What makes miles davis great

Davis, with his band, produced the albums "Milestones" and "Kind of Blue" that introduced modal improvising to jazz. These albums are seen by many as the high point in the development of cool jazz , which was Miles' and others reaction to bebop and hard bop. Cool jazz was far more intellectual, more understated, and with more complex written arrangements than bebop or hard bop. This excerpt is from the album, "Kind of Blue," which is considered one of the greatest jazz albums of all time.

Miles was once again recording with arranger Gil Evans and they together produced the albums "Miles Ahead" in , "Porgy and Bess" in and "Sketches of Spain" in On the latter two albums, Miles ventured into the playing of the flugelhorn in addition to the trumpet. Most importantly, the relationship between Evans and Davis resulted in the development of chamber jazz , or third stream music. Basing their compositions on classical works, or motifs from classical works, they created an entirely new kind of music that opened the door for the merger of jazz and classical.

Through the 's, the Miles Davis band would see many changes in its composition. Musicians, such as saxophonist John Coltrane, would move on to form bands of their own. The music Miles was producing at this point was morphing into a funky jazz spiced with soul. Davis's music was very unique because it provided the missing link between the styles of hard bop and free form jazz.

The addition of electric keyboards was introduced in the late 's as well as the vocals of Wayne Shorter who added soprano elements to the mix. Davis's music now possessed the feeling of rock combined with improvisational jazz.

The group, now considered a fusion band, produced the albums "Bitches Brew" and "Silent Way" using a variety of instrumentals. The large ensemble put together by Davis in to explore this new music included Davis on the trumpet, rock musician John McLaughlin on guitar, and Chick Corea, whose work spans jazz, rock and classical music, on keyboards. Cobb: So he was to go at Juilliard in the daytime, and at night, he'd go, he'd be on 52nd Street. Then, one night, I heard this voice from behind me say, 'Hey, Miles, I heard you been looking for me.

You can compare bebop to the Manhattan Project, and it was developed by some serious sound physicists blowing their brains out to push this music as far as they could.

It was a music by black musicians who wanted to get away from any kind of hint of minstrelsy. Jones: No smiling and laughing and -- and grinning and dancing and [bleep] No entertaining, man.

They wanted to be an artist just like Stravinsky, just like Stravinsky, who was just a pure artist. Griffin: I mean it seems almost impossible what he would have been trying to do at that age. There's the kind of time required of anyone who's a serious student at Juilliard, but then there's also the kind of time and commitment that this music will take, and at some point, something has to give.

It was sexual, sensuous -- everything -- power -- everything -- humor, and then he could not share that. Shorter: One day, the teacher said the blues grew out of the downtrodden sufferings of the slaves, of slavery, and the -- the crying and wailing and all that, that this became the blues of the people in chains,' and all that, and Miles in back of the room somewhere, and he raised his hand while she was talking.

Kahn: Miles, within months, is hanging with Bird, is recording with Bird, he really arrives, like, right away. Tate: Every night, you know,he'd get on the stand with Bird, Bird would play the head of the tune and just leave him on stage by himself. He said he threw up every night because he was just so stressed out and humiliated. We heard sound in the same way Kahn: By the end of the '40s, they're working on a project together -- it's called 'Birth of the Cool.

Tate: I think the intentionwas to create a listening music, a concert music that very deliberately did not have the drive and the funk of 52nd Street on it. Griffin: She brings him into a circle of other artists, of intellectuals, of philosophers, of, you know, the sort of greatest minds of that time. Tate: Jazz was really seen as the height of artistry at that time inside of French intellectual and creative circles.

Griffin: Paris for Miles is a kind of opening up of possibility and of potential, this sense that one can be fully oneself beyond the boundaries of race. That it isn't something to hold you back, and in fact, it might be something that contributes to your ability to ascend. Miles: Paris was where Iunderstood that all white people weren't the same, that some weren't prejudiced and others were. You see your country as you knew it but in an even starker light because you've experienced something different.

Miles: It was hard for me to come back to the bull[bleep] white people put a black person through in this country.

I lost my sense of discipline, lost my sense of control over my life and started to drift. Before I knew it, I had a heroin habit, which meant getting and shooting heroin all the time, all day and all night. There's no expectation that Miles is going to survive let alone is he -- is he really going to be a successful musician again? And his father came from East St. Louis and came to the club and took him off the stage and left his horn and everything.

On the way home, I told himthat I was going to give up dope and that all I needed was a little rest. Before I knew it, I was shooting up again and borrowing money from my father to support my habit. He might even have on clothes that looked like If someone could have guaranteedthat I would die in two seconds, then I would have taken it.

