| Miles Davis was an American jazz composer, trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist and was one of the most influential, innovative and original musicians of the twentieth century.
In terms of importance to the history of jazz, few knowledgeable critics would balk at describing him as an innovative genius with an unmistakeable style and an unmatched musical range. Stylistically, his vast catalogue encompasses bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz and jazz-rock fusion, and he was a pivotal figure in the evolution of the latter three. His recordings, along with the live performances of his many seminal bands, were vital in jazz's increased artistic acceptance. A popularizer as well as an innovator, he became famous for both his languid, melodic style and his laconic and at times confrontational personality, and as an increasingly well-paid and fashionably dressed jazz musician, Miles Davis was a symbol of both the music's commercial as well as its artistic potential.
Miles Davis is the latest, and perhaps the last, in the line of supremely innovative and influential jazz trumpeters that starts with Buddy Bolden and runs on through Joe 'King' Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie. Miles Davis has been compared to Duke Ellington as a musical innovator. Both were skillful players on their instruments, but not virtuosos. Both expressed their musical ideas more as bandleaders, although Miles Davis soloed much more than Ellington. Both tailored their compositions to the players in their bands. |
