Miles Davis Essays

  • Miles Davis: The Creative Task: Miles Davis

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Creative Task Miles Davis went through a phase where he was no longer emotionally connected to, neither his audience nor his music. Since he was so efficient in his apprenticeship and journeyman phases, the music he would create on stage was still that of a master. The problem was, this loss of emotional connectivity cause his audiences to not like how he presented his masterly work. He would perform on stage with his back to the audience and even sometimes just stare at the audience, not caring

  • Miles Davis: The Various Musical Styles Of Miles Davis

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    November 11, 2017 The Various Musical Styles of Miles Davis Miles Davis was one of the most virtuous jazz musicians ever. He was extremely innovative and always challenged himself and his band mates. This paper will focus on the many characteristics and styles of Miles’ music. These styles include: bebop, hard bop, modal jazz, his collaborations with Gil Evans, his jazz fusion period, and many more. Bebop Era: 1945-1949 In the early 1940’s, Miles began playing in Billy Eckstein’s band. He remained

  • Miles Davis: Jazz

    1941 Words  | 4 Pages

    Miles Davis The process of establishing Miles Davis in the field of the jazz music has many different aspects. The story of his professional development is very interesting and unstable as it has its breakthroughs and setbacks, and indeed, all turning points in his life has made a significant impact on the evolution of the jazz music sound. In this essay, I am going to discuss how Miles Davis affected every stream of jazz and how jazz affected him during his all life. Miles Davis started his

  • An Analysis Of Miles Davis

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    elements that goes along with it. Davis was more than just an extraordinary performer; he was also a dynamic composer, as being one who created compositions. Compositions typically include melody, harmonic structure, rhythm, and texture. Davis used all of these elements within his later compositions that had a lasting impact on generations to come. During the Bebop era, Davis gained much experience in arranging music, so he was not new to arranging for other bands. When Davis just started performing in

  • Miles Davis Essay

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    Andrew Stimson Jazz Styles Dr. Pfenninger May 5th, 2014 Miles Davis: Kind of Blue Kind of Blue is a phenomenal album recorded by the Jazz artist Miles Davis in 1959. This album was instrumental in introduced the modal style of Jazz that Miles helped to pioneer. The songs and sounds that come from this album are some of his best works, and they can be compared to some of the greatest recordings by other Jazz greats. The lineup of musicians features some of the best Jazz musicians on their respective

  • Essay On Miles Davis

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    into Miles Davis Miles Davis was born May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. He was raised in an upper-middle-class family, with his father, Miles Dewey Davis Jr., being a dentist, and his mother, Cleota Mae Davis a music teacher. He spent his childhood in St. Louis and was interested in music by age 12, when he started to take trumpet lessons. At 16, he took up opportunities to play music locally and a year later, Davis joined Eddie Randle’s group known as “The Blue Devils” (Macnie; “Miles Davis” Sony;

  • Miles Davis

    1688 Words  | 4 Pages

    Electric Miles Davis 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

  • Jazz Culture and Miles Davis

    938 Words  | 2 Pages

    without equal in jazz history (Merod 67).” He spoke to Davis’ genius in how he leads. He is able to orchestrate elements of his projects to get them to have the feel he is looking for. He noted that “Most of “Kind of Blue” is the product of first takes (Merod 67),” which was due to the fact booking studio time cost money so it was usually a get it right the first time deal. Works Cited Ganter, G. (2009). It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off Record. Popular Music & Society, 32(3), 433-435

  • Miles Davis Footprints Essay

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    popularized by the Miles Davis Quintet. Originally composed by Wayne Shorter and released on an album of his own in 1966, the composition was quickly arranged by Miles Davis for his own group in the same year. Though still featuring Shorter on tenor sax and Herbie Hancock on piano, Miles’ quintet of two years brings a new light to the song, featuring a faster tempo with the switch to Ron Carter on bass, Tony Williams on drums, and the addition of a trumpet part played by Miles himself. The performance

  • How Did Miles Davis Develop

    1625 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ee Suk Ahn Instructor Matt Carr Music 131B 22 November 2017 Evolution of Jazz Music By Miles Davis In the development of jazz, Miles Dewey Davis III is considered one of the most influential and commended figures from his era. As an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer, he was renowned as a master of musical self-restraint, just like Count Basie and Lester Young, and also as a musical genius who effectively evolved jazz through the many stylistic changes he made during his career. In

  • What Was The Impact Of Miles Davis

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    impossible to think about the influence of jazz without thinking of Miles Davis. He was a game changer and innovator who altered the direction of jazz and transformed the musical landscape more than once. Miles Davis changed the course of jazz in result of his experience with oppression and prejudice. He represented a model for future musicians, and granted listeners a glance into the world of an oppressed American through his music. Miles Davis was a key player in the evolution of modern jazz. In the 1940’s

