Miles Davis

The trumpeter and bandleader who kept changing jazz, from the cool nonet of 1949 through modal jazz and Kind of Blue to the electric Bitches Brew, and who was still reinventing himself in 1986.

Origin: Alton, Illinois, United States
Years active: 1944-1975, 1980-1991
Genres: jazz, bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, fusion
Labels: Capitol, Prestige, Columbia, Warner Bros.
Also known as: Miles Dewey Davis III

Bebop and the nonet

Miles Dewey Davis III was born in Alton, Illinois, on 26 May 1926, the son of a dentist and a music teacher, and the family moved to East St. Louis the following year. In July 1944 he spent two weeks in Billy Eckstine's big band beside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, his first taste of bebop. That September he moved to New York, officially to study at Juilliard. He left in mid-1945 and went on to play in Parker's quintet, and in August 1947 he led his first session under his own name.

In 1948 he gathered a nine-piece band with arrangements by Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and John Lewis. After a two-week run at the Royal Roost, the producer Pete Rugolo signed them to Capitol. Davis chose a small group so that it could reproduce the harmonies of Claude Thornhill's orchestra. Sessions in 1949 and 1950 were later gathered as Birth of the Cool, where Evans's Boplicity is among the best-known pieces.

Columbia and the Gil Evans albums

Heroin addiction damaged his playing in 1953. He returned to New York clean in February 1954, and some critics say the track Walkin', recorded that April, helped create hard bop. His breakthrough came at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1955, and George Avakian signed him to Columbia soon after. His first quintet had John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Marathon sessions for Prestige in 1956 were issued as four albums between 1957 and 1961.

With Evans conducting, he made Miles Ahead in 1957, then Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain. Meanwhile his sextet, heard on Milestones in 1958, turned toward modal playing, and in March and April 1959 it recorded Kind of Blue with almost no rehearsal. It contains So What, Freddie Freeloader, Blue in Green, All Blues and Flamenco Sketches.

The second quintet and the electric turn

By December 1962 the sidemen of the 1950s had begun to leave. In May 1963 a new rhythm section of Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams arrived, and Wayne Shorter joined in 1964. This second quintet made E.S.P. in 1965 and Miles Smiles in 1967, and played Chicago's Plugged Nickel in Christmas week 1965. A hip replacement and complications troubled him that year.

In February 1969 he recorded In a Silent Way in a three-hour session, with electric keyboards and John McLaughlin on guitar. Teo Macero then edited the takes into two long sides. Six months later came Bitches Brew, a double album made after about a week of rehearsal, with two drummers, two electric pianos and heavy splicing afterward. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down is its one unedited track. In 1970 he recorded the score for the boxing documentary Jack Johnson. He played the Isle of Wight Festival on 29 August 1970 to an audience estimated at 600,000.

Silence and return

On the Corner followed in 1972, panned at the time and later hailed by some critics. A car crash that October broke both his ankles. After Get Up with It in 1974 and the live Agharta in 1975, poor health kept him away from music for about five years.

He came back with The Man with the Horn in 1981. In 1986 he left Columbia for Warner Bros. and made Tutu with Marcus Miller. On 8 July 1991 he played Montreux with an orchestra conducted by Quincy Jones, and his last concert was at the Hollywood Bowl on 25 August. He entered hospital in early September after a stroke and died in Santa Monica on 28 September 1991, aged 65.

Legacy

Rolling Stone has called him the most revered jazz trumpeter of all time. He won eight Grammys, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 and appeared on a US postage stamp in 2012. His influence is traced into rock, funk, classical music and hip-hop. Pee Wee Ellis said the So What riff slipped, unconsciously, into the horn chart of James Brown's Cold Sweat.

Doo-Bop appeared in 1992, and the box set The Last Miles in 2005. Documentaries include The Miles Davis Story (2001), Don Cheadle's film Miles Ahead (2015) and Stanley Nelson's Birth of the Cool (2019). Accounts of his life also note criticism of his later work and of his treatment of women.

