We celebrate the centenary of the birth of Miles Davis, unquestionably the most important figure in the history of Jazz music.
Miles started playing with Charlie Parker in 1944, and he enjoyed a 50+ year career as a leader from the Birth Of The Cool sessions in 1949 until his death aged 65 in 1991.
The key to his longevity was constantly embracing change, having started in the be-bop era, being at the forefront of Hard Bop in the 50’s then cool Jazz, with the modal jazz ‘Kind Of Blue’ in 1959, recording amazing albums with two quartets for a decade then experimenting merging Jazz with Funk, Rock and electronics in the Bitches Brew era in 1970 then embracing world music and pop in the 1980s and Hip hop in the 90s.
The ‘Prince Of Darkness’ was a notoriously hard task master , sacking numerous band members most famously John Coltrane. He was a great facilitator helping emerging musicians find their space and sound, his bands included many of the best jazz musicians that have ever played including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Lonnie Liston Smith , Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Cannonball Adderley, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, John McLaughlin, Airto, Michael Henderson, Keith Jarrett, Marcus Miller and Kenny Garrett to name a few.
He had a difficult personality, scarred by the society he grew up in, drug abuse, mistrust of the music industry, married and divorced three times. When I saw him play at Hammersmith Odeon in 1990 he played the whole show with his back to the audience.
He hated the term Jazz but his genius almost defines it. ‘Kind Of Blue’ is by far the biggest selling Jazz album of all time, and I always recommend it to anybody wanting to get into Jazz, whilst it is 67 years old, it still sounds fresh , the playing is exquisite but totally accessible, which is the key to why it has been so successful, and is still the go to Jazz album for anybody starting out a collection.
Miles music has touched and influenced so many millions of people , he should be regarded as one of the giants of music of any genre up there with the classical composers,
Marvin, Bob Marley, Curtis, Beatles, Dylan , Hendrix and Stones, happy 100 Miles, your musical legacy will live on for many more centuries.
Recommended Miles albums:
Kind Of blue
Sketches of Spain
In a silent way
Bitches Brew
