Miles Davis

NAME Miles Dewey Davis III

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Miles Davis was one of the most influential and innovative jazz musicians of the 20th century, renowned for his trumpet playing and for pioneering multiple jazz movements including bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz, and jazz fusion. 

BIRTH Miles Davis was born on May 26, 1926, in Alton, Illinois, 15 miles north of St. Louis. He was named Miles Dewey Davis III by his father.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Davis came from an affluent African-American family. His father, Dr. Miles Dewey Davis Jr., was a dental surgeon and pig farmer. His mother, Cleota Mae Henry (of Arkansas), was a music teacher and violinist. The family owned a 200-acre estate near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, with a successful pig farm. 

Davis had an older sister, Dorothy Mae (1925–1996), and a younger brother, Vernon (1929–1999). 

His paternal grandparents also owned a farm in Arkansas where Davis would spend summers.

CHILDHOOD In 1927, when Davis was about one year old, the family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois. They lived on the second floor of a commercial building behind a dental office in a predominantly white neighborhood. 

Davis grew up in a racially mixed, middle-class neighborhood where education was emphasized and a college degree was expected. During summers, he and his siblings would fish, hunt, and ride horses on the family estate in Arkansas. 

EDUCATION Miles Davis attended several schools during his early life and musical development. He first went to John Robinson Elementary School, an all-black school in East St. Louis, before transferring to Crispus Attucks school. He later attended East St. Louis Lincoln High School, where he joined the marching band and developed his music skills under the mentorship of Elwood Buchanan.

He was introduced to the trumpet at age 13 by his father. Davis received private trumpet lessons from Elwood Buchanan, a friend of his father who directed a music school. Buchanan taught Davis to play without vibrato, which would become a distinctive element of his style. 

In 1944, Davis moved to New York City and enrolled at the Juilliard School (then known as the Institute of Musical Art). However, he left after one year, frustrated by the school’s emphasis on white European composers and eager to join the city’s vibrant jazz scene.

CAREER RECORD 1944-1948 Davis's professional career began when he joined Charlie Parker's bebop quintet 

1951 He released his debut album The New Sounds. He recorded the influential "Birth of the Cool" sessions for Capitol Records, which were instrumental in developing cool jazz. A

1955 He formed his first great quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. 

1958 His album Kind of Blue became one of the most popular jazz albums of all time, selling over five million copies in the U.S..

1960s, and 1970s he formed his second great quintet and experimented with electronic instruments, leading to jazz fusion albums like Bitches Brew (1970). 

His discography includes at least 60 studio albums and 39 live albums.

APPEARANCE Davis was relatively short in stature (around 5'5") and slim but possessed a regal and intense presence. His facial features were handsome, but his appearance was marred later in life by physical ailments and, most notably, the long-term effects of a violent 1959 police beating that left a scar on his head.

Miles Davis in 1971 by JPRoche - Wikipedia

FASHION Davis had an innovative fashion sense, which evolved throughout his career. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he adopted an Ivy League style with tailored blazers, knit ties, loafers, and slim trousers. He favored form-fitting suits in contrast to the wide-shouldered styles of earlier jazz musicians. He often paired jackets with knits, turtlenecks, and cravats rather than traditional white shirts and dark ties. 

By the 1970s, his style became more avant-garde, incorporating leather bell bottoms, patchwork pants, frayed vests, and metallic blazers. His fashion choices were seen as extensions of his artistic personality and helped establish him as a cultural icon.

CHARACTER Davis was famously mercurial, intense, and often abrasive.  He had a terrible temper and could be violent. Davis was extremely demanding of his musicians and had little patience for those he considered inferior. His drive to stay ahead musically reflected a perfectionism that bordered on obsession. Despite Davis' difficult exterior, those close to him recognized his sensitivity and vulnerability. 

SPEAKING VOICE Davis's distinctive raspy, whispered voice was the result of a throat operation in 1955. He had surgery to remove polyps from his larynx and was instructed not to speak for ten days. However, he got into an argument and raised his voice, permanently damaging his vocal cords. Before this incident, he had a normal speaking voice, as captured in a 1953 radio interview. His damaged voice became part of his mystique and added to his aura of coolness.

SENSE OF HUMOUR Davis possessed a wry, dark, and cutting sense of humour, often delivered with his signature bluntness. His humour could be used to insult or disarm, and was part of his overall confrontational style. In his autobiography, his candid, uninhibited opinions provide much of the book's dry wit.

RELATIONSHIPS Davis was married three times. His first marriage was to Frances Taylor, a dancer, from 1959 to 1968. This relationship was troubled by Davis's physical abuse and drug use. 

His second marriage was to Betty Mabry, a model and songwriter, from 1968 to 1969. Mabry introduced him to rock, soul, and funk music, influencing his later musical direction. 

His third marriage was to actress Cicely Tyson from 1981 to 1989. Tyson helped him overcome his cocaine addiction and regain his enthusiasm for music. 

