Miles Davis

Throughout a professional career lasting 50 years, Miles Davisplayed the trumpet in a lyrical, introspective, and melodicstyle, often employing a stemless harmon mute to make hissound more personal and intimate. But if his approach to hisinstrument was constant, his approach to jazz was dazzlinglyprotean. To examine his career is to examine the history ofjazz from the mid-'40s to the early '90s, since he was in thethick of almost every important innovation and stylisticdevelopment in the music during that period, and he often ledthe way in those changes, both with his own performancesand recordings and by choosing sidemen and collaboratorswho forged the new directions. It can even be argued that jazzstopped evolving when Davis wasn't there to push it forward.

Davis was the son of a dental surgeon, Dr. Miles DeweyDavis, Jr., and a music teacher, Cleota Mae (Henry) Davis,and thus grew up in the black middle class of East St. Louisafter the family moved there shortly after his birth. He becameinterested in music during his childhood and by the age of 12had begun taking trumpet lessons. While still in high school,he started to get jobs playing in local bars and at 16 wasplaying gigs out of town on weekends. At 17, he joined EddieRandle's Blue Devils, a territory band based in St. Louis. Heenjoyed a personal apotheosis in 1944, just after graduatingfrom high school, when he saw and was allowed to sit in withBilly Eckstine's big band, which was playing in St. Louis. Theband featured trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonistCharlie Parker, the architects of the emerging bebop style ofjazz, which was characterized by fast, inventive soloing anddynamic rhythm variations.

It is striking that Davis fell so completely under Gillespie andParker's spell, since his own slower and less flashy stylenever really compared with theirs. But bebop was the newsound of the day, and the young trumpeter was bound tofollow it. He did so by leaving the Midwest to attend theInstitute of Musical Art in New York City (since renamedJuilliard) in September 1944. Shortly after his arrival inManhattan, he was playing in clubs with Parker, and by 1945he had abandoned his academic studies for a full-time careeras a jazz musician, initially joining Benny Carter's band andmaking his first recordings as a sideman. He played withEckstine in 1946-1947 and was a member of Parker's group in1947-1948, making his recording debut as a leader on a 1947session that featured Parker, pianist John Lewis, bassistNelson Boyd, and drummer Max Roach. This was an isolateddate, however, and Davis spent most of his time playing andrecording behind Parker. But in the summer of 1948 heorganized a nine-piece band with an unusual horn section. Inaddition to himself, it featured an alto saxophone, a baritonesaxophone, a trombone, a French horn, and a tuba. Thisnonet, employing arrangements by Gil Evans and others,played for two weeks at the Royal Roost in New York inSeptember. Earning a contract with Capitol Records, the bandwent into the studio in January 1949 for the first of threesessions which produced 12 tracks that attracted littleattention at first. The band's relaxed sound, however, affectedthe musicians who played it, among them Kai Winding, LeeKonitz, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, J.J. Johnson, and KennyClarke, and it had a profound influence on the development ofthe cool jazz style on the West Coast. In February 1957,Capitol finally issued the tracks together on an LP calledBirth of the Cool.

Davis, meanwhile, had moved on to co-leading a band withpianist Tadd Dameron in 1949, and the group took him out ofthe country for an appearance at the Paris Jazz Festival inMay. But the trumpeter's progress was impeded by anaddiction to heroin that plagued him in the early '50s. Hisperformances and recordings became more haphazard, but inJanuary 1951 he began a long series of recordings for thePrestige label that became his main recording outlet for thenext several years. He managed to kick his habit by themiddle of the decade, and he made a strong impressionplaying "'Round Midnight" at the Newport Jazz Festival in July1955, a performance that led major label Columbia Records tosign him. The prestigious contract allowed him to put togethera permanent band, and he organized a quintet featuringsaxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist PaulChambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones that beganrecording his Columbia debut, Round About Midnight, inOctober. As it happened, however, he had a remaining fivealbums on his Prestige contract, and over the next year hewas forced to alternate his Columbia sessions with sessionsfor Prestige to fulfill this previous commitment. The latterresulted in the Prestige albums The New Miles DavisQuintet, Cookin', Workin',Relaxin', and Steamin', making Davis'first quintet one of his better documented outfits.

