Miles Davis

Miles Davis. May 26, 1926 - September 28, 1991. Miles Dewey Davis III is noted as one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. The son of a successful dental surgeon and music teacher, he was born in Alton, Illinois prior to the family relocating to East St. Louis, Illinois in 1927., When Davis' father gave him his first trumpet at the age of 13, he practiced for hours to master the golden horn. At 17 years old, he met and played with jazz icons Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker for the first time., In 1944, he moved to New York City to study at Julliard School of Music. At night, he could be found playing in Harlem nightclubs with Charlie Parker's band as the first sounds of bebop emerged - a fast, improvisional style of instrumental jazz defining the modern jazz era. The 1949 studio recordings of his own nonet, steeped in bebop tradition, later became the album Birth of the Cool - transforming jazz into its next phase. , Evolution of Cool, What is cool? Cool is all about what's happening next. Miles Davis embodies all that was cool from his attitude and fashion to his style of music. He defined cool in his ability to evolve musically during the course of his 50 year career. He began playing in the 1940s and 1950s with the legends of the jazz world. In the late 1960s, he found himself drawn to the electric sounds of artists like Jimi Hendrix and James Brown, morphing his music into a jazz-rock fusion. After going underground in the late 1970s, he returned in full force through the 1980s and 1990s, bringing to life a new sound of modern jazz and even releasing his first Rap/R&B hit single, Doo Bop. , Miles Davis is considered to be one of the most successful jazz artists of his time, recording and releasing more than 100 albums and winning nine Grammy Awards. , (aside:), About the Sculptor, Preston Jackson is a professor emeritus of sculpture at the Art Institute in Chicago, specializing in metal fabrication. Born and raised in Decatur, Illinois, his commissioned works of art can be found across the country from the streets of Downtown Chicago to sculpture gardens in Hartford, Connecticut.