Miles Davis is considered one of the most innovative and influential musicians of the twentieth century. Time and again, he changed the concept of jazz music. He was a leader in introducing bebop, a fast, improvisational style of jazz instrumental that defined the modern jazz era.
Davis was born in Alton, Illinois in 1926, the son of a dentist and a music teacher. At the age of 13, he was taught to play the trumpet by his father and the boy quickly showed a musical talent. As a teenager, he started to play professionally. When he was 17, he had a stroke of fortune. The eminent musicians Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker needed a replacement trumpeter when their bandmate fell sick. They asked the young star to join them on stage and Davis was inspired by the experience. At the age of 18, he left home for New York where he studied at the Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School) during the day and played in Harlem nightclubs at night.
He left the school and became a full-time musician, joining the Charlie Parker Quintet. He then formed his own band, the Miles Davis Sextet. He continuously developed his signature style of improvised trumpet playing.
In 1950, Davis became addicted to heroin. It took him four years to overcome his addiction. He assembled a ground-breaking band, which included John Coltrane, Paul Chambers and Red Garland. In 1959, he and the band recorded the seminal album, Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album of all time.
In the 1960s, he continued to transform his band and his music. He led the jazz fusion movement, which combined jazz with heavy rock. His Bitches Brew album became a best-selling example of this new genre of music. Davis was the first jazz musician to be featured on the front cover of Rolling Stone. This was too much for many conventional fans of traditional jazz, but Davis was more interested in pushing boundaries than pleasing fans.
During the 1970s, again he fell prey to addiction and submerged from view. Many fans thought he was finished but, to his credit, he reappeared with vigour in the 1980s. Davis completed another transformation in 1986 with the release of Tutu. It included synthesisers, drum loops and samples. The album was met with critical acclaim.
He died of pneumonia in California in 1991.
You cannot please everyone, so do not try. Innovation means breaking with convention and that will upset many people. Davis constantly sought to try new forms of musical expression. Often, this was initially unpopular with his fans.
Try fusion. Mix what you know with something new and different. Many inventions are fresh combinations of existing products or ideas. What is new is the way that two concepts are combined. Gutenberg fused a coin punch with a wine press, Henry Ford fused an assembly line with car construction, Miles Davis fused jazz and rock.
Never be satisfied with what you have already achieved. Miles Davis had a constantly restless approach to jazz. He courted controversy as he strove to try the new. He led significant developments in jazz across five decades. Great innovators do not rest on their laurels – they continue to innovate.