In May 1957, just three months after Capitol released theBirth of the Cool LP, Davis again teamed witharranger Gil Evans for his second Columbia LP, Miles Ahead.Playing flugelhorn, Davis fronted a big band on music thatextended the Birth of the Cool concept and even had classicalovertones. Released in 1958, the album was later inductedinto the Grammy Hall of Fame, intended to honor recordingsmade before the Grammy Awards were instituted in 1959. InDecember 1957, Davis returned to Paris, where he improvisedthe background music for the film L'Ascenseur pourl'Echafaud (Escalator to the Gallows).Jazz Track, an album containing this music,earned him a 1960 Grammy nomination for Best JazzPerformance, Solo or Small Group. He added saxophonistCannonball Adderley to his group, creating the Miles DavisSextet, which recorded the album Milestones in April 1958.Shortly after this recording, Red Garland was replaced onpiano by Bill Evans and Jimmy Cobb took over for Philly JoeJones on drums. In July, Davis again collaborated with GilEvans and an orchestra on an album of music from Porgy andBess.

Back in the sextet, Davis began to experiment with modalplaying, basing his improvisations on scales rather than chordchanges. This led to his next band recording, Kind ofBlue, in March and April 1959, an album that became alandmark in modern jazz and the most popular disc of Davis'career, eventually selling over two million copies, aphenomenal success for a jazz record. In sessions held inNovember 1959 and March 1960, Davis again followed hispattern of alternating band releases and collaborations with GilEvans, recording Sketches of Spain, containingtraditional Spanish music and original compositions in thatstyle. The album earned Davis and Evans Grammynominations in 1960 for Best Jazz Performance, Large Group,and Best Jazz Composition, More Than 5 minutes; they wonin the latter category.

By the time Davis returned to the studio to make his nextband album in March 1961, Adderley had departed, WyntonKelly had replaced Bill Evans at the piano, and John Coltranehad left to begin his successful solo career, being replaced bysaxophonist Hank Mobley (following the brief tenure of SonnyStitt).

Nevertheless, Coltrane guested on a couple of tracks of thealbum, called Someday My Prince Will Come.The record made the pop charts in March 1962, but it waspreceded into the bestseller lists by the Davis quintet's nextrecording, the two-LP set Miles Davis in Person (Friday& Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, San Francisco),recorded in April. The following month, Davis recorded anotherlive show, as he and his band were joined by an orchestra ledby Gil Evans at Carnegie Hall in May. The resulting MilesDavis at Carnegie Hall was his third LP to reach the popcharts, and it earned Davis and Evans a 1962 Grammynomination for Best Jazz Performance by a Large Group,Instrumental.

Davis and Evans teamed up again in 1962 for what becametheir final collaboration, Quiet Nights. The albumwas not issued until 1964, when it reached the charts andearned a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental JazzPerformance by a Large Group or Soloist with Large Group. In1996, Columbia Records released a six-CD box set,Miles Davis & Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia StudioRecordings, that won the Grammy for Best HistoricalAlbum. Quiet Nights was preceded into the marketplace byDavis' next band effort, Seven Steps to Heaven, recorded inthe spring of 1963 with an entirely new lineup consisting ofsaxophonist George Coleman, pianist Victor Feldman, bassistRon Carter, and drummer Frank Butler. During the sessions,Feldman was replaced by Herbie Hancock and Butler by TonyWilliams. The album found Davis making a transition to hisnext great group, of which Carter, Hancock, and Williamswould be members. It was another pop chart entry that earned1963 Grammy nominations for both Best Instrumental JazzPerformance by a Soloist or Small Group and BestInstrumental Jazz Performance by a Large Group. The quintetfollowed with two live albums, Miles Davis inEurope, recorded in July 1963, which made the popcharts and earned a 1964 Grammy nomination for BestInstrumental Jazz Performance by a Small Group or Soloistwith Small Group, and My Funny Valentine,recorded in February 1964 and released in 1965, when itreached the pop charts.

By September 1964, the final member of the classic MilesDavis Quintet of the 1960s was in place with the addition ofsaxophonist Wayne Shorter to the team of Davis, Carter,Hancock, and Williams. While continuing to play standards inconcert, this unit embarked on a series of albums of originalcompositions contributed by the band members, starting inJanuary 1965 with E.S.P., followed by MilesSmiles (1967 Grammy nomination for Best InstrumentalJazz Performance by a Small Group or Soloist with SmallGroup [7 or Fewer]), Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in theSky (1968 Grammy nomination for Best InstrumentalJazz Performance by a Small Group or Soloist with SmallGroup), and Filles de Kilimanjaro. By the time ofMiles in the Sky, the group had begun to turn to electricinstruments, presaging Davis' next stylistic turn. By the finalsessions for Filles de Kilimanjaro in September 1968,Hancock had been replaced by Chick Corea and Carter byDave Holland. But Hancock, along with pianist Joe Zawinuland guitarist John McLaughlin, participated on Davis' nextalbum, In a Silent Way (1969), which returned thetrumpeter to the pop charts for the first time in four years andearned him another small-group jazz performance Grammynomination.

