Miles Dewey Davis III [ S Ð Ə Θ ɝ d ] , born May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois, and died September 28, 1991 in Santa Monica, California, is a composer and American jazz trumpet player.
Miles Davis begins playing the trumpet at the age of thirteen. He was at the forefront of many developments in jazz and particularly distinguished by his ability to discover and surround himself with new talent. His playing is characterized by great musical sensitivity and the fragility that he manages to give to the sound. It marks the history of jazz and music of the XX century. Many jazz big names from the 1940s to the 1980s work with him.
The different Miles Davis formations are like laboratories in which the talents of new generations and the new horizons of modern music have been revealed; including Sonny Rollins, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Bill Evans and John Coltrane during the 1950s. From 1960 to the 1980s his sidemen were Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, George Coleman, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Keith Jarrett, Tony Williams, Joe Zawinul, Dave Liebman and Kenny Garrett; it is with them that he moves towards jazz fusion, of which he remains one of the pioneers. The discovery of the music of Jimi Hendrix is decisive in this evolution, but especially the shock of the festival of Newport, in 1969, where one attends the origin exclusively with concerts of jazz, but which, that year, rock program. Many of the musicians who made their way from 1963 to 1969 formed the signature bands of jazz fusion, including Weather Report, hosted by Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul, John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, Chick Corea's Return to Forever, and various Herbie Hancock's groups.
Miles Davis is one of the few jazz musicians and one of the first black musicians to be known and accepted by the average American, even winning the "best dressed man of the year" trophy of the GQ monthly during the 1960s Like Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis is this curious phenomenon: a jazz superstar. Unlike his glorious elder who had sought integration into the mainstream culture dominated by the white population, Miles Davis' musical journey was accompanied by a political stance in favor of the black cause and his struggle against racism. In 1985, he participated in the album Sun City against apartheid at the initiative of Steven Van Zandt.
