Davis, Miles (1926–1991), jazz trumpeter and bandleader. Miles Davis's musical legacy is a haunting muted tone on ballads, the selection of complementary sidemen, and a visionary genius that placed him at the forefront of jazz's epochal stages including bop, cool, hard bop, third stream, and fusion. His accomplishments include the groundbreaking nonet sessions known as the Birth of the Cool (1949); the modal Kind of Blue (1959); the collaborations with arranger Gil Evans in Porgy and Bess (1958) and Sketches of Spain (1960); and the use of electronic instrumentation and improvisation on the best-selling Bitches Brew (1969). Davis also scored the Louis Malle film Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud (1957).
Davis's arresting trumpet style, lyrical and elliptical, and his complicated public persona made him a living legend. His good looks and sartorial elegance, his taste for Ferraris and beautiful women, his boxing avocation, and his abhorrence of nostalgia and sentimentality projected a quintessentially hip image. The sobriquet “Prince of Darkness” identified the contradictory aspects of his personality, an exquisite musical sensibility and a brooding, volatile temperament. Davis was fascinated and repelled by a mixture of hauteur, mystery, and aloofness. He turned his back on audiences and failed to introduce sidemen. This refusal to ingratiate himself to a largely white public was a pointed criticism of African American entertainers who mugged and clowned and made Davis an early representative of black nationalism. In 1959 Davis was beaten by a white policeman enraged at seeing him with a white woman. The incident received international attention and became emblematic of American racism. That same year Davis was interviewed by Alex Haley for Playboy, inaugurating the magazine's famous feature, and confirming Davis as an outspoken critic of racism. Davis's persistent ability to refashion himself fired the public imagination and made him a compelling figure throughout his forty-year career.
Bibliography
- Jack Chambers, Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis, 1989.
- Miles Davis with
- Quincy Troupe, Miles: The Autobiography, 1989
Marcela Breton