Davis and Tyson in 1982, By Antonisse, Marcel / Anefo - Wikipedia 

He also had relationships with sculptor Jo Gelbard from 1984, who taught him to paint, and notably with French singer Juliette Gréco in 1949.

MONEY AND FAME Davis came from an upper-middle-class background and achieved considerable commercial success throughout his career. He earned substantial income from his recordings and performances, and was known for his expensive taste in cars, clothes, and lifestyle.  However, his wealth fluctuated, especially during his struggles with cocaine and alcohol addictions, at one point spending about $500 a day on cocaine. 

His image became an archetype of "cool," and his financial success made Davis a symbol of jazz's commercial potential.

Despite his success, Davis struggled with the tension between artistic integrity and commercial pressures throughout his career.

FOOD AND DRINK Davis was a bon vivant who enjoyed fine dining, but his appetite and health suffered greatly during his periods of drug and alcohol abuse. In his later years, he maintained a healthier diet due to his various medical conditions, including diabetes.

JAZZ CAREER It’s not often you meet someone who manages to reinvent an entire art form several times over, but Miles Davis did just that — with a trumpet. Across five decades, he reshaped jazz so completely, so repeatedly, that his career feels less like a single life story and more like a geological record of musical evolution.

Miles Dewey Davis III was born into a prosperous family of horse-owning Black professionals. His father was a dental surgeon; his mother a music teacher who, rather ironically, hated the sound of the trumpet. Naturally, Miles fell in love with it.

By thirteen he was playing, and by sixteen he was performing at local gigs, though his mother wouldn’t let him officially join a band until he finished high school. In 1944, full of ambition and self-confidence, Davis moved to New York City to attend Juilliard. He lasted just one year. The conservatory’s focus on “dead white males” didn’t sit well with him, and anyway, bebop was happening — fast, loud, and gloriously chaotic — just a few blocks away.

He joined Charlie Parker’s quintet, standing on stage night after night next to the man everyone in jazz called “Bird.” The experience was thrilling, terrifying, and transformative. Miles learned the new language of bebop firsthand, helped shape it — and then, typically, decided it was time to move on.

Around 1949, Davis gathered a group of musicians and recorded what became the Birth of the Cool sessions — music that moved at a human pace, the antidote to bebop’s caffeinated frenzy. He wanted, he said, to make jazz that sounded like people actually lived it.

By the mid-1950s, he had conquered heroin (no small feat for a jazzman of the time) and assembled what became his first great quintet: John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. Together they recorded ’Round About Midnight and Milestones, and with arranger Gil Evans, Davis produced some of the most beautiful orchestral jazz ever captured — Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain.

Then came Kind of Blue (1959), a record so perfect that it became jazz’s equivalent of the Mona Lisa. It introduced modal improvisation — a looser, more spacious approach — and went on to sell more copies than any other jazz album in history. To this day, musicians of every genre treat it as a kind of sacred text.

In the 1960s, Davis formed his second great quintet — with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams — and together they made jazz stranger, freer, and more elastic. Albums like E.S.P., Miles Smiles, and Nefertiti broke the old rules and invented new ones as they went along. This was post-bop: cerebral, restless, endlessly inventive — and, of course, very, very cool.

By 1969, Davis had grown tired of acoustic jazz and turned his attention to electricity. Literally. He plugged in his trumpet and changed music again. In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew blended rock, funk, and electronic textures into sprawling, hypnotic soundscapes. It was loud, raw, and alien to jazz purists — which is precisely why it mattered.

The players who came through his band during this period — Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, John McLaughlin — went on to form the backbone of 1970s jazz fusion. Davis, meanwhile, just kept moving forward.

A long illness sidelined him in the mid-1970s, but by the 1980s, Davis was back, wearing leather pants and listening to Prince. His albums The Man with the Horn, You’re Under Arrest, and Tutu fused jazz with pop and electronic music in ways that once again baffled traditionalists — and once again influenced everyone else.

His final performance, at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival with Quincy Jones, revisited his collaborations with Gil Evans — a nostalgic encore to a career that had otherwise never looked back. Two months later, Miles Davis died of complications following a brain hemorrhage. He was 65.

Miles Davis was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, honored as “one of the key figures in the history of jazz.” It’s hard to argue. Over half a century, he gave the world bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, fusion, and even jazz-pop hybrids.

What’s most astonishing is that each new phase sounded utterly different — and yet, unmistakably like him: that husky, muted tone, intimate and conversational, as if his trumpet were trying to tell you something private and true.

As jazz critic Nat Hentoff once put it, “When Miles played, you heard not just notes, but thought.”

And when you think about it, that might just be the coolest thing of all.

MUSIC AND ARTS Music was always Miles Davis’s great obsession, the thing that shaped his days and moods. But in the 1980s, another creative current began to flow through him. After meeting sculptor Jo Gelbard, Davis developed a serious interest in painting—initially as part of his recovery from a 1982 stroke, but soon as a full-fledged passion.

