Miles' music continues to grow in its beauty, subtlety and sheer magnificence.these chaps have discovered a new way to cook." as stated by Rolling Stone (5/28/70, p.50). This quote says it all. Trumpeter Miles Davis was a great artist who was creating a New World for jazz music. He made a career out of shifting gears and encouraging his fans to not get too comfortable in their listening habits. Miles Davis once said that music was "a curse" for him because he thought of nothing else while he was awake. Music was his life. .
Miles Davis was born in Alton, Illinois and grew up in East St. Louis. When his father gave him his first trumpet at the age of 11, all he wanted to do was learn to play it better. He was inspired to become a musician in the 1940's and received first hand education from Charlie Parker. Miles Davis's career was almost 50 years long. He died in 1991, and had been part of many different jazz revolutions. When he started it was the middle of the Be Bop revolution. Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Max roach were a great part of this revolution. He recorded one of the most popular jazz albums in the 50's, titled "Kind of Blue." In the 60's he listened to Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams and played a new intense jazz. From this he started looking towards electronic music. These new songs were usually longer and did not have the melodies and choruses that most listeners were used to. Then in 1975 he retired from music after exploring a lot of aspects of electric jazz. He only stayed retired for a short 5 years though. In 1980 Miles came back into music exploring contemporary music. He did covers for songs by Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson and Scritti Politti. When he died in 1991 he was just starting to experiment with hip-hop music. .
In the late 1960's and early 1970's Davis ushered in the age of fusion with a steamy electric concoction of bubbling funk, explosive rock and abrasive jazz.