Miles+Davis

Miles Davis =__ Childhood/Early Life __= =__ Career __= =__Musical Style__= =__**Legacy**__= > **Davis's revolutionary 1969 release Bitches Brew,  while carving out another marketable niche for jazz players, appalled many jazz purists ** > Between 1975 and early 1980 Davis did not pick up his horn; illness and recurrent substance abuse kept him away from music > **He died on September 28, 1991 in Santa Monica, California** > >
 * Born Miles Dewey Davis III on May 25, 1925 in Alton, Illinois.
 * More interest in sports than melodies as a boy, Davis first began paying attention to music when he was 6 or 7 yrs
 * He was drawn to a radio program that showcased the records of jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Count Base, Bessie Smith, and Duke Ellington
 * On visits to his grandfather in Arkansas he became fascinated by the soulful church music resonating along the backcountry lanes
 * With his reputation growing, Davis went to see Billy Eckstine direct a band boasting the luminaries of contemporary jazz: trumpet players Dizzy Gillespie and Buddy Anderson, saxophonists Charlie "Yardbird" Parker and Gene Ammons, drummer Art Blakey, and Lucky Thompson
 * One of the trumpeters became ill, and a frantic Gillespie ran up to Davis and asked him to sit in with the group
 * After that night Davis stood shoulder to shoulder with his idols, watching in awe and trying to replicate the new, spirited sounds of bebop, particularly those emanating from the eloquent horn of Gillespie
 * ==== Davis developed considerable flexibility in his musical style ====
 * **Davis's mid-register, no-vibrato style was featured on a 1945 Parker recording, but the precocious trumpeter's contributions were slammed by critics who said his solos were error-laden and transparently derivative of Gillespie **
 * **He was a trumpeter**
 * **Davis underwent his most dramatic musical transmutation; inspired by the power of rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix and the funk of rock and R&B acts Sly and the Family Stone and James Brown **
 * **His most famous song was Bitches Brew**
 * **Davis electrified jazz, pioneering what would later be called fusion which is a combanation of jazz, soul, rock**
 * Despite his well-publicized hard living, the world was stunned to learn that Davis, suffering from pneumonia, respiratory failure, and the debilitating effects of a stroke, had died
 * http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/