Miles Davis (jazz trumpeter, bandleader, songwriter)

~ Person

Also performs as: Cleo Henry

Wikipedia

Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a roughly five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz.

Born into a upper-middle-class family in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, Davis started on the trumpet in his early teens. He left to study at Juilliard 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 after, 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 while on Prestige Records but did so haphazardly due to a heroin addiction. 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 over five million copies in the U.S.

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, 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) 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. 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 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.

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Discography

Album + Live

YearTitleArtistRatingReleases
2005Munich ConcertMiles Davis1
2005The Cellar Door Sessions 1970Miles Davis52
2006European Tour ’56: With the Modern Jazz Quartet & Lester YoungMiles Davis1
2007Radio Broadcasts 1958–1959Miles Davis1
2008Winter in Europe 1967Miles Davis1
2008Live at Birdland 1951 – 1953Miles Davis1
2009Isle of WightMiles Davis1
2010Live in Rome and Copenhagen 1969Miles Davis1
2010Warsaw Concert 1983Miles Davis1
2011Bitches Brew LiveMiles Davis4
2011Setlist: The Very Best of Miles Davis LIVE - (Electric)Miles Davis3
2013So What – The Complete 1960 Amsterdam ConcertsMiles Davis1
2013North Sea Jazz Legendary ConcertsMiles Davis1
2014Miles at the FillmoreMiles Davis53
2014The Complete 1960 Holland ConcertsMiles Davis1
2015Miles Davis at Newport: 1955–1975: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4Miles Davis2
2015The Lost BroadcastMiles Davis1
2018The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6Miles Davis & John Coltrane2
2018The Final Tour: Copenhagen, March 24, 1960Miles Davis & John Coltrane1
2018The Final Tour: Paris, March 21, 1960Miles Davis2
2018In Person: Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, San FranciscoMiles Davis1
20191960: Live and RemasteredMiles Davis1
2021Merci Miles! Live at Vienne (Live at Vienne Jazz Festival, 1991)Miles Davis3
2021The Lost ConcertMiles Davis2
2022Miles Davis Live – What It Is: Montreal 7/7/83Miles Davis2
2023In Concert Live at the Olympia, Paris 1957Miles Davis Quintet1
Free Trade Hall, Volume 1Miles Davis2
Live in Europe 88Miles Davis1
Miles in MontreuxMiles Davis1
Miles & Coltrane Quintet Live: First Time on RecordsMiles Davis & John Coltrane1
No (More) BluesMiles Davis2
Paris 1969 LiveMiles Davis1
The Stockholm Concert a.k.a. Fran‐DanceMiles Davis1

Album + Remix

YearTitleArtistRatingReleases
1998Panthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis 1969–1974Miles Davis3
1999Panthalassa: The RemixesMiles Davis44

Single

YearTitleArtistRatingReleases
1947Buzzy / Donna LeeCharley Parker with Miles Davis1
1947Goin to Mintons / Half-NelsonFats Navarro - Leo Parker / Miles Davis - Charlie Parker1
1949Budo / MoveMiles Davis2
1951Yesterdays / Duet for Saxophone and GuitarLee Konitz featuring Miles Davis and Billy Bauer1
1952Chance It / YesterdaysThe Miles Davis Sextet / Miles Davis1
1953I've Got the Bluest BluesDizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis1
1956The Leap / WeirdoMiles Davis1
1956Tempus Fugit / Lazy SusanMiles Davis1
1957Charles Mingus Presents Miles DavisMiles Davis1
1957'round About MidnightMiles Davis1
1957Collectors' ItemsMiles Davis1
1957Well You Needn't / DonnaMiles Davis1
1958Michel Legrand Dirige Les Géants Du Jazz Américain Avec Miles DavisMichel Legrand - Miles Davis1
1958More MilesMiles Davis1
1958Poll Winners JazzMiles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane1
1958Surrey With the Fringe on Top / If I Could Write a BookMiles Davis1
1959Blue MoodsMiles Davis1
1959On Green Dolphin StreetMiles Davis1
1960Junior Jazz GalleryMiles Davis1
1960The Winners of Down Beat's Readers Poll 1960 (Hall of Fame)Miles Davis / Dizzy Gillespie1
1961All Blues / It Ain't Necessarily SoMiles Davis1
1961Freddie FreeloaderMiles Davis1
1961Fishermen, Strawberry and Devil Crab / Bess... Oh Where Is My BessMiles Davis1
1961Here Come de Honey Man / It Ain't Necessarily SoMiles Davis1
1961I Loves You, Porgy / It Ain't Necessarily SoMiles Davis1
1961I Loves You, Porgy / There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon for New YorkMiles Davis1
1961The Buzzard Song / GoneMiles Davis1
1961There Is No a Greather Love / Miles ThemeMiles Davis2
1961When I Fall in Love / I Could Write a BookMiles Davis1
1962The Artistry of MilesMiles Davis1
1962New Rhumba / Slow Samba (Aos Péz da Cruz)Miles Davis With Gil Evans And His Orchestra1
1962Old Folks / I Thought About YouMiles Davis1
1962Saturday Night at the BlackhawkMiles Davis1
1963Surrey With the Fringe on Top / DianeMiles Davis1
1963Somethin' ElseCannonball Adderley, Miles Davis1
1963Sposin' / Just Squeeze MeMiles Davis1
1964Dig / It's Only a Paper MoonMiles Davis1
1964My Funny ValentineMiles Davis1
1964That Old Devil Moon / You Don't Know What Love IsMiles Davis1
1965Oleo / Tune UpMiles Davis1
1966So What / All BluesMiles Davis1
1969Girls of KilimanjaroMiles Davis1
1970'round Midnight / SoleaThe Miles Davis Quintet / Miles Davis1
1970Great Expectations / The Little Blue FrogMiles Davis1
1970Miles Runs the Voodoo Down / Spanish KeyMiles Davis1
1971Right OffMiles Davis1
1972MolesterMiles Davis1
1972Vote for MilesMiles Davis1
1973Holly-Wuud / Big FunMiles Davis1
1974Lonely Fire / Ife Part IMiles Davis1
1974Go Ahead John / Great ExpectationsMiles Davis1
1974Maiysha / Red China BluesMiles Davis1
1981Shout / Fat TimeMiles Davis1
1983Star on Cicely / It Gets BetterMiles Davis1
1984Decoy / Code M.D.Miles Davis1
1985Time After TimeMiles Davis1
1986Backyard Ritual / Backyard Ritual (7" edit) / Tomaas (LP version)Miles Davis1
1986Tutu / PortiaMiles Davis1
1988Oh PattiScritti Politti + Miles Davis2
1990Bank RobberyJohn Lee Hooker, Miles Davis, Taj Mahal1
1999Rated XMiles Davis1
1999Shhh / In a Silent WayMiles Davis1
2012Miles Runs the Voodoo Down / In a Silent WayMiles Davis1
2014Blue Xmas / Devil May CareMiles Davis1
2016Ghetto Walkin'Miles Davis, Robert Glasper, Bilal1

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