Miles Davis

American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer

Photo by: Tom Palumbo from New York City, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Born:May 26, 1926

Died:September 28, 1991

Age at death:65

Manner of death:Natural Causes

Cause of death:Pneumonia

Zodiac Sign:Gemini

Born in:Alton, United States

Buried in:United States

Languages:English

Conductor Actor Songwriter Trumpeter Television Actor Bandleader Orchestra Leader Composer Film Score Composer Music Arranger Jazz Musician Autobiographer Jazz Trumpeter Musician Recording Artist

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Related People

Bandmate: Bill Evans

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Photo credits (2)

Miles Davis:
Photo by: Tom Palumbo from New York City, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Bill Evans:
Photo by: Steve Schapiro · Public Domain · Wikimedia Commons

Links

Wikipedia Official Website IMDb Facebook X (Twitter)Instagram YouTube

Famous For

Bands

Miles Davis Quintet

Movies & TV

A Huey P. Newton StoryDingoA Different Kind of Blue

Songs & Albums

Kind of BlueBitches BrewSketches of SpainIn a Silent WayBirth of the Cool

Awards

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2006)Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1990)American Book Awards (1990)honorary doctorate of Paris Nanterre University (1988)Léonie Sonning Music Prize (1984)

Miles Davis

American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer

Biography

Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and painter. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. In a career spanning nearly five decades, Davis was at the forefront of several major stylistic developments in jazz, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, third stream, modal jazz, avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion. His legacy extends into rock, funk, classical and hip-hop. Born into an affluent family in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, Davis started on the trumpet in his early teens. He left to study at the Juilliard School in New York City, before dropping out and making his professional debut as a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker's bebop quintet from 1944 to 1948. Shortly afterwards, he recorded the Birth of the Cool sessions for Capitol Records, which were instrumental to the development of cool jazz. In the early 1950s, Davis recorded some of the earliest hard bop music under Prestige Records. After a widely acclaimed comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, he signed a long-term contract with Columbia Records, and recorded the album 'Round About Midnight in 1955. It was his first work with saxophonist John Coltrane and bassist Paul Chambers, key members of the sextet he led into the early 1960s. During this period, he alternated between orchestral jazz collaborations with arranger Gil Evans, such as the Spanish music–influenced Sketches of Spain (1960), and band recordings, such as Milestones (1958) and Kind of Blue (1959). The latter recording remains one of the most popular jazz albums of all time, having sold more than five million copies in the U.S. alone and 6.4 million copies worldwide. Davis made several lineup changes while recording Someday My Prince Will Come (1961), his 1961 Blackhawk concerts, and Seven Steps to Heaven (1963), another commercial success that introduced bassist Ron Carter, pianist Herbie Hancock and drummer Tony Williams. After adding saxophonist Wayne Shorter to his new quintet in 1964, Davis led them on a series of more abstract recordings often composed by the band members, helping pioneer the post-bop genre with albums such as E.S.P. (1965) and Miles Smiles (1967), before transitioning into his electric period. During the 1970s, he experimented with rock, funk, African rhythms, emerging electronic music technology, and an ever-changing lineup of musicians, including keyboardist Joe Zawinul, drummer Al Foster, bassist Michael Henderson and guitarist John McLaughlin. This period, beginning with Davis's 1969 studio album In a Silent Way and concluding with the 1975 concert recording Agharta, was the most controversial in his career, alienating and challenging many in jazz. His million-selling 1970 record Bitches Brew helped spark a resurgence in the genre's commercial popularity with jazz fusion as the decade progressed. After a five-year retirement due to poor health, Davis resumed his career in the 1980s, employing younger musicians and pop sounds on albums such as The Man with the Horn (1981), You're Under Arrest (1985) and Tutu (1986). Critics were often unreceptive, but the decade garnered Davis his highest level of commercial recognition. He performed sold-out concerts worldwide, while branching out into visual arts, film and television work, before his death in 1991 from the combined effects of a stroke, pneumonia and respiratory failure, aged 65. In 2006, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which recognized him as "one of the key figures in the history of jazz". Rolling Stone magazine described him as "the most revered jazz trumpeter of all time, not to mention one of the most important musicians of the 20th century", while Gerald Early called him inarguably one of the most influential and innovative musicians of that period.

