Essay on Miles Davis and the Evolution of Jazz - 1880 Words

Who was Miles Davis and why was he such an important element in the music of Jazz? Miles Davis, as we would know him, was born Miles Dewey Davis in Alton, Illinois on the 25th of May 1926 to a middle-class black family.. A couple of years later, Miles went on to St. Louis where he grew up. Since he was a youngster, Miles hobby was to collect records and play them over without getting tired of them. Since his family knew Miles was so interested in the music of his time, primarily Jazz, for his thirteenth birthday Miles received his first trumpet, although he had been playing since the age of nine. With this Miles began to practice and play his trumpet along with his records. Who would have known that just three years later, at the†¦show more content†¦Then by 1949 was when the real business started. Miles went solo. With the tremendous amount of experience he accumulated, the recordings he had made, the people he knew, and with the hook-ups Miles developed, he should not find any difficulty finding success in the evolution of Jazz. Before even hitting a year as a soloist, Miles Davis put out his first album as a soloist named Birth of the Cool. This was definitely something to be marked down on the timeline of Jazz. The album was accurately named, being responsible for the stardom of Cool Jazz, a movement that the very new to the Jazz movement, Miles Davis, invented within his first year of success. The Cool Jazz, which featured Gil Evans, first appeared in the latter days of 1949. A while after discovering Cool Jazz, Davis moved on to change his style into Hard Bop. During this period of his life, Miles suffered from heroine drug addiction and that was the cause for his irregular work schedule. It finally hit Miles that he must overcome his addiction if he wanted to continue to work as a musician. So Miles took all he had left and began a new life, drug-free. This was when his classic song Walkin was released. 1955 is known to be Miles breakthrough yea r. The indication of his rising again in music was clearly stated at his performance in the Newport Jazz Festival. Davis continued to record and release and popularize himself in the next couple of years and this isShow MoreRelatedEssay about Miles Davis1689 Words   |  7 PagesElectric 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. 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The amount of skill Davis must have had to keep on creating new, original, different music is far beyond many people. Davis is one of the main contributing factors to change jazz. He, alone, has made his own style, the â€Å"Cool Jazz† genre (Karl ScarboroughRead MoreThe Incorporation of the Word Cool in the English Language664 Words   |  3 Pagespeople will never laugh at someone for using it. Getting at the nature of cool is further complicated by the fact that it has become fashionable in recent years to boast about not being cool. Perhaps the word is being pushed into its next stage of evolution by the freaks and the nerds whose childhood unpopularity is a badge of honor and whose brave new world of geekery is vindication. Coolness is an admired aesthetic of attitude, behavior, comportment, appearance, and style that is influenced by andRead MoreCharles Mingus Essay644 Words   |  3 PagesEddie K. 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