Miles Davis is more than a jazz musician: he
is a cultural icon, known even to people who can't tell bebop
from fusion. That may seem strange considering that Davis
made a career of defying the expectations of critics and audience
alike, but it is just one more paradox associated with this
mercurial artist.
Miles was born in Alton, Illinois on May 26,
1926. He grew up in East St. Louis in a middle class family,
playing in his high school band as well as with several local
R&B groups. He quickly became enamored of jazz, particularly
the new sounds being created by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
Davis' father sent him to Juliard to study music, but Miles
didn't spend much time there, dropping out to play with Parker's
quintet from 1946 to 1948. That proved to be a humbling experience
at first, since Miles didn't yethave the chops to keep up
with Parker's breakneck tempos and chord substitutions. He
learned quickly, though, and grew immensely as a musician
during his tenure with Bird.
Next, Miles hooked up with a group of musicians
who were doing something completely different. This group
included J.J. Johnson, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis,
and Max Roach. While all were excellent bop players, they
were developing a style that was less volatile and more relaxed,
which suited Davis' temperement. The arrangements crafted
by Lewis, Mulligan, John Carisi, and Gil Evans added more
uniqueness to the nine-piece group's sound. Davis became the
group's ad-hoc leader, and the classic Birth of the Cool
was the result.
The early 50s were an erratic time for Davis,
mostly due to his heroin addiction, and he was a disappointing
performer during this time. By the middle of the decade, however,
he had cleaned up and formed his first quintet, comprised
of Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly
Joe Jones. This group became very popular and recorded several
essential albums for the Prestige label: Cookin', Steamin',
Workin', and Relaxin'. When the quintet broke
up, Davis spent time collaborating again with arranger Gil
Evans, resulting in great albums like Porgy and Bess
and Sketches of Spain. He finished the decade out
by recording one of the best known jazz albums of all time,
Kind of Blue, with a sextet that included Coltrane,
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers,
and Philly Joe Jones.
In the 1960s Davis put together a second quintet,
this time utilizing Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams,
and Ron Carter. The music of this group was more complex,
moving through post-bop modal experimentation and eventually
into some of the group improvisation and open forms of free
jazz. Some of Davis' fans were mystified by the group's music,
but it was uniformly applauded by critics, other musicians,
and avid music fans eager for new sounds. The group's output
has recently been collected in the 6-disc set The Complete
Columbia Studio Recordings, 1965-'68.
As the 1970s beckoned, Miles realized that rock
had replaced jazz as the music of choice for the younger generation.
In order not to get left behind, he began to perform with
an electronic band: electric guitar, electric bass, banks
of electronic keyboards, and even an amplified trumpet. The
sound was bubbling, dark, and dense, and it further alienated
some jazz fans and many critics as well. There was no denying
the power of the music Davis was producing, however: upon
its release in 1970, Bitches Brew sold 400,000 copies,
making it the best-selling jazz album of all time. The group
included Chick Corea, Hancock, John McLaughlin, and others
who went on to become mainstays of the jazz fusion movement.
Davis continued to perform and record throughout
the 1970s and 1980s, continuing to perform with primarily
electronic groups, often playing organ instead of his trumpet,
and playing with his back to the audience. Some of the minimalist
experiements he performed at the close of the 70s foreshadowed
the ambient and electronic music that would become common
in the 80s and 90s. Miles died on September 28, 1991, but
his music, style, and collaborators all continue to influence
not only jazz music, but popular culture as well.
