Miles Davis
Contributing to the wide spectrum of jazz music, Miles plays the trumpet, flugelhorn, piano, organ and synthesizer.
Coming from a well-off middle-classed family, he went to Juilliard to study jazz. At only 17 years of age, with permission from his father, he later dropped out to join Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie playing Be-bop profesionally and recorded successfully with his band of greats and part of the Charlie Parker Quintet.
Focusing on his improvisation on the trumpet, he worked with the greats all at their best.
He then left the band and made his own with John Coltrane, Paul Chambers and Red Garland and many others like Thelonious Monk. He had a good ear and those who were a memeber of his band were well known for that reason.
'Kind of Blue' is a high point into his carrer delving into the world of jazz.
He also had a drug and later alcohol addiction problem - changed his lifestyle and changed the course of jazz music.
He is credited for making the International Jazz Festival famour after having a feud with fellow trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who publicly criticized Davis's work in jazz fusion. In 1986, Marsalis attempted to join Davis onstage without invitation and was strongly requested to leave the stage.
Feature on the cover of the Rolling Stones magazine for the fusion of jazz and rock inspired by the likes of Jimi Hendrix in the 60's.
The birth of Cool Jazz - wearing his cool shades, he would go up on stage and play 3 notes for his solo and walk off.
Later he reinvented himself again using technology - synthesizers, drum loops and samples.
- Winner of Nine Grammy Awards.
He died in 1991 due to pneumonia and respiratory failure.
His nickname - The Prince of Darkness
One suggestion for Miles Davis's dark mood has been that he struggled with the combination of having a rise to fame and success coinciding with a time of racial inequality in America. It was during the 1940's, 50's and 60's, and despite being a major celebrity and world famous musician, he was at the receiving end of countless racial insults and mistreatment, including being beaten by police during a confrontation in the late 1950's. Neverless, Miles Davis was a complicated man, and there's no simple way to explain his life.
