Miles Dewey Davis: The Legend Of Jazz Music

May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois, a true legend of Jazz music was born. Miles Dewey Davis III, son of Miles Dewey Davis II and Cleota Mae Davis, was the middle child in the family. Miles had an older sister, Dorothy Mae Davis and a little brother, Vernon Davis. Both of his parents worked, making enough money live a middle-class lifestyle in a household which was located in a white neighborhood. His dad was a dental surgeon and his mother worked as a music teacher and a violinist, which justifies that it was in his blood to posses musically inclined skills. At the age of 13, miles received his first trumpet and as most historic musicians do, he learned to play at a supernatural rate. He joined his high school band and began to take private lessons
He wanted to generate something new, yet original; a type of Jazz that was just as unique as Miles himself, hence the origin of Cool Jazz. Miles put together a band of himself in 1949, called the Miles Davis Nonet and Gil Evans was the arranger for them. This band featured a strange addition of a tuba and a French horn. The band also included a trombone, alto saxophone, and baritone saxophone. The band signed with Capitol Records and they produced 12 tracks. The songs didn’t have that much of an affect on fans, but it did affect other musicians, especially the two singles ‘Move” and “Boplicity,” these later were added to the album Birth of the Cool. Miles went to Paris to play at the Paris International Jazz Festival with the Tadd Dameron Quintet. This was his first time out of the country and he seemed to fall in love with the place, along with a woman he had met too. Juliette Greco, an actress and singer that Davis started a serious love affair
Not only did he pick back up his habits of drugs and alcohol dependency, but he also had osteoarthritis, sickle-cell anemia, depression, bursitis, and ulcers. Considering the state his health was in and it was only getting worse, he backed out of the music completely. This lasted for six years, he rarely played any trumpet but did do a fair amount of composing during this time. Not until 1979 did he overcome his cocaine addiction and find his sparking love for music again, with the help of his girlfriend Cicely Tyson. He got back into business, releasing his album The Man with the Horn. The album sold decently, yet for some reason the critics gave it poor reviews. Then a few years later he released the albums Tutu and Aura. He started getting into studio-created projects, signing a contract with Warner Brothers, he was making music for shows and movies. Davis also did a little bit of acting too in his elder days. His last two albums were Quincy Jones and Miles and Quincy Live at