This biography uses content from the Wikipedia article “Miles Davis”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Quotes

“I'll play it and tell you what it is later.”

— In Szwed, John (2012). So What: The Life of Miles Davis. Random House. ISBN 9781448106462. , and in many other books Sometimes rendered as: I'll play it 'first and tell you what it is later.; During a recording session for the Prestige label released on the album Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (1956).

“Assessing saxophonist Buddy Collette for one of DownBeat's "Blindfold Test" columns, c. 1957, in response to "Cycle," the opening track from Collette's Man of Many Parts; as quoted in The Encyclopedia of Jazz (1960) by Leonard Feather, p. 478”

“Is that what you wanted, Alfred?”

— Miles Davis asking Blue Note producer Alfred Lion after a performance in Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack, NJ studio. Miles' comment was included at the end of "One For Daddy-O" on the Cannonball Adderley album Somethin' Else (March 9, 1958).; Quoted in: Jazz Journal International, (1983), p. 12.

Quotes sourced from the Wikiquote article "Miles Davis", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Photos

Jazz musician Miles Davis.

Portrait of Tommy Potter, Charlie Parker, Max Roach (almost hidden by Parker), Miles Davis, and Duke Jordan (from left to right), Three Deuces, New York, N.Y.

Miles Davis from a 1967 press photo

Miles Davis Septet Sigma 7

Miles Davis, Den Haag, 1986 (cropped version)

Gottlieb, William P., 1917-, photographer. [Portrait of Charlie Parker, Tommy Potter, Miles Davis, Duke Jordan, and Max Roach, Three Deuces, New York, N.Y., ca. Aug. 1947] 1 negative : b&w ; 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 in. Caption from Down Beat: Parker's back and the Deuces' got him. Yardbird and his band at the Three Deuces the night he returned to 52nd Street. Tommy Potter is the bass man, while Miles Davis is on trumpet. Charlie, reported currently on a health kick, certainly looks well and happy. Notes: Gottlieb Collection Assignment No. 434 Reference print available in Music Division, Library of Congress. Purchase William P. Gottlieb Forms part of: William P. Gottlieb Collection (Library of Congress). In: "Parker playing at the Deuces," Down Beat, v. 14, no. 18 (Aug. 27, 1947), p. 18. Subjects: Parker, Charlie, 1920-1955 Potter, Tommy, 1918- Davis, Miles Jordan, Duke, 1922- Roach, Max, 1924- Jazz musicians--1940-1950. Saxophonists--1940-1950. Double bassists--1940-1950. Trumpet players--1940-1950. Fifty-second Street (New York, N.Y.)--1940-1950. Three Deuces Format: Portrait photographs--1940-1950. Group portraits--1940-1950. Film negatives--1940-1950. Rights Info: Mr. Gottlieb has dedicated these works to the public domain, but rights of privacy and publicity may apply. lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/gottlieb/gottlieb-copyrig... Repository: (negative) Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Washington D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print (reference print) Library of Congress, Music Division, Washington D.C. 20540 USA, loc.gov/rr/perform/ Part Of: William P. Gottlieb Collection (DLC) 99-401005 General information about the Gottlieb Collection is available at lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/gottlieb/gottlieb-home.html Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/gottlieb.06851 Call Number: LC-GLB23- 0685 Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse This work is from the William P. Gottlieb collection at the Library of Congress. Rights and restrictions. In accordance with the wishes of William Gottlieb, the photographs in this collection entered into the public domain on February 16, 2010.

