet, and was also a band leader. He was an influential jazz music composer and bandleader. Davis grew up in East St. Louis. In his teenage years he associated himself with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, the jazz legends, when they passed through the city. He also sat alongside Billy Eckstine who was an influential singer. This greatly impacted Davis’s career as a trumpeter. Year later, in 1945, Davis quit the Juilliard School of Music in New York, for a full-time membership in Charlie Parker’s band. According to the BBC World Service (2001), they played bebop, the modern jazz style, in a Street club, where they worked alongside Sir Charles Thompson who was a pianist and Stan Levey, a drummer. He sought ways of improving his career during his time in the band.
He however, started engaging in drugs after he left the band. Davis released his first and legendary recordings of ‘Birth of the Cool’ before he became addicted to drugs; heroin. Drug addiction and his volatile personality made it hard for Davis to hold permanent positions in bands. He then decided to quit drugs and the result was a new album called ‘Miles Ahead.’ Davis started his own band with one saxophonist, pianist and a drummer, in which he began exploring free jazz, and jazz rock. He always looked up to Prince and other rock legends. His jazz rock had popular beats, and interesting funk themes, which were in tune with respective times. Davis’s rule was never to look back because he believed in change. This is seen in his change of style in cool jazz , jazz fusion, modal jazz and hard bop (Magee, 2007). I have learnt that jazz, rock and band artists today try to incorporate various techniques and styles in their work so as to fit in the modern music. According to “A History of Western Music,” (n.d), People have grown fond of more than one type of music.
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References
“A History of Western Music.” (n. d). Tenth Edition. Chapter 36 https://digital.wwnorton.com/44614/r/goto/cfi/506!/4
Magee, J. (2007). Kinds of Blue: Miles Davis, Afro‐Modernism, and the Blues. Jazz Perspectives , 1 (1), 5-27. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17494060601061006
“BBC World Service.” (2001, September 06). The Miles Davis legacy-Arts and Entertainment-BBC World Service.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/highlights/010906_miles.shtml.