With his next album, Bitches Brew, Davis turnedmore overtly to a jazz-rock style. Though certainly notconventional rock music, Davis' electrified sound attracted ayoung, non-jazz audience while putting off traditional jazzfans. Bitches Brew, released in March 1970,reached the pop Top 40 and became Davis' first album to becertified gold. It also earned a Grammy nomination for BestInstrumental Arrangement and won the Grammy for large-group jazz performance. He followed it with such similar effortsas Miles Davis at Fillmore East (1971 Grammynomination for Best Jazz Performance by a Group), ATribute to Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, On the Corner, andIn Concert, all of which reached the pop charts.Meanwhile, Davis' former sidemen became his disciples in aseries of fusion groups: Corea formed Return to Forever,Shorter and Zawinul led Weather Report, and McLaughlin andformer Davis drummer Billy Cobham organized the MahavishuOrchestra.

Starting in October 1972, when he broke his ankles in a caraccident, Davis became less active in the early 1970s, and in1975 he gave up recording entirely due to illness, undergoingsurgery for hip replacement later in the year. Five yearspassed before he returned to action by recording TheMan With the Horn in 1980 and going back to touring in1981. By now, he was an elder statesman of jazz, and hisinnovations had been incorporated into the music, at least bythose who supported his eclectic approach. He was also acelebrity whose appeal extended far beyond the basic jazzaudience. He performed on the worldwide jazz festival circuitand recorded a series of albums that made the pop charts,including We Want Miles (1982 Grammy Awardfor Best Jazz Instrumental Performance by a Soloist),Star People, Decoy, and You're UnderArrest. In 1986, after 30 years with Columbia, heswitched to Warner Bros. Records and releasedTutu, which won him his fourth Grammy for BestJazz Instrumental Performance. Aura, an albumhe had recorded in 1984, was released by Columbia in 1989and brought him his fifth Grammy for Best Jazz InstrumentalPerformance by a Soloist (on a Jazz Recording).

Davis surprised jazz fans when, on July 8, 1991, he joined anorchestra led by Quincy Jones at the Montreux Jazz Festivalto perform some of the arrangements written for him in the late1950s by Gil Evans; he had never previously looked back atan aspect of his career. He died of pneumonia, respiratoryfailure, and a stroke within months. Doo-Bop, his last studioalbum, appeared in 1992. It was a collaboration with rapperEasy Mo Bee, and it won a Grammy for Best Rhythm & BluesInstrumental Performance, with the track "Fantasy" nominatedfor Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. Released in 1993,Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux won Davis hisseventh Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance.

Miles Davis took an all-inclusive, constantly restless approachto jazz that had begun to fall out of favor by the time of hisdeath, even as it earned him controversy during his lifetime. Itwas hard to recognize the bebop acolyte of Charlie Parker inthe flamboyantly dressed leader with the hair extensions whoseemed to keep one foot on a wah-wah pedal and one handon an electric keyboard in his later years. But he did much topopularize jazz, reversing the trend away from commercialappeal that bebop began. And whatever the fripperies andexplorations, he retained an ability to play moving solos thatendeared him to audiences and demonstrated his affinity withtradition. At a time when jazz is inclining toward academiaand repertory orchestras rather than moving forward, he is areminder of the music's essential quality of boundlessinvention, using all available means.

Awards

• 1955, Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll
• 1957, Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Composition Of More Than Five Minutes Duration for Sketches of Spain (1960)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group for Bitches Brew (1970)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for We Want Miles (1982)
• Sonning Award for Lifetime Achievement In Music (1984; Copenhagen, Denmark)
• Doctor of Music, honoris causa (1986; New England Conservatory)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for Tutu (1986)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for Aura (1989)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band for Aura (1989)
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1990)
• Knighted into the Legion of Honor (July 16, 1991; Paris)
• Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance for Doo-Bop (1992)
• Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance for Miles And Quincy Live At Montreux (1993)
• Hollywood Walk Of Fame Star (February 19, 1998)
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction (March 13, 2006)
• Hollywood's Rockwalk Induction (September 28, 2006)
• RIAA Triple Platinum for Kind of Blue