The Evolution of Jazz

Miles Davis Tribute Part I

Early life (1926 to 1944)

Miles Dewey Davis was born to a relatively affluent family in Alton, Illinois. His father, Miles Henry Davis, was a dentist, and in 1927 the family moved to East St. Louis, Il. They also owned a substantial ranch, and Davis learned to ride horses as a boy. One of his horses was named Angelo Minny.

Davis' mother, Cleota Henry, wanted her son to learn the piano, she was a capable blues pianist herself, but kept this hidden from her son. Miles' musical studies began at 13, when his father gave him a new trumpet and arranged lessons with local trumpeter Elwood Buchanan. Davis later suggested that his father's instrument choice was made largely to irk his mother, who disliked the sound that the trumpet produced. Against the fashion of the time, Buchanan stressed the importance of playing without vibrato, and Davis would carry his clear signature tone throughout his career. It is said that Buchanan would slap Davis' knuckles with a ruler every time that he started using heavy vibrato. Davis once remarked on the importance of this signature sound, 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."

Clark Terry was another important early influence and friend of Davis'. By the age of 16, Davis was a member of the musician's union and working professionally when not at school. At 17, he spent a year playing in bandleader Eddie Randle's "Blue Devils". During this time, Sonny Stitt tried to persuade him to join the Tiny Bradshaw band then passing through town, but Davis' mother insisted that he finish his final year of high school.

In 1944, the Billy Eckstine band visited St. Louis. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were members of the band, and Davis was taken on as third trumpet for a couple of weeks because of the illness of Buddy Anderson. When Eckstine's band left Davis behind to complete the tour, the trumpeter's parents were still keen for him to continue formal academic studies.

The Evolution Of Miles Davis.

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Bebop and The Birth Of THe Cool(1944 to 1955)

In 1944, Davis moved to New York City, apparently to take up a scholarship at the Juilliard School of Music, but he neglected his studies and sought out Charlie Parker instead. His first recordings were made in 1945 with blues singer Rubberlegg Williams and tenor saxophonist Herbie Fields, and in the autumn he became a member of Parker's unofficial quintet, appearing on many of Parker's seminal bebop recordings for the Savoy and Dial labels. Davis' style on trumpet was already distinctive by this point, but as a soloist he lacked the confidence and virtuosity of his mentors, and was known to play throttled notes, and to sometimes stumble during his solos.

By 1948, he had served his apprenticeship as a sideman, both on stage and record, and was beginning to blossom as a solo artist. Davis began to work with a nonet that featured the then unusual instrumentation such as the French horn and tuba. The nonet featured a young Gerry Mulligan and Lee Konitz. After some gigs at New York's Royal Roost, Davis was signed by Capitol Records. The nonet released several singles in 1949 and 1950, featuring arrangements by Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and John Lewis. Thus began his collaboration with Evans, with whom he would work with on many of his major songs over the next 20 years. The singles saw only limited release until 1957, when 11 of the 12 were released as the album Birth of the Cool (more recent issues collect all 12 singles). In 1949, he visited Europe for the first time and performed at that year's Paris Jazz Festival in May.

Between 1950 and 1955, Davis mainly recorded as a leader for Prestige and Blue Note records in a variety of small group settings. Sidemen included Sonny Rollins, John Lewis, Kenny Clarke, Jackie McLean, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, J. J. Johnson, Percy Heath, Milt Jackson and Charles Mingus. Davis was influenced at around this time by pianist Ahmad Jamal, whose sparse style contrasted with the "busy" sound of bebop.

Playing in the jazz clubs of New York, Davis was in frequent contact with people who used and sold drugs. By 1950, like many of his contemporaries, he had developed a heroin addiction. In the winter of 1953-1954, he returned to East St. Louis and locked himself in a guest room in his father's farm for seven days until the drug was fully out of his system.

After overcoming his heroin addiction, Davis made a series of important recordings for Prestige in 1954, later collected on albums including Bags' Groove, Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants and Walkin'. At this time, he started to use the Harmon mute to darken and subdue the timbre of his trumpet. This muted trumpet tone was to be associated with Davis for the rest of his career.

In July 1955, he played a legendary solo on Thelonius Monk's "'Round Midnight" at the Newport Jazz Festival. This performance thrust Davis back into the jazz spotlight, leading to George Avakian signing Davis to Columbia and the formation of his first quintet.

Miles Davis Hits

1950 To 1991

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First Great Quintet and Sextet (1955 to 1958)

The first recordings of this group were made for Columbia Records in 1955, released on 'Round About Midnight. Davis was still under contract to Prestige, but had an agreement that he could make recordings for subsequent releases using his new label. His final recordings for Prestige were the product of two days of recording in 1956, released as Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet and Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet.

The quintet was never stable, however; several of the other members used heroin, and the Miles Davis Quintet disbanded in early 1957.

That year, Davis traveled to France to compose the score to Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud. He recorded the entire soundtrack with the aid of French session musicians Barney Wilen, Pierre Michelot and Rene Urtreger, and American drummer Kenny Clarke.

In 1958, the quintet reformed as a sextet, with the addition of Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on alto saxophone, and recorded Milestones.

Recordings with Gil Evans (1957 to 1963)

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Davis recorded a series of albums with Gil Evans, often playing flugelhorn as well as trumpet. The first, Miles Ahead (1957), showcased his playing with a jazz big band and a horn section beautifully arranged by Evans. Tunes included Dave Brubeck's "The Duke", as well as Leo Delibes' 'The Maids Of Cadiz', the first piece of European classical music Davis had recorded. Another important feature of the album was the innovative use of editing to join the tracks together, turning each side of the album into a seamless piece of music.

In 1958, Davis and Evans recorded Porgy and Bess, an arrangement of pieces from George Gershwin's opera of the same name. Davis named the album one of his own favorites. Porgy and Bess is a 1958 album by jazz musician Miles Davis which he and Gil Evans arranged from George Gershwins opera Porgy and Bess.

Sketches of Spain (1959-1960) featured tunes by contemporary Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo and also Manuel de Falla, as well as Gil Evans originals with a Spanish theme. Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall (1961) includes Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, along with other songs recorded at a concert with an orchestra under Evans' direction.

Sessions in 1962 resulted in the album Quiet Nights, a short collection of bossa nova tunes which was released against the wishes of both artists. That was the last time that the two created a full album again. Davis once noted that "my best friend is Gil Evans".