Miles Davis was a pioneer in the world of jazz, and throughout his career spanning over three decades, he shaped the industry, introducing and inventing new styles, merging genres, and leading bands. Not only was Davis an incredible player, but he also showed his strength in improvising and directing ensembles. With several prestigious awards and tremendous commercial success both inside and outside the jazz community, Davis is still regarded as one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.
On 26 May 1926, Miles Dewey Davis was born in Alton, Illinois to parents Miles Davis Jr., a respected dental surgeon, and Cleota Davis, a music teacher. Along with his parents, Miles grew up with an older sister and a younger brother in a predominantly
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Louis, Missouri where he began to discover an interest in music. At the age of thirteen, Davis’ father introduced to the trumpet and quickly showed success and ability on the instrument due in part to his lesson teacher, Elwood Buchanan who was in charge of a local music school. His hometown was filled with blues and the music scene was thriving. While in high school, Miles met Clark Terry, one of his first musical idols, and was able to play professionally, getting gigs in bars in town. By the time he was sixteen, he was travelling out of town on weekends, and at seventeen, he had been asked to play with a St. Louis based band called Eddie Randle’s Blue Devils where he gained more musical experience. After graduation, he had two children by a female friend of his, Cheryl Davis being born in 1944 and Gregory Davis in 1946. Around this time, Miles began subbing for …show more content…
Several albums, including Star People, You’re Under Arrest, and Decoy appeared on the pop charts and another album, We Want Miles, won a Grammy in 1982 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance by a Soloist. These changes also influenced his style, as in 1986, Davis released Tutu, an album with features from a synthesizer and a drum machine. This album was well received by the public and earned him another Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. From this phase also came Aura, which was recorded in 1985 though it wasn’t released until 1989. This was Davis’ fifth album to win a
Duke Ellington, named Edward Kennedy Ellington at birth, was born on April 29, 1899, in Washington D.C. to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Kennedy Ellington. Both of Ellington’s parents were talented, musical individuals. Edward Kennedy was later nicknamed Duke by his childhood friend, Edgar McEntire and this name has stuck with him throughout his life and career. Duke Ellington was one of Jazz and Big Band’s most influential icons. He was known for famous recordings such as “Sophisticated Lady”, "Take the A Train," "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got that Swing," and "Satin Doll," Duke Ellington started taking piano lessons at age seven and became more serious about his piano lessons after hearing a pianist who worked at Frank Holiday’s poolroom. He was fourteen and had started sneaking into the poolroom. After listening to the poolroom’s pianist, something was ignited within and he fell in love with the piano. Ellington was known for his ability to choose members for his band who possessed very unusual talents while playing their instruments. These talents included Bubber Miley, who used a plunger to make the "wa-wa" sound, and Joe Nanton, who was known for his trombone "growl." It was for this quality to find such unusual players and his ingenious ability to compose beautiful music that lead to Ellington’s huge success. Duke Ellington composed over 1,000 compositions right up until the day he died, May 24, 1974. Although Ellington was known as a huge figure in Jazz, his music spanned beyond the Jazz genre; it stretched into blues, gospel, popular, classical and film scores. Through his efforts and achievements, he has made Jazz more accepted as an art form and genre. Ellington had received 12 Grammy awards from 1959 to 2000...
Developed in the early 1940's, Bop had established itself as vogue by 1945. It's main innovators were alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. In this stage in jazz, improvisation differed immensely. Bebop soloists engaged in harmonic improvisation, often avoiding the melody altogether after the first chorus. Usually under seven pieces, the soloist was free to explore improvised possibilities as long as they fit into the chord structure. Popular and influential jazz artists include: Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, & Cannonball Adderley. Armstrong is most known for his involvement in hot jazz as a trumpeter, but is especially renowned for his improvisation capabilities. Louis Armstrong, born August 4, 1901 right in the beginning stages of the jazz movement, was originally from New Orleans. Armstrong was a bandleader, soloist, comedian/actor, and vocalist. Another famous, Miles Davis, is what some consider to be the best trumpeter of the era. Davis was born on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. One unique thing about Davis was that he was taught to play without vibrato, which was incredibly contrary to the popular way of
As he was in highschool, him and his brother, Gap, started to play professionally. Since Chuck preferred smaller jazz groups to large “big bands” he and his brother started a quintet in 1958 called the Jazz Brothers during his senior year. The band lasted until 1964 and included Sal Nistico and Roy McCurdy and later on, Jimmy Garrison, Steve Davis, and Ron Carter. The group recorded three albums in the Riverside Label: The Jazz Brothers, Hey Baby!, and Spring Fever. Later on, in 1962, Chuck made an album of his own, called Recuerdo. His biggest break was in 1970 when his recording at the Eastman theatre with the philharmonic was turned into an album.
So, bop can be seen as a reaction to the eventual sterilization and ubiquity of swing music. The first bop records were made by in 1944 by Coleman Hawkins experimenting with his swing band. Several individuals were instrumental in the propagation of this new form, such as Charlie "Bird" Parker (alto sax), Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Thelonious Monk (piano), Bud Powell (piano), Miles Davis (trumpet), and Charles Mingus (bass). The standard ensemble became a quintet, consisting of piano, bass, drums, reed instrument...
The early 1950’s were another turning point in Coltrane’s life. He became addicted to heroin and it started in interrupt his career. In his last year with Dizzy Gillespie’s Band, in 1951, he made his first solo performance. The performance was to the song “We like to Boogie” with Gillespie. Later in 1954 he joined Johnny Hodges. He only played with Hodges for awhile before he was fired for his addiction to heroin. Miles Davis hire...
