Miles Davis

**Miles Dewey Davis III** (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer. He was very important to 20th century music. He helped to develop several different styles of jazz, like cool jazz, hard bop, free jazz, and fusion. As a bandleader he worked with other famous musicians like John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Cannonball Adderley, Gerry Mulligan, Tony Williams, George Coleman, J. J. Johnson, Keith Jarrett, John Scofield and Kenny Garrett.

In 1959 he released an album called *Kind of Blue*. That album became very famous and popular. In 2008, it had sold 4 million copies. In 2006 Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and described as "one of the key figures in the history of jazz". Davis later said "I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a round voice with not too much tremolo and not too much baseline bass. Just right in the middle. If I can’t get that sound I can’t play anything."

When he was 16, Davis played the trumpet professionally when he was not at school. At 17, he played in bandleader Eddie Randle's band for a year. Saxophone-player Sonny Stitt tried to persuade Davis to join the Tiny Bradshaw band, but Davis's mother wanted Davis to finish his final year of high school.

In 1944, the Billy Eckstine band visited East St. Louis. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were in the band, and Davis joined them as third trumpet player when trumpeter Buddy Anderson was out sick. When the band left to finish the tour, Davis' parents still wanted him to finish his studies.

## New York years (1944–48) 
After he graduated from high school in 1944, Davis moved to New York City to study at the Juilliard School of Music.

When he arrived in New York, he spent most of his time trying to get in contact with Charlie Parker, even though some people had told him that he should not. He did not make many recordings as a bandleader at this time.

Around 1945, Dizzy Gillespie stopped working with Parker and Parker hired Davis as Gillespie's replacement in his quintet. Also in the group were Max Roach at the drums, Al Haig (replaced later by Sir Charles Thompson and Duke Jordan) at the piano, and Curley Russell (later replaced by Tommy Potter and Leonard Gaskin) as bass player.

With Parker's quintet, Davis recorded several times. He had a solo on Parker's signature song, "Now's the Time". This solo led to the beginning of a style of jazz called "cool jazz". The group also toured the United States. During a tour in Los Angeles, Parker had a nervous breakdown and went to the Camarillo State Mental Hospital for several months. Davis found himself stuck in L.A. He stayed with, and played music with jazz musician Charles Mingus. Later he got a job with Billy Eckstine on a California tour that brought him back to New York. In 1948, Parker returned from Los Angeles, and Davis joined his group again.

The musicians in Parker's group were not getting on very well. Parker's behavior was unpredictable because of his drug addiction. Davis and Roach did not agree with Parker hiring Duke Jordan as a pianist and it soon became "his project". They tried to achieve a sound similar to a human voice, over carefully arranged compositions.

The group first played in the summer of 1948 at the Royal Roost. They were active to the end of 1949 and had several changes of musician. There were many white musicians in the group and this made some African American jazz players angry. Many of them were unemployed at the time. Davis did not listen to them.

The group got a recording contract with Capitol Records and they had several recording sessions between January 1949 and April 1950. This music was released on an album called *Birth of the Cool*. This album gave its name to a new style of jazz called "cool jazz". Davis knew how important his project was and even turned down a job with Duke Ellington's orchestra. This group also led to the beginning of the lifelong friendship between Davis and Gil Evans.

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