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Miles Davis: Miles Davis Quintet
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The great bands that Miles Davis led, especially this one and the earlier quintet and sextet with John Coltrane, had the audacity and skilll to create a unique setting and mood for every soloist in a performance. You can really hear that here in this performance of Wayne Shorter's "Footprints". The rhythm section, and especially drummer Tony Williams, carry on a high velocity, intense conversation with Miles during his solo. MORE
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Miles Davis grew up in a wealthy, middle-class home in St. Louis where he began playing the trumpet at the age of 13. In 1945, he enrolled into Julliard with the support of his parents. However, Davis cultivated his musical skills while working on 52nd street and playing with such musicians as Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker. These encounters with Parker eventually led to recording dates and performances that spanned between the years of 1945 to 1948. He went on to begin his own bop groups in 1948 and collaborated with arranger Gil Evans in a nonet group including Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, and Johnny Carisi, which recordings were later dubbed Birth of the Cool. After a performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955, his popularity grew and the Miles Davis Quintet was born.
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Born in the St. Louis suburb of Alton, Illinois, Miles Dewey Davis III was the son of a successful dental surgeon. His mother played piano and violin, and Miles received tutoring on the trumpet. In 1942 he joined Eddie Randle’s Blue Devils, with whom he played throughout high school. Davis first heard modern jazz at 18 when Billy Eckstine’s ensemble - which included saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie - came to town for a two-week residency. Davis wound up replacing a trumpet player in the band who had taken ill. He accompanied Eckstine back to New York, where he studied classical music at Juilliard by day and played jazz clubs at night. Davis joined Parker’s quintet in 1945 and made his recording debut as a bandleader two years later.
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In 1955, Davis formed the first incarnation of the Miles Davis Quintet. This band featured John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (double bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums). Eschewing the rhythmic and harmonic complexity of the then-prevalent bebop, Davis was allowed the space to play long, legato, and essentially melodic lines in which he would begin to explore modal jazz. Davis was influenced at around this time by pianist Ahmad Jamal, whose sparse style contrasted with the "busy" sound of bebop.
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Silent Way was recorded in February 1969, Davis had augmented his standard quintet with additional players. Phenomenal talents such as Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett took turns along with Hancock in the studio, while the masterful Jack DeJohnette ably shared the drum chair with Tony Williams. While never an official member of the band, the young John McLaughlin made the first of his many appearances with Miles on the guitar. That record, and its successor, Bitches Brew, saw the first truly successful amalgamations of jazz with rock music, laying the groundwork for the genre that would become known simply as fusion. Both records, especially Bitches Brew, proved to be huge sellers for Davis, and he was accused of 'selling out' by many of his departing fans. While the sheer density and complexity of these albums, and what was to follow, defeat such accusations, Davis succeeded in expanding his fan base enough to propel Bitches Brew to the status of the greatest selling jazz record ever, while Davis himself moved into the larger, more lucrative, rock venues of his younger contemporaries.
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In 1955 Miles assembled his first important band, with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. In 1957 he resumed his recorded partnership with Gil Evans with Miles Ahead. This was the first of four such collaborations over the next three years, three of which were career milestones (Miles Ahead; Sketches of Spain; and Porgy & Bess). In 1958 Miles added Cannonball Adderley to his quintet, boosting it to a sextet. This sextet recorded Davis’ most famous album, Kind of Blue (the all-time biggest selling jazz album), in 1959. By this time Miles had begun playing in modes rather than standard chord changes.
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Miles Davis Quintet