Miles Dewey Davis was born on May 26, 1926, in Alton, Illinois, to Dr. Miles Henry Davis and Cleota Mae (Henry) Davis, an affluent African American family. His father was dentist but his mother was a jazz pianist, something she hid from her son, but she encouraged Miles to learn the piano. His father gave him a trumpet when he was thirteen and set up lessons with a local musician named Elwood Buchanan This was an odd choice for his father as his mother did not like the trumpet. Later in life Miles speculated that he had done so just annoy her.
The fashion of the time was to play with a lot of vibrato but Elwood would slap his knuckles when Miles played that style. Buchanan stressed the importance of playing without vibrato and Miles would carry his clear signature tone throughout his career.
He once commented on its importance to him. Miles is quoted as saying “I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a round voice with not too much tremolo and not too much bass. Just right in the middle. If I can’t get that sound I can’t play anything.”
Miles was a member of the local music society by the time he was sixteen and by seventeen he was playing professionally with a band named The Blue Devils and in 1944 he also played with The Bill Eckstine band of which Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were members. His parents would not allow him to quit school and go on the road so the bands left town without him.
Later that year Miles graduated from high school and went to New York City to further his music education at the Juilliard School of Music. Once in New York he began to search for his idol Charlie Parker and when he found him began to play in jam sessions with him and other up and coming jazz musicians such as Fats Navarro, Freddie Webster, and J. J. Johnson. Recognized famous musicians including Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke were also regular participants.
Soon Miles had dropped out of Juilliard and began playing professionally, performing in several jazz clubs with artists such as Coleman Hawkins and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis.
His first major entanglement with drugs was while he was playing in Billy Eckstein’s band. He was in the dressing room after a set at the Down Beat with Billy Holiday when he tried cocaine for the first time. A short time later another member of the band, trumpet player Hobart Dotson gave Miles a rock of coke after which he said, “All I know is that all of a sudden everything seemed to brighten up, and I felt this burst of energy”. Before long he first tried the drug that was to be the most damaging experience of his life, Heroin.
His first recording session was as a member of Herbie Fields group in 1945. He then became studio musician and contributed to many recording sessions with jazz groups of the time. He then got his chance to play lead trumpet in the Miles Davis Sextet. Soon after he became a member of the Charlie Parker Quintet as a backup to Dizzy Gillespie until Dizzy left the band and then he became first trumpet. It was at this time Miles began to develop what would become his unique style of music. He continued to hone his music and experimented with adding what were then different instruments and styles of music and by 1949 he got a contract with Capitol Records
These recording sessions that were done between January 1949 and April 1950 became the album Birth of Cool which was released in 1956. This was the start of the “cool jazz” movement in America. For the rest of his career, Miles Davis was at the forefront of several of the major developments in jazz music, including bebop, hard bop, modal jazz and jazz fusion.
Miles Davis was considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was jazz musician, composer, and bandleader and was noted as “one of the key figures in the history of jazz“.
Miles Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. And his 1959 album Kind of Blue received its fourth platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America On October 7, 2008.
Miles Davis died in 1991 but is still considered one of the premier jazz musicians of our time and gave us what we know as modern jazz. He left us a body of work that is as sweet today as it was the day it was recorded, I hope you will listen to some of it and enjoy it as I have.
I collected some famous music quotes from Miles Davis and will share them below. I hope they will inspire you-
A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it.
For me, music and life are all about style
I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning… Every day I find something creative to do with my life.
The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.
It’s always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don’t know where it comes from, it’s just there and I don’t question it.