Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles not only found himself involved in most of the jazz genres from the 1940s-1980's, he was the reason for their development.
Miles began his musical career in the infamous NYC school, Julliard, but after realizing that the real music of his liking wasn't in schools, he dropped out. His real education was in the apprenticeship of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gilespie and Max Roach at the legendary after-hours Jazz club, Minton's. This is where Miles perfected his sound in the form of 'Be-bop.' Being an experimentalist, He did not stick with be-bop very long. His musical progression led him to form one of the greatest jazz bands ever to take a stage, the Miles Davis Quintet. With the legendary John Coltrane, Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers, and pianist Red Garland he planted the form of 'hard bop' firmly on the jazz ground.
However, his progression was really just getting started at this point. Along with other jazz 'giants' like Cecil Taylor and Eric Dolphy, he spent mush time dabbling in the realm of avant-garde, and it was the establishment of this genre that led him to explore what I consider his most important era of progression-jazz-rock fusion.
With the fusion of jazz and rock, Miles once again put together another one of the greatest jazz groups ever. While stretching to the ends of this genre, he composed an album that forever changed music. That album is 'Bitches Brew,' which also featured
Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, Steve Grossman, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Harvey Brooks
Lenny White, Jack DeJohnette, Billy Cobham, Airto Moreira, Don Alias, Jumma Santos and Khalil Balakrishna.
Not only did this album have an immeasurable influence on the world of rock and roll, but also the genre of funk. Many of the musicians that assisted in making this album went on to create some of the best funk bands to ever record in the U.S. And were not talking about the Parliament funk style, but real funky music. Groups like Weather report, Circle, Return to Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra were just some of the great funk and fusion bands to come out of the initial Bitches Brew ensemble.
Miles next biggest experimental style attempt to fuse jazz and hip hop. The collaboration of Miles and producer Cool Mo Bee resulted in the album 'Doo-Bop.' Unfortunately, Miles did not live long after its release.
Rather than elaborating on his entire career, which I would most certainly do him an injustice, I am going to point you in the directions of a most engaging and entertaining book, his Biography Miles, written by Quincy Troupe.
This book not only tracks Miles through all of his adventures, but is here to disprove everyone and anyone who thinks jazz is for the sophisticated softies. Almost every other word in this book is 'Mother-f@%ker, and that is because everyone is one in the eyes of Miles. If you want to read a story of one of the most influential jazz musicians ever that leaves out nothing than this is for you. You'll find out that Miles often sold his trumpet to local pawn shop's in the morning so that he could score some heroin, and then rob someone so he could buy it back and play his scheduled gig. You'll see Miles go in and out of jail, rehab and stardom.
This book not only reveals all of the dirt of Miles, but also all of the dirt of the musicians he associated with. You'll read about his friends beating up on their wives, and beating up on each other; doing drugs together and over dosing on their own. This book is anything but soft, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in learning about the coolest cat in the world.
While Bitches Brew was one of the most influential jazz albums ever, most people have never heard of it.
Here is a sample track from this album, and I also highly recommend picking up a copy of this album. It can be purchased at your local record shop, Amazon and iTunes.
This song attached is "Junkies Chase (instrumental)." I chose this song
because it is just under two minutes and all of the other songs on the album
are approximately sixteen minutes and the title track is just under thirty
minutes. LISTEN TO SONG
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