Records

Birth of the Cool 1957 · compilation · Capitol
Nine musicians, arrangements by Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and John Lewis, and the sessions from 1949 and 1950 that gave cool jazz its name.
Miles Ahead 1957 · Columbia
Davis on flugelhorn in front of a sixteen-piece orchestra conducted by Gil Evans, the first of their big-band albums.
Milestones 1958 · Columbia
The first great quintet joined by Cannonball Adderley, and the title track that brought modal playing into Davis's music.
Kind of Blue 1959 · Columbia
Five pieces built on scales instead of chords, recorded in two days with almost no rehearsal.
Porgy and Bess 1959 · Columbia
Gil Evans's instrumental arrangements of Gershwin's opera, built on scales rather than chords.
Sketches of Spain 1960 · Columbia
Gil Evans's orchestrations of Spanish music, built around the Adagio from Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez.
Miles Smiles 1967 · Columbia
The second quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams.
In a Silent Way 1969 · Columbia
Two side-long pieces on electric keyboards, cut from a three-hour session and edited into shape by Teo Macero.
Bitches Brew 1970 · Columbia
A double album of electric jazz made live in three days, then spliced and looped into something new.
Jack Johnson 1971 · soundtrack · Columbia
Two long tracks written for a documentary about the boxer, and the most overt rock record of Davis's career.
On the Corner 1972 · Columbia
Funk, Stockhausen and tape editing, panned by jazz critics in 1972 and later claimed by hip-hop, dub and post-punk.
Tutu 1986 · Warner Bros.
His first album for Warner Bros., written and produced with Marcus Miller.

Songs

So What Kind of Blue · 1959
Two chords, a bass call and a sixteen-bar answer: the opener of Kind of Blue.
All Blues Kind of Blue · 1959
A twelve-bar blues in 6/8, the last piece recorded for Kind of Blue and one of the most covered jazz tunes.
Blue in Green Kind of Blue · 1959
A ten-measure ballad with a disputed author, and the only Kind of Blue track without Cannonball Adderley.
Freddie Freeloader Kind of Blue · 1959
A twelve-bar blues in B-flat, the one Kind of Blue track with Wynton Kelly on piano.
Flamenco Sketches Kind of Blue · 1959
Five scales, each played as long as the soloist wishes: the closer of Kind of Blue.
Miles Runs the Voodoo Down Bitches Brew · 1970
The one Bitches Brew track left unedited, first played in public at Newport in 1969.
Boplicity Birth of the Cool · 1949
Gil Evans's arrangement from the nonet sessions, credited under the name Cleo Henry.
Moon Dreams Birth of the Cool · 1950
A 1942 pop song that Gil Evans rearranged for the nonet.
Footprints Miles Smiles · 1967
A minor blues in disguise that moves between triple and four-beat feels.

Gil Evans, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter

Where to go next

Official

Miles Davis official site The estate's site, with music, a timeline, collaborators and videos.
Official timeline An eight-period career timeline with short essays.

Reference

Miles Davis A long biography with honors and documentaries.
Kind of Blue Sessions, scales and reception.
Bitches Brew Session detail and chart performance.
In a Silent Way Macero's editing and the dispute over Zawinul's tune.
Birth of the Cool A track-by-track list of arrangers and session dates.

Discography and data

Miles Davis discography Studio albums by year and label.
Jazz Discography Project catalog Session personnel, dates, takes and catalogue numbers.
MusicBrainz Release data and identifiers.

Writing and criticism

The most hated album in jazz Paul Tingen in the Guardian on how On the Corner went from the most vilified jazz album to a cited influence.
Pitchfork: The Complete Birth of the Cool Nate Chinen on the nonet, the Royal Roost and the 2019 vinyl reissue.
BBC Music: Complete On The Corner Sessions A review of the six-disc box set and the 1972 to 1975 electric years.
Pitchfork: Get Up With It A long retrospective on the 1974 album and the years before his silence.

Live performance archives

Live in Stockholm, 22 March 1960 Internet Archive item for a Davis and Coltrane concert at Konserthuset.
At Lincoln Center, 1967 Internet Archive item titled Miles Davis at Lincoln Center.
Denver, 23 April 1985 Internet Archive item for the Rainbow Music Hall show.

Film and video

American Masters: Birth of the Cool The announcement of Stanley Nelson's documentary.

Fan sites and communities

Ethan Hein on So What A structural analysis, with the link to Cold Sweat.

Sources

Miles Davis, Wikipedia
Miles Davis discography, Wikipedia
Timeline, milesdavis.com
Miles Davis catalog, Jazz Discography Project
Miles Davis, MusicBrainz
The Complete Birth of the Cool, Pitchfork (2019-06)
The most hated album in jazz, The Guardian (2007-10-26)
Get Up With It, Pitchfork (2018-03)