Miles Davis Research Paper

My research paper is about Miles Davis’ personal life and his contributions to jazz. Miles Davis played a major role in the expansion in jazz with his music that he had produced. Davis not only shaped jazz into different forms and styles, but he also introduced jazz music to music listeners who were not a fan of jazz. From an early childhood, Davis was already interested in music and ready to help change the world of jazz. Davis started as a musician when he was just a teenager. Just like most other kids, “Davis grew up in a supportive middle-class household, where he was introduced by his father to the trumpet at age 13” (Biography.com). Davis showed interest in the trumpet at a very young age and was able to master and perform with the

“Playing in the jazz clubs of New York, Davis was in frequent contact with users and dealers of drugs, and by 1950, in common with many of his contemporaries, he had developed a serious heroin addiction” (New World Encyclopedia). Not only did Davis have an issue with heroin, but “Davis had an erratic personal life that included heroin addiction, cocaine addiction, pimping and spousal abuse” (Broeske). These personal issues may have influenced some of Davis’ music works, but no evidence can be found to support that. Even though Davis had personal drug issues, it did not get in the way of his music career other than leaving a bad note for his name that he was involved with these

“Miles Ahead” was an album that was based on the cool jazz sound with popular tracks like “Springville”. This was a big step because Davis had moved from hard bop jazz into cool jazz. Later, Davis also recruited Cannonball Adderley who was an alto saxophone player for his band. Even with an alto saxophone player, Davis was able to keep his quintet in balance while performing without one instrument overpowering another. “In the spring of 1958, the band produced Milestones”, which is a major step for Davis because “Milestones” was when Davis began working on modal jazz (NPR). Davis did many improvisations and solos on a single chord during this time. Davis also recruited a piano player during his time in modal jazz in order to expand the kind of music he can produce in modal. Not only did Davis have personal success with himself and his band, he nurtured many of his players to become leaders of their own. While, “…Evans, Coltrane and Adderley each had become leaders”, Davis once again began searching for new players in order to continue performing jazz music (NPR). Davis later began working on a different kind of jazz “Using guitarist John McLaughlin and a three-keyboard ensemble of Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul, Davis recorded In a Silent Way in 1969” (NPR). Davis began to experiment which later developed into another album “Bitches Brew” which became a popular album for fusion