Born: May 26th, 1926
Died: September 28th, 1991
Nationality: American
Style/Genre: Jazz
Being a virtuoso Trumpet player, Miles Davis is strongly considered one of, if not, the top musician of his era winning nine grammy awards and leading the changing concept of jazz. At the age of 18, he went to New York to pursue his life in music. He met musicians in New York at the Juilliard school who he played with to form a bebop – a fast, dissonant, improvised form of jazz.
With his father’s permission, Miles Davis dropped out of Juilliard school to move to a full time professional musician. This led him to record many pieces of Jazz music such as the album in 1949 The Birth Of Cool.
Unfortunately, in the early 1950s, Miles Davis became addicted to heroin. This did affect his playing. He was able to overcome his addiction in 1954 and went on to record several albums with, what can be considered, the most successful jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue, which sold over 2 million copies.
In the early 1970s, Miles Davis moved to a different image appearing on the front cover of the Rolling Stone’s magazine. This made him the most recognised jazz musician of his time. His fans did not welcome this change. However, it showed how Davis was always looking to push the boundaries of music and genre.
Davis became addicted to drugs again in 1975 with it being alcohol and cocaine this time making him to take a five year break from music. In 1986, Davis reinvented himself with his release of Tutu. This was followed by the release of Aura, which one another grammy award for it.
In 1990, Davis received a lifetime achievement grammy for his work in Jazz music. 1991 saw him perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival with Quincy Jones which saw him play some of his works that he had not played for 20 years.
At the age of 65 in 1991, Miles Davis died of pneumonia and respiratory failure. With the news of his death, he fittingly received his final grammy for his recording with Quincy Jones, awarded in 1993 to emphasise the long lasting legacy Miles Davis has left the world in the genre of jazz music.
