Miles Davis
Miles Davis is an American jazz musicians, he is a winner of 9 Grammy Awards and considered one of the top musicians of his era. He was a famous trumpet player, and songwriter, Davis was also known for being a bandleader and a composer. Davis was the first jazz musician to fuse both jazz and rock. This then introduced and new sound for others. Miles David legend is still growing strong even after his poor health and lack of creativity to jazz.
Miles Dewey Davis was born on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. Davis was raised in an upper-middle class family in an integrated East St. Louis neighborhood. Davis was like any other child before he was interested in music. At a young age Davis had a passion for boxing and music. He once told Dan Morgenstern from Down Beat magazine that “boxing is like music. You keep adding to it.” Davis father was a dentist and his mother was a music teacher. At the age of 13 his father introduced him to the trumpet. By the time he was 15 Davis was playing professionally with his high school band called the Eddie Randall’s Blue Devils. At the age of 17 Davis was able to meet both of his idols Dizzy Gillespie a famous trumpeter and Charlie Parker a saxophonist.
Davis father sent him to New York to study at Juilliard School of music at the age of 18. It wasn’t long before he dropped out to purse his passion with jazz music with his father’s permission. He became a member of Charlie Parker Quintet, within the band it was Benny Carter, Billy Eckstine, Charles Mingus and Oscar Pettiford. Davis made his first recording as a bandleader in 1946 with the Miles Davis Sextet. In 1949 Gil Evans and Davis collaborated and made the Birth of the Cool, playing with a nine-piece band.
In 1950 Davis developed a four year heroin addiction. That did not stop him from performing and recording but it did keep his career at a very low place until he was cleaned in 1954. This led him to be known as a distance and cold celebrity with a quick temper. The then took up the nickname of the “Prince of Darkness” because of his whisper voice and his difficulty personality. Once he overcame his addiction he began his first string of important small-group recordings. From here he continued to experiment with the Birth of the Cool, and also work with his sextet with making Porgy and Bless and Kind of Blue. Kind of Blues was credited as the largest-selling jazz album of all times, he also managed to sale more than 2 million copies of the album.
Miles Davis was becoming such a very good musician in 1968 he fused jazz and rock together in his album Miles in the Sky. Davis was able to get a number of rock artist on his record he called “the best damn rock and roll band in the world” with no rehearsals and virtually no instructions. With the album the Bitches Brew they sold over 400,000 copies. Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone don’t think that he brought the fuse together but they do think that “he did bring a fiery, rock-inspired sensibility to Bitches Brew, A tribute to jack Johnson, and Live Evil.” Davis was than the first Jazz artist to become recognized on the cover of a Rolling Stone magazine.
In 1975 Davis relapsed, and became addicted to alcohol and cocaine. This caused him to take five years off of his career. In 1979 his father and Cicely Tyson (American actress) helped him overcome his addiction. In 1981 Davis married Tyson, this allowed him to get back on track with his music. Davis was able to work on albums like The Man with the Horn and others but the sales weren’t where he thought they would be. In 1985 Wynton Marsalis and Davis had a falling out