# Miles Davis American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer, 1926–1991. Arguably the single most important figure in jazz history in terms of sheer reinvention — no other musician changed the direction of the genre as many times, or as decisively, across a 40-plus-year career. Bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, jazz fusion: Davis was at or near the center of nearly every major shift in jazz from the late 1940s through the 1970s. ## Early career and bebop (1940s) Born Miles Dewey Davis III on 26 May 1926 in Alton, Illinois, raised in East St. Louis. Moved to New York in 1944 ostensibly to study at Juilliard, but really to find Charlie Parker, whose bebop scene he'd been introduced to via touring musicians passing through St. Louis. Played and recorded with Parker's quintet in the mid-40s, absorbing bebop's harmonic language while developing a much more spare, lyrical trumpet style than Dizzy Gillespie's fireworks — understatement and space became his signature from early on. ## Birth of the Cool and cool jazz (late 1940s–50s) Led the nonet sessions later compiled as *Birth of the Cool* (recorded 1949–50, released 1957), which helped kick off "cool jazz" — a more restrained, arranged, less frantic alternative to bebop's virtuosic intensity. Struggled with heroin addiction through much of the early-to-mid 50s before getting clean around 1954, after which he entered one of his most productive periods: the "First Great Quintet" with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, recording a run of albums for Prestige and then Columbia. ## Modal jazz and Kind of Blue (late 1950s) *Kind of Blue* (1959), recorded with a sextet including Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and Bill Evans, built its tunes around modal improvisation — scales rather than dense, fast-moving chord changes — a major departure from bebop's harmonic complexity. It remains the best-selling jazz album of all time and is generally considered a candidate for the single most important jazz record ever made. ## Second Great Quintet and post-bop (1960s) Assembled a new quintet in the mid-60s — Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams — widely regarded as one of the greatest small groups in jazz history. Albums like *E.S.P.* (1965), *Miles Smiles* (1967), and *Nefertiti* (1967) pushed post-bop into looser, more abstract, interactive territory, with the rhythm section treated as equal conversational partners rather than pure accompaniment. ## Fusion era (late 1960s–70s) Moved decisively into electric, funk- and rock-influenced territory starting with *In a Silent Way* (1969) and especially *Bitches Brew* (1970) — dense, studio-constructed, heavily edited recordings using electric keyboards, wah-wah trumpet, and rock rhythms. This "fusion" period was hugely controversial with jazz purists at the time but proved enormously influential, effectively inventing jazz-rock/fusion as a genre and launching the careers of sidemen like Hancock, Shorter, Chick Corea, and John McLaughlin, who went on to form their own major fusion acts. ## Later years Went into semi-retirement for several years in the late 70s due to health problems, then returned in the 80s with more pop- and funk-inflected records (*The Man with the Horn*, 1981; *Tutu*, 1986) that continued to court controversy from jazz traditionalists while keeping him commercially and culturally relevant to the end. Died on 28 September 1991 in Santa Monica, California, from complications of a stroke, pneumonia, and respiratory failure. ## Discography (selected studio albums) Davis's full discography runs to 60-plus studio albums across labels (Prestige, Columbia, Warner Bros.) plus dozens of live albums and compilations — too large to list exhaustively here. Landmarks by era: - *Birth of the Cool* (recorded 1949–50, released 1957) - *Walkin'* (1954) - *'Round About Midnight* (1957) - *Milestones* (1958) - *Kind of Blue* (1959) - *Sketches of Spain* (1960, with Gil Evans) - *E.S.P.* (1965) - *Miles Smiles* (1967) - *Nefertiti* (1967) - *In a Silent Way* (1969) - *Bitches Brew* (1970) - *On the Corner* (1972) - *The Man with the Horn* (1981) - *Tutu* (1986) - *Doo-Bop* (1992, released posthumously) ## Notes to self - *Kind of Blue* is the one everyone knows — worth spending real time with the Second Great Quintet records (*E.S.P.*, *Miles Smiles*, *Nefertiti*) since I know those much less well. - *Bitches Brew* is a big commitment to sit with properly — maybe worth doing as its own listening session rather than background music. - Natural companion notes: [[Misc./Music/John Coltrane|John Coltrane]] and [[Misc./Music/Sonny Rollins|Sonny Rollins]] both passed through his orbit directly.