Recognized as one of the greatest all time jazz figures Duke Ellington, whose career reached over a span of fifty years was mostly known for composing thousands of influential songs. As well as constituting into jazz an ensemble of western sounds which was referred to as “American Music”. This iconic figure has left a mark in the world of jazz for centuries to come.
The cool jazz style arose after WW2. This new style of jazz was created by the great Miles Davis he is credit for this because of his Birth of Cool recording but in fact Lester Young is the face of cool Jazz. In spite of the fact that there were many other artists who made the cool jazz sound, a standout amongst the most compelling was Lester Young. This was a young saxophone player who had a more casual style than huge numbers compared to his peers, with an attention on smooth playing and an inclination to fall simply behind the beat as opposed to pushing it ahead. He was additionally more centered around investigating and creating tune, while bebop artists were more inspired by investigating and surprising rhythms. Another big standout amongst the most well-known figures in the early cool jazz development was trumpeter Miles Davis. Davis set the cool jazz kind via looking for a lighter, expressive, and more casual sound. He did a progression of recordings in 1949 and 1950 to explore different avenues regarding this sound, and these recordings, later
Born in Alton, Illinois, Miles Davis grew up in a middle-class family in East St. Louis. Miles Davis took up the trumpet at the age of 13 and was playing professionally two years later. Some of his first gigs included performances with his high school bandand playing with Eddie Randall and the blue Devils. Miles Davis has said that the greatest musical experience of his life was hearing the Billy Eckstine orchestra when it passed through St. Louis. In September 1944 Davis went to New York to study at Juilliard but spend much more time hanging out on 52nd Street and eventually dropped out of school. He moved from his home in East St. Louis to New York primarily to enter school but also to locate his musical idol, Charlie Parker. He played with Parker live and in recordings from the period of 1945 to 1948. Davis began leading his own group in 1948 as well as working with arranger Gil Evans. Davis’ career was briefly interrupted by a heroin addiction, although he continued to record with other popular bop musicians.
This generation is severely lacking cultural diversity. The United States school system feeds its students “American History,” but some believe it has only educated them on a few main points in history, and most of them have been from the view point of Euro-Centric America, and not the Melting Pot America is. There is so much to American history that even Americans are not aware of, however this generation is so consumed with celebrities, technological advancements, and up-to-date fashion. There is so much technology and access to the past, and yet most people do not take advantage of it. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to open those of this generation up to a culture rarely discussed unless in a detailed study specifically catered to it.
Jazz music prospered in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Jazz was created by African Americans to represent pain and suffering and also represented the adversity that racial tension brought. (Scholastic) African American performers like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie “Bird” Parker came to be recognized for their ability to overcome “race relati...
Looking for a new sound, he started to work with the arranger Gil Evans, and this cooperation gave birth to a new wave of “cool jazz”. Later, this genre called West Coast cool jazz brought many other new sub-genres. During the same year, Miles formed his own band with a nine members in it where he combined in addition to himself a trombone, a baritone saxophone, an alto saxophone a tuba, and a French horn. At that time, the band included such musicians as John Lewis, Kenny Clarke, Kai Winding, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz and J. J. Johnson. All of them have brought into music relaxing notes.
The rapid development of jazz in both the United States and Europe generated a number of diverse musical expressions, including musics that most listeners today would not recognize as “jazz” music. In order to remedy this situation, jazz musicians and critics after 1930 began to codify what “real” jazz encompassed, and more importantly, what “real” jazz did not encompass. This construction of authenticity, often demarcated along racial lines, served to relegate several artists and styles (those outside a “mainstream” to the margins of historiography.
A single artist can have a very strong impact on a whole genre of Music. We have seen this time and time again through artists such as Charlie Parker, David Brubeck, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, and various others. All of these artists had tremendous influences on the different eras that evolved throughout the history of Jazz. Bill Evans, and American jazz pianist, was no different. Just as Charlie Parker had started the evolution of Bebop and influenced the subsequent generations of Jazz Artists, Bill Evans has influenced Modern Jazz and the generations of artists that followed him. Throughout his career and his works with various other artists, Bill Evans has cemented himself as one of the great influences on modern day Jazz.
Through his contribution to early Jazz, he had a direct hand in developing the new field of academic jazz scholarship, although it had been extensively debated on his contribution. None the less, his talent formed a popularity that was surpassed by none, even to the point that once in his career; he was more popular than the Beatles. Undoubtedly, he was the first, if not the only to present Jazz to the public as a form of art. This changed the direction of Jazz to not just leisure listening music, but a teachable and complicated
The music of jazz became an important aspect of American culture in the early 20th century. The crisp syncopation of ragtime and the smooth tunes of the blues seeped into American mainstream music through dance halls and saloons and later through ballrooms. Instruments like the piano, trumpet, trombone and clarinet became important and symbolized the “swing-feel” of jazz because of their capability to syncopate and improvise precisely. With the help of the booming recording industry, musical geniuses were discovered and their talent and contributions to the emergence of jazz spread throughout the entire country. Such musicians include composer, arranger and pianist Jelly Roll Morton who heavily influenced the development of early jazz by his unique piano style, his “invention” of musical notation for jazz, and his compositions that have become the core in the jazz repertory. Because the style was new and different and so successful in drawing in large audiences, musicians around the world tried to mimic it. Furthermore, Morton’s masterpieces were the first to show notation for complicated jazz music and thus, formed the basis for standard notation in jazz compositions today.