Gottlieb, William P., 1917-, photographer. [Portrait of Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, Cecil Payne, Miles Davis, and Ray Brown, Downbeat, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948] 1 negative : b&w ; 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 in. Notes: Gottlieb Collection Assignment No. 522 Reference print available in Music Division, Library of Congress. Purchase William P. Gottlieb Forms part of: William P. Gottlieb Collection (Library of Congress). Subjects: Gillespie, Dizzy, 1917- Lewis, John, 1920- Payne, Cecil Davis, Miles Brown, Ray, 1926- Jazz musicians--1940-1950. Trumpet players--1940-1950. Pianists--1940-1950. Saxophonists--1940-1950. Fifty-second Street (New York, N.Y.)--1940-1950. Downbeat Format: Portrait photographs--1940-1950. Group portraits--1940-1950. Film negatives--1940-1950. Rights Info: Mr. Gottlieb has dedicated these works to the public domain, but rights of privacy and publicity may apply. lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/gottlieb/gottlieb-copyrig... Repository: (negative) Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Washington D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print (reference print) Library of Congress, Music Division, Washington D.C. 20540 USA, loc.gov/rr/perform/ Part Of: William P. Gottlieb Collection (DLC) 99-401005 General information about the Gottlieb Collection is available at lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/gottlieb/gottlieb-home.html Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/gottlieb.03151 Call Number: LC-GLB23- 0315 Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse This work is from the William P. Gottlieb collection at the Library of Congress. Rights and restrictions. In accordance with the wishes of William Gottlieb, the photographs in this collection entered into the public domain on February 16, 2010.

Gottlieb, William P., 1917-, photographer. [Portrait of Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, Cecil Payne, Miles Davis, and Ray Brown, Downbeat, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948] 1 negative : b&w ; 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 in. Notes: Gottlieb Collection Assignment No. 522 Purchase William P. Gottlieb Forms part of: William P. Gottlieb Collection (Library of Congress). Subjects: Gillespie, Dizzy, 1917- Lewis, John, 1920- Payne, Cecil Davis, Miles Brown, Ray, 1926- Jazz musicians--1940-1950. Trumpet players--1940-1950. Big bands--1940-1950. Fifty-second Street (New York, N.Y.)--1940-1950. Downbeat Format: Portrait photographs--1940-1950. Cityscape photographs--1940-1950. Film negatives--1940-1950. Rights Info: Mr. Gottlieb has dedicated these works to the public domain, but rights of privacy and publicity may apply. lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/gottlieb/gottlieb-copyrig... Repository: (negative) Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Washington D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print Part Of: William P. Gottlieb Collection (DLC) 99-401005 General information about the Gottlieb Collection is available at lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/gottlieb/gottlieb-home.html Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/gottlieb.11911 Call Number: LC-GLB23- 1191 Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse This work is from the William P. Gottlieb collection at the Library of Congress. Rights and restrictions. In accordance with the wishes of William Gottlieb, the photographs in this collection entered into the public domain on February 16, 2010.

Gottlieb, William P., 1917-, photographer. [Portrait of Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, Cecil Payne, Ray Brown, and Miles Davis, Downbeat, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948] 2 negatives : b&w ; 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 in. Notes: Gottlieb Collection Assignment No. 522 Purchase William P. Gottlieb Forms part of: William P. Gottlieb Collection (Library of Congress). Subjects: Gillespie, Dizzy, 1917- Lewis, John, 1920- Payne, Cecil Brown, Ray, 1926- Davis, Miles Jazz musicians--1940-1950. Trumpet players--1940-1950. Fifty-second Street (New York, N.Y.)--1940-1950. Downbeat Format: Portrait photographs--1940-1950. Group portraits--1940-1950. Film negatives--1940-1950. Rights Info: Mr. Gottlieb has dedicated these works to the public domain, but rights of privacy and publicity may apply. lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/gottlieb/gottlieb-copyrig... Repository: (negative) Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Washington D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print Part Of: William P. Gottlieb Collection (DLC) 99-401005 General information about the Gottlieb Collection is available at lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/gottlieb/gottlieb-home.html Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/gottlieb.11861 Call Number: LC-GLB23- 1186 Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse This work is from the William P. Gottlieb collection at the Library of Congress. Rights and restrictions. In accordance with the wishes of William Gottlieb, the photographs in this collection entered into the public domain on February 16, 2010.

Author: I found in an old box some of my past work of 20 years ago. I made a large serie of slides during the North Sea Jazz Festival of some well known artists. I will try to get a bit of the quality of the original Kodak EES 800/1600 5020 in the scans. The photo's of Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) are made during his last concert in the Netherlands at the North Sea Jazz Festival.