This young white guy had started a new jazz label called Prestige, and he was looking for me to make a record for him. King Jr: We, the negro citizens, had it not to rise America contest Man: Emmett Till was taken by Man: The amazing new Motoramic Chevrolet. Man: This afternoon, Disneyland, the world's most fabulous theme kingdom. So if he had that opportunity, as he had at Newport, he was going for it and with a vengeance. Because the beauty of that songand the beauty of Miles' trumpet made bebop a music that could be accepted by everybody.

You know, it's easy to hide with a bunch of notes all over the place and, 'Look what I can do. I've seen him play like one note, and some of these high rollers that came to the club, these high rollers would come out and say -- he'd hit one note, they'd say, 'That did it for me. Miles: In February or March , I had to have a non-cancerous growth on my larynx removed. Sandra: At that time, nobody knew that Miles had had an operation and that his voice had suffered from it.

He came out on the stage and began to announce, in that gravelly voice, what he was going to play for that evening. And I think he got two or three sentences out, and the audience, a large number of them, began to laugh at him. And Miles turned around, and he looked at the audience, he had this very strange look on his face, and he left. I can't be concerned with talking and bull[bleep] while I'm playing because the music is talkingto them when everything's right.

I told him that I wanted to go with Columbia because of all the [bleep] that he offered me. Kahn: George Avakian says, 'Here's a list of demands that I would like you to meet -- you got to be clean, you got to have a consistent band. I'm just going to let the music live, let it breathe, and let it develop as we feel it.

It was the introduction to so many different people that I met at that time in the show business world. Well, as a dancer, I meanI was spectacular on that stage, and I guess they just wanted to find out more about me. On my way to rehearsal one day,Miles is coming down the street, and we looked at each other,and he looked at me and he said, 'Now that I found you, I'll never let you go.

She was the most inspirational person he had partnered with, the one he was with the longest. She was someone who gave him stability and love at a time when he produced some of his most groundbreaking and popular work. He wanted also to make different cinema and change the way of doing films, like having real people in a real setting. Kahn: And he approached Miles with the idea, would you be willing to create a jazz soundtrack?

A lot of people, you know, they heard the record first, and they wanted to see the movie second. He just came in with little notes that he had, he didn't even have sheet music for that. And the only thing he'd tell me was like, 'Just swing,' you know? It was just swing.

Miles: I didn't write out the music for 'Kind of Blue,' but brought in sketches because I wanted a lot of spontaneity in the playing. I knew that, if you've got some great musicians, they will deal with the situation and play beyond what is there and above where they think they can.

Cobb: The first part of 'So What' If Miles thought that that was gonna be like that, he would have asked for the building, and he would've asked for two Ferraris outside right now.

If he thought anything like that was happening, he would have went off on 'em. Going with Columbia did mean more money, but what's wrong with getting paid for what you do and getting paid well? Mtume: When the new Miles album came out, man, you know, we would walk around with the album, man.

But I was playing the [bleep] out of my horn and had a great group, so I didn't get recognition based only on a rebel image. It was very different from anything that was projected on television or in movies at that time.

Man, it was something, people stopping and looking with their mouths hanging open. Miles and Frances on fire. But others would just walk in the ring and stand there and hold the cape, and the bull would charge,and the audience would just gasp their breath.

And if you was on his wrong side, that's probably where you stayed, [Chuckles] you know. At two marathon sessions, the quintet recorded enough material for several outstanding albums on the Prestige label.

Davis rang in his next important musical changes with the help of a mid-Sixties quintet that included Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, and bassist Ron Carter. Regular song structures and a regular rhythmic pulse were not abandoned altogether, but they were treated with an impressive plasticity. But with the help of such new recruits as guitarist John McLaughlin, Davis moved into hotter musical climates again with the albums Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson. With two and sometimes three electric guitarists blazing away, the Seventies albums Agharta , Pangaea, and Dark Magus bulldozed right past the jazz audience, connecting instead with the leading edge of punk and postpunk rock.

In , shortly after recording these albums in concert, Davis retired for five years. He was plagued by recurring health problems, including hip and leg injuries that kept him in almost constant pain. Davis continued to tour, keeping to a demanding performance schedule right through this past summer.

However, in early September he entered St. According to his doctor, Jeff Harris, Davis — who died at the hospital — suffered from pneumonia, respiratory failure, and a stroke. Any critical assessment would be premature; music that struck many listeners as overamplified and frantically chaotic in the early and mid-Seventies has a different spin now that punk, No Wave, industrial rock, and contemporary guitar bands like Sonic Youth have found their place in the musical spectrum.

For listeners who got their first taste of Miles from Eighties albums like We Want Miles , Tutu, or Siesta , these are important, even crucial, recordings. Davis probably enjoyed more recognition, more controversy, more women, more financial rewards, more respect from fellow musicians, and more sheer living than any jazz-rooted musician of the last half-century.

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