Miles Davis
May 26, 1926- September 28, 1991
· American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader and composer.
· Noted as “one of the key figures in the history of jazz” and “the birth of cool jazz”
· Was given his 1st trumpet at 13
· Described as ‘arrogant’, having a ‘volatile personality’
· During the mid 50s, had a serious drug problem, introduced to him by fellow band mates, even got to the point of him pawning his valuables-his horn- for a ‘fix’.
· Married and divorced 3 times, commenting on his 2nd wife being ‘too wild and young’ for him, as well as suspecting her having an affair with Jimmy Hendrix.
· 1991, a few months before he died, Davis gave trumpeter Wallace Roney a gift of one of his signature trumpets while performing in Monteux, Switzerland.
· 1968, proved to be a year for change according to Miles’ music and America, the war in southeast Asia, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy and the rise of the Black Power movement, were factors which pushed Miles’ music toward a more ‘insistent electric pulse’
· An interesting factor about Davis was that when he wasn’t soloing on stage, he performed with his back turned to the audience and walked off stage.
· Davis died at the age of 65 after suffering a stroke and a bout of pneumonia.
· He has come to symbolise everything jazz represents-innovative, cool, complex and unpredictable.
· In his home in Malibu, he not only composed his music there, he also painted, selling from $15-25, 000, buyers including Lionel Richie.
Ideas:
-Invent a 'Miles Davis' inspired drug, to highlight his past drug problems.
-Taking interest from his unusual on-stage behaviour-playing with his back towards the audience.
-Re-event album covers, pointing out different phases in Davis' life.
-Finding out that he paints and that he used his music to inspire him while he painted, use some of my favourite music to inspire me to paint my own works of art.
