BEAUTY’S DAUGHTER BACKSTAGE GUIDE 21 Miles Davis is the most revered jazz trumpeter of all time, not to mention one of the most important musicians of the 20th century. He was the first jazz musician of the post-hippie era to incorporate rock rhythms, and his immeasurable influence on others, in both jazz and rock, encouraged a wealth of subsequent experiments. Davis was raised in an upper-middle-class home in an integrated East St. Louis neighborhood. In 1941 he began playing the trumpet semiprofessionally with St. Louis jazz bands. Four years later, his father sent him to study at New York's Juilliard School of Music. Immediately upon arriving in New York City, Davis sought out alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, whom he had met the year before in St. Louis. He became Parker's roommate and protégé, playing in his quintet on the 1945 Savoy sessions, the definitive recordings of the bebop movement. As a trumpeter Davis was far from virtuosic, but he made up for his technical limitations by emphasizing his strengths: his ear for ensemble sound, unique phrasing, and a distinctively fragile tone. He started moving away from speedy bop and toward something more introspective. Drugs were prevalent on the club scene in this era, and by 1949 Davis had become a heroin addict. He continued to perform and record over the next four years, but his disease kept his career in low gear until he cleaned up in 1954. The following year, he formed a group with drummer Philly Joe Jones, bassist Paul Chambers, pianist Red Garland, and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. This incarnation of the Miles Davis Quintet quickly established itself as the decade's premier jazz group. Davis' work moved toward greater complexity—as on his orchestral collaborations with Gil Evans—and greater simplicity, as on Kind of Blue (1959). Here he dispensed with chords as the basis for improvisation, instead favoring modal scales and tone centers. The five tracks released have gone on to be some of jazz's most well known. In 1968 Davis began the process that eventually brought him to a fusion of jazz and rock. With Miles in the Sky, the quintet introduced electric instruments and the steady beat of rock drumming to their sound. Davis never left the chemistry of his ensembles alone for long. New members came and went as his creative whims dictated. In 1970 he put together what he called "the best damn rock & roll band in the world," and, with no rehearsals and virtually no instructions, let them jam. The result was the historic Bitches Brew which sold over 400,000 copies. In the three years following Brew's release, Davis amassed the kind of audience that rock stars enjoyed, performing in packed concert halls around the world. A 1972 car crash that broke both his legs put a temporary stop to this activity and marked the beginning of his growing reclusiveness. The recordings he made between 1972 and 1975 advanced the ideas presented on Bitches Brew, extracting the percussive qualities of tuned instruments, making greater use of electronics and high-powered amplification, and deemphasizing individual solos in favor of ensemble funk. The music was roiling and fierce. Agharta, recorded live in Japan in 1975, was his last album of new material for five years. He spent much of that time recuperating from a hip ailment. With the encouragement of his new wife, actress Cicely Tyson, he reemerged in 1981 with a new album and concert appearances. While many old supporters were disappointed by his newly acquired pop clichés (including some vocals), The Man With the Horn was his most popular release since Bitches Brew and marked his return to live concerts. In 1989 Davis published his controversial autobiography (cowritten with poet Quincy Troupe). While detailing Davis' drug problem and romantic involvements, the book was noticeably skimpy in its praise for important Davis collaborators. In 1990 Davis received the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Davis died in September 1991, reportedly suffering from pneumonia, respiratory failure, and a stroke. The posthumously released Doo-Bop, a jazz/hip-hop collaboration with rapper Easy Mo Bee, indicated that Davis' penchant for experimentation would be key to his legacy. Miles Davis Miles Davis (edited from RollingStone.com)