Miles Davis (1921-1991)

Miles Davis (1926–1991) was one of the most influential and restless innovators in the history of jazz, a trumpeter and bandleader who constantly reshaped the music while also living a deeply turbulent personal life. Born in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, he moved to New York City as a teenager to study at Juilliard but quickly immersed himself in the city’s jazz scene, playing with Charlie Parker and helping pioneer bebop before deliberately pushing against its limits. Over the next four decades, Davis led or inspired nearly every major movement in modern jazz—cool jazz (Birth of the Cool), modal jazz (Kind of Blue), hard bop, orchestral jazz with Gil Evans, and jazz-rock fusion (Bitches Brew)—while discovering and mentoring generations of legendary musicians such as John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Chick Corea. His strengths included an unmatched ear for talent, a willingness to take artistic risks, and a minimalist trumpet style that prized space, tone, and emotional weight over flash. At the same time, Davis struggled with severe drug addiction, volatile temper, and abusive behavior, particularly toward women, and he could be controlling and cruel to bandmates despite benefiting from their creativity. He also endured health problems, racism, and periods of isolation, including a near-five-year retreat from music in the mid-1970s. By the time of his death in 1991, Miles Davis had left behind a body of work that permanently altered the course of jazz and popular music, embodying both the brilliance of relentless innovation and the damage caused by personal demons he never fully escaped.