Davis, Miles 185Jazz music and performance styles had been established
by such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong, Charlie Shavers,
Roy Eldridge, and Rex Stewart. However, Davis’s alterative
style included playing within a narrower range, including a
more lyric style and fast tempo, light with no vibrato. Infl u-
ence for this style of performance came from his teacher—
and Davenport, Iowa, jazz great—Leon (Bix) Biederbecke.
Many of Miles’s early performances and recordings emulate
a new style that would serve as a transition for future jazz
eras and trends.
In late 1948, Miles formed his own band. Th rough col-
laboration with Gil Evans, he participated in an experimen-
tal workshop that produced a series of selections that were
collected and reissued as Birth of the Cool. A number of
outstanding musicians, arrangers, and writers participated
in bringing the album to fruition. A few of these individu-
als included Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, Maxwell (Max)
Roach, Johnny Carisi, Lee Konitz, and Kai Winding. Da-
vis’s recordings exposed the public to new styles and trends
that would infl uence younger jazz performers who were
not vested in the traditional big band sound. Miles closed
out the 1940s with a performance on Christmas night at
Carnegie Hall as a performer in the Stars of Modern Jazz
concert. Th e Voice of America radio network broadcasted
this performance a year later (1950).
Th e 1950s started with the third of fi ve eras in Miles’s
career, with the fusion of cool jazz and hard bop. During this
period, he introduced the Harmon mute as a performance
accessory. In 1956, he recorded two bold albums, Bye Bye
Blackbird and ’Round About Midnight. Th e Harmon mute is
used on a regular basis in both recordings. His performance
style characteristics also expanded to include drones, half-
tone oscillations, tonic-dominant alterations in the bass
line, diatonic ostinatos, and a fl amenco-like scale. His rec-
ords titled “So What” and “Flamenco Sketches” exhibit the
Flamenco style scale. Other recordings such as Miles Ahead
1957) were prepared in a big band format. He also pro-
duced the orchestral albums Porgy and Bess and Sketches of
Spain. Both albums were infl uenced by composer Joaquin
Rodrigo and became classics.
By 1957, Miles had assembled another group of out-
standing musicians to perform with his group. Lead per-
formers included Bill Evans, Jimmy Cobb, John Coltrane,
and Cannonball Adderly. Th is ensemble produced two
landmark recordings titled Milestones and Kind of Blue
(1959). Kind of Blue received rave reviews from jazz criticsSchuler, Monica. “Akan Slave Rebellions in the British Caribbean.”
Savacou 1 (1970):15–23.
Th ornton, John. “Th e Coromantees: An African Cultural Group
in Colonial North America and the Caribbean.” Journal of
Caribbean History 32 (1998):161–78.
Th ornton, John. “War, State, and Religious Norms in ‘Coroman-
tee’ Th ought: Th e Ideology of an African American Nation.”
In Possible Pasts: Becoming Colonial in America, ed. Robert
Blair St. George, 181–200. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press, 2000.
Davis, Miles
Miles Dewey Davis Jr. (1926–1991) was an infl uential mu-
sician who transformed the genre of jazz. Many jazz art-
ists, ethnomusicologists, and social scientists view Miles
Davis’s professional career as one of constant transition.
His career is highlighted by distinct periods of style that
included bebop (1945–1948), cool jazz (1948–1958), hard
bob (1952–1963), modal jazz (1959–1968), and electron-
ics (1969–1991). Th ese distinct eras in his career were
quite signifi cant within the fi eld of jazz because of Davis’s
continuous eff ort to evolve as a musician. He introduced
cool jazz, modal jazz, fusion jazz, pop, hip-hop, and rock
into a musical genre (big band jazz) that held itself as
conservative.
Miles Davis’s contributions to the fi eld of jazz were
not anticipated at the start of his career in the late 1930s.
He began performing at age 13 in East St. Louis, Illinois.
Miles showed great promise as a jazz trumpeter and was
given his fi rst professional opportunity performing with
the Blue Devils. A year later (1941), at age 15, he per-
formed with Adam Lambert’s Six Brown Cats. From 1941
to 1943, he performed in the St. Louis area with the Eddie
Randall Band.
In 1945, Miles Davis enrolled at the Julliard School
of Music in New York. His tenure at the school was short-
lived; he decided to leave aft er one semester. Miles had been
drawn to the jazz scene in New York and especially to the
clubs on 52nd Street. He performed at these clubs with such
future jazz greats as Charlie Parker, Tadd Dameron, Cole-
man Hawkins, and Bennett (Benny) Carter. For a period of
fi ve months, he played with the renowned William (Billy)
Eckstine Band. His fi rst recording session was in 1945 on
the Savoy label with Herbie Fields’s band, which featured
“Rubberlegs” Williams.