  • A Comparison Of Miles Davis And John Coltrane

    658 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kaley Kenyon Music 362 Research Paper 2 5/3/14 Miles Davis and John Coltrane Miles Davis and John Coltrane are huge in the jazz world. They both have impacted jazz in many ways and are very well-known. Some may even say that they are the greatest jazz musicians that ever lived. They both have won Davis was born Illinois in 1926. He then grew up in East St. Louis where his trumpet career began. His first trumpet was given to him at age 13 and was privately taught by his father’s friend Elwood Buchanan

  • Miles Davis: Modern Improvisational Music

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    In doing so, Miles became the standard bearer for successive generations of musicians, shaped the course of modern improvisational music more than a half-dozen times. This biography attempts to explain those paradigm-shifts one after another, through his recordings and major life changes. The factors leading to that process are now the foundation of the Miles Davis legend: the dentist’s son born in 1926 to middle-class comfort in East St Louis. The fresh acolyte learning trumpet in the fertile, blues-drenched

  • How Did Miles Davis Contribute To Jazz

    1555 Words  | 4 Pages

    paper is about Miles Davis’ personal life and his contributions to jazz. Miles Davis played a major role in the expansion in jazz with his music that he had produced. Davis helped produce and expand the different genres of jazz as well as train young talented musicians into successful artists in the field of jazz today. Davis not only shaped jazz into different forms and styles, but he also introduced jazz music to music listeners who were not a fan of jazz. From an early childhood, Davis was already

  • Drugs And Miles Davis

    1410 Words  | 3 Pages

    jazz, was Miles Davis. Miles came from a well off middle class family. His dad was a successful dentist, so money was never an issue. Miles' father encouraged the arts, while his mother discouraged it because the chances of making a good living are slim to none. However, Miles ended up going to Juliard for trumpet and his career began when he started playing with other musicians in New York, rather than focusing on school. It was when Miles was playing in Billy Eckstine's band that Davis had his first

  • Critical Analysis Of Miles Davis: Kind Of Blue Label

    1844 Words  | 4 Pages

    Analysis of Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” Album For my final project of this course, I have chosen the “Kind of Blue” album by Miles Davis. This album was released in 1959, and is considered to be the best-selling jazz record of all time (NPR.org, 2017). When I was in high school as a junior, I took the jazz band class that was offered at that time. One of the most talked about musician in that class was Miles Davis. Miles was a major influence in the world of jazz; he was a brilliant composer and

  • Miles Davis: One of the Greatest Jazz Musicians of All Time

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    It would be an understatement to say that Miles Dewey Davis III was one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time. Widely considered one of the most revolutionary and influential figures in the history of music of the twentieth century, Miles Davis has played an integral role in shaping the sounds of jazz, one of the few uniquely and entirely American genres. Needless to say, the brilliant artistry that coolly flowed from his trumpet speaks for itself and clearly shows what a phenomenally inventive

  • Analysis Of Miles Davis And Jorge Luis Borges's The Garden Of Forking Paths

    1605 Words  | 4 Pages

    contemporaries? Miles Davis and Jorge Luis Borges have contemplated and answered this question frequently. Rather than add on to a previous style, these two took the future of their genres into their own hands. In Davis’s “Kind of Blue” as well as Borges’s “The Garden of Forking Paths,” old ideas are completely abandoned and new, inventive styles flourish. Not only do these two play with the content of their work, but they also explore different styles and means of composition. Both Davis and Borges experiment

  • Miles Davis And The Development Of Improvisation In Jazz Music

    4018 Words  | 9 Pages

    Abstract This essay is a discussion of how the way jazz trumpeter Miles Davis changes his way of improvising, looking at two pieces from different times. The solos in the pieces were transcribed by myself and then analysed in detail. From these analyses, several conclusions on the style of improvising were drawn, and then the conclusions from the two pieces were compared. The piece ‘New Rhumba’, showed how Davis was using his technical ability to create an impressive solo, but was also leaning towards

  • The Problem with Jazz Analysis Discussed in Robert Walser's Article "Out of Notes: Signification, Interpretation, and the Problem of Miles Davis"

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    Missed notes, unfamiliar formal structures, and technical intricacies have plagued musicologist’s understanding of Miles Davis’s performances and why he is considered “someone who is indisputably one of the most important musicians in the history of jazz.” However, as Robert Walser discusses in his article, “Out of Notes: Signification, Interpretation, and the Problem of Miles Davis,” part of the problem is the approach taken by musicology for analyzing jazz music itself, attempting classicism of