Miles Davis
On this day in 1926 the great jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer Miles Davis was born in Alton, Illinois, U.S.
Have a listen to "So What" from one of his most celebrated albums Kind of Blue:
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| Miles Davis (May 26 1926 - September 28 1991) |
Davis grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois, where his father was a prosperous dental surgeon - in later years he highlighted his comfortable upbringing to rebuke statements which claimed that a background of poverty and suffering was common to all great jazz artists. He began studying the trumpet in his early teens and played with jazz bands in the St. Louis area before moving to New York City in 1944 to study at the Institute of Musical Art (now the Julliard School). Davis would often skip classes and was instead schooled through jam sessions with masters such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, the latter of whom he would record with in the future.
In the summer of 1948, Davis formed a nonet that included renowned jazz artists and although the group was short-lived, they made a dozen recordings, which changed the course of modern jazz. During the early 1950s, Davis struggled with a drug addiction that affected his playing, but he continued recording nevertheless. In 1954, having overcome the addiction, Davis embarked on a two-decade period during which he was considered the most innovative musician in jazz. He capped off this period of his career with the release of Kind of Blue (1959).
Ten years later, Davis won new fans and lost old ones with the release of Bitches Brew (1969) - a kaleidoscope of layered sounds, rhythms and textures. Have a listen to Pharaoh's Dance:
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica
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