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 1926 - 1991
 Jazz trumpeter. Born May 25, 1926, in Alton, Illinois. From 1949 to 1969, Davis emerged at the forefront of jazz music; developing or advancing several significant musical styles, including cool jazz, hard bop, orchestral jazz, modal improvisation, and rock-jazz fusion. His intensely personal sensibilities, cool demeanor, and sartorial elegance only enhanced the impact of the huge, tremendously influential body of work he produced.
Raised near St. Louis, Missouri, in a prosperous African-American family, Davis learned to play the trumpet by the age of 10 and soon began playing with local jazz groups. After a brief stint at the Juilliard School of Music in 1944, he dropped out and became part of the growing New York City jazz scene. After meeting his idol, the saxophonist Charlie Parker, Davis played in Parker's trailblazing bebop quintet for several years in the late 1940s. In 1948, he formed his own nine-piece band, which pioneered a new kind of "cool jazz" centered in the West Coast music scene. After recording the seminal 1949 album Birth of the Cool, Davis left the band, which continued without him.
During the early 1950s, Davis struggled with an addiction to heroin and released a string of uneven albums recorded in the innovative style of "hard bop." In 1955, he kicked his drug habit and began a comeback that was marked by an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. In the mid-1950s, he formed a quintet with tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, among others, releasing several albums before the group broke up several years later. With frequent collaborator Gil Evans -- a pianist and arranger with whom Davis worked on Birth of the Cool -- he recorded several innovative orchestral albums, on which Davis experimented with trumpet and flügelhorn. In 1958, Davis was reunited with Coltrane in a sextet, also including bassist Paul Chambers, pianist Bill Evans, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderly, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. With this classic backing band, Davis recorded Milestones (1958), the improvisational Kind of Blue (1959), and Sketches of Spain (1960), among other albums.
By 1964, the group had dissolved, and Davis formed a new quintet, featuring pianist Herbie Hancock. The membership of the group often changed, as did its musical output, which ranged from traditional jazz to avant-garde rhythms to a rock-infused jazz best exemplified by 1969's Bitches Brew. Davis' work in the early 1970s consisted of a number of jazz-rock albums which met with a poor reception among music critics and jazz traditionalists.
In 1975, Davis abruptly announced his retirement, which was reportedly due to his poor health after years of drug and alcohol abuse. Nevertheless, he returned in 1981 with a new band and released a series of critically panned but popular electrified funk arrangements of jazz. After emerging from retirement, Davis toured and recorded intermittently throughout the 1980s. In 1989, he published an acclaimed autobiography, Miles, written with the poet Quincy Troupe. Davis died on September 29, 1991, in Santa Monica, California, after suffering pneumonia and a stroke. He had been married and divorced three times: to Frances Taylor, a dancer; Betty Mabry, a singer; and Cicely Tyson, an actress. He had three sons, Gregory, Miles IV, and Erin, and one daughter, Cheryl.
His music continues to live on, in a tremendous volume of both live and studio recordings that continue to garner acclaim. Most notably, a box set entitled Miles Davis: The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions won a Grammy Award in February 2000 for Best Recording Package.
© 2001 Gale Group. All rights reserved.
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