Birthday Of The Cool One

Miles Dewey Davis III- (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991)

It was my late Uncle Pete who gave me an appreciation for this man...Back when I was a pre-teen and listening to Jackson 5 records...My Uncle used to sit in his room and play this guy's records and sip some gin and talk for hours about how Miles Davis changed the game as far as jazz was concerned..

My Uncle told me that Miles changed Jazz and contemporary music five times and he might have been on to something..Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion.

Many well-known musicians rose to prominence as members of Davis' ensembles, including saxophonists Gerry Mulligan, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, George Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Dave Liebman, Branford Marsalis and Kenny Garrett; trombonist J. J. Johnson; pianists Horace Silver, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Kei Akagi; guitarists John McLaughlin, Pete Cosey, John Scofield and Mike Stern; bassists Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Marcus Miller and Darryl Jones; and drummers Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, and Al Foster.

Wow that makes me sweat and just a little breathless just naming all of those folks...When I became an adult...and I mean , well over thirty and my uncle was long dead...I bought some CD's by Miles and sat in the dark and listened to them...Really listened...I heard the genius that my uncle heard back then, that I couldn't appreciate until I was older...

I bought Miles's last CD, "Doo Bop" Which was produced by Easy Mo Bee...who in a few years would produce the first album by another legend...The Notorious B.I.G. Miles was once again fusing Jazz with another genre...Hip Hop....and he did it before Quincy Jones did it with "Back On The Block"..So that makes six times that Miles was on to something....

What a man...what a genius....I celebrate him today on what would have been his 85th birthday!