Miles Davis Miles Davis III was born on May 25, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. He came from a wealthy and well educated family. His father, a dentist was a proud man who believed strongly in the rights of African Americans.

Miles, his brother and sister attended an all African American school where they had very good teachers, but the poor conditions of the building left Miles with bitter memories. He also experienced other racial incidents both in and out of school, including being called racial names.

Miles was interested in sports, but was too skinny to be a star. When he was given an old trumpet by a friend of his father’s, he started to take music lessons. By the time he was twelve, music was his only interest.

Mr. and Mrs. Davis wanted Miles to study classical music as they disapproved of the popular music of he day. He secretly listened to the jazz music however, of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and others.

After high school in 1944, Davis left for New York to study at Juilliard, one of the nation’s most outstanding schools of music. He studied classical music and composing during the day and traveled from club to club listening to jazz during the night. He especially liked the music of Charlie Parker.

Miles dropped out of Juilliard and formed his own band. They were one of the first groups of record “cool jazz”. Unlike bebop, cool was a softer, more structured type of jazz. It used some of the techniques and instruments of classical music. Their recording “The Birth of Cool” has become a classic and was the beginning of a new kind of jazz.

In 1949 Miles played at the Paris Jazz Festival and became well known in Europe. Unfortunately, he become addicted to heroin and his career suffered.

In a desperate move to kick his heroin habit, Miles locked himself in a small house on his father’s farm. For seven or eight days, he suffered the pains of withdrawal, but he broke his habit and began to put his life together again.

During the later half of the 1950’s, Davis organized a new band and recorded Kind of Blue, which is considered by many to be the most influential recording in jazz history.

The 1960s was the decade of rock music, and Davis became concerned that young African Americans would lose touch with jazz. He considered jazz a part of the culture of African Americans, so he began experimenting by blending the two. It worked, and fusion, another form of jazz was created.

Davis was known and admired all over the world. Other musicians copied his style, mannerisms and dress. He performed and recorded until the end of his life in 1991 when he died from complications of respiratory failure and the results of a hard lifestyle including drugs. He was 65 years old.