His paintings were wild, colorful affairs—abstract explosions of faces, movement, and rhythm that seemed to pulse with the same energy as his music. On tour, he would sketch between gigs or hole up in hotel rooms with brushes and ink, channeling sound into color. Eventually, his work found its way into galleries, with admirers including fellow musicians like Quincy Jones.

Davis himself saw little boundary between his two arts. “Music is a painting you can hear,” he once said, “and a painting is music that you can see.”(1)

Davis composed the score for the 1958 French film Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows). 

LITERATURE Davis was well-read and engaged with intellectual circles, particularly during his time in Paris with existentialist philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre.

Davis was outspoken about race and culture in his memoir Miles: The Autobiography (1990), co-written with Quincy Troupe, which offered candid insights into his life and the jazz world.

NATURE Davis spent childhood summers on his family's Arkansas farm, where he enjoyed fishing, hunting, and riding horses. These early experiences with nature in rural Arkansas remained important memories throughout his life.

PETS Davis had a deep affection for animals, particularly dogs, and had them as pets throughout his life.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Davis was a passionate boxer—both as a fan and an amateur participant. He trained at boxing gyms, including Stillman's Gym and Sugar Ray Robinson's gym. He used boxing training to maintain physical fitness, skipping rope, doing floor exercises, and working on speed bags with "bebop phrasing and triple-tongue rhythms". (2)

Davis recorded a soundtrack album  for the 1970 documentary film about heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson.

 Davis also enjoyed chess and loved fast, expensive cars.

SCIENCE AND MATHS Davis performed well in mathematics during his school years. He was known to have a voracious appetite for knowledge and could memorize complex musical charts after a single reading. 

Davis approached music with a mathematician’s precision, structuring harmonies and modes with analytical rigor. His musical innovations, such as the development of modal jazz, were fundamentally analytical and intellectual. Modal jazz shifted away from complex chord changes (harmonic rules) to using scales and modes for longer periods, essentially a structural and theoretical shift in how jazz composition and improvisation were approached.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Davis grew up in a largely secular household. In his autobiography, he expressed some affinity for Islam, stating: "If I did follow any religion, it would be Islam. It's the only religion that makes sense". However, he wasn't actively religious in traditional terms. 

His music was often described as having spiritual and mystical qualities. Davis' artistic philosophy was existential—truth lay in creation, not doctrine. He resisted musical dogma and distrusted authority, preferring to find spiritual meaning through sound.

During his time in Paris, he interacted with existentialist philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre.

POLITICS Miles Davis was an outspoken advocate for Black equality and identity, both on and off the bandstand. He viewed jazz as a distinctly Black American art form—a cultural inheritance born of struggle, ingenuity, and soul—and he deeply resented the way white audiences and institutions often tried to claim it as their own.

His father, whom Davis described as “very pro-Black,” helped instill that pride and defiance early on. As Davis’s fame grew, so did his friction with what he called “the establishment,” a polite term for the white-run music industry and cultural gatekeepers who profited from Black creativity while rarely giving credit where it was due.

His anger was not theoretical. He’d been harassed and beaten by police, excluded from venues, and patronized by critics who treated him as an exotic novelty rather than a genius in his own right. His refusal to smile for audiences or soften his stance was deliberate—a cultural and political act long before the phrase “Black Power” entered the national vocabulary.

SCANDAL Davis faced several controversies throughout his life. In 1959, he was brutally beaten and arrested by police officers outside Birdland jazz club in New York City, despite his fame and the fact that his name was on the marquee. This incident became a symbol of police brutality against Black Americans.  

Davis' relationships were at times volatile and violent, including documented instances of physical abuse against his partners. He was arrested in Los Angeles in 1955 for nonsupport.

He was known for his feuds and public dismissals of other musicians, most notably his famous, dismissive rejection of free jazz pioneers like Ornette Coleman.

Davis had significant struggles with substance abuse throughout his life. He was addicted to heroin from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. His habit was exposed in a Down Beat magazine interview by bandleader Cab Calloway, leading to an arrest in Los Angeles

Later, he developed cocaine and alcohol addictions. He also used prescription drugs like Percodan and Seconal. He eventually overcame these addictions with help from Cicely Tyson in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Miles Davis maintained a lifelong preoccupation with physical fitness that was in stark contrast to the numerous, often self-inflicted, health crises he endured.

Davis trained obsessively, continuing to lift weights and shadowbox well into middle age. He believed maintaining a strong body was essential for keeping his mind sharp and his trumpet playing fierce. However, his health was constantly under siege. He suffered from sickle cell anemia, a hereditary condition that caused chronic joint pain and other complications. Other major health events included:

A 1955 throat surgery for polyps, after which he shouted and permanently damaged his vocal cords, resulting in his signature raspy voice.

A near-fatal period of heroin addiction in the early 1950s, followed by later abuse of cocaine and alcohol.

A 1969 shooting incident in Brooklyn where he was wounded while sitting in a car. Following his hospitalization, he was arrested for marijuana possession.

Later in life, Davis dealt with various physical ailments including a debilitating stroke in 1982, hip surgery, leg infections, and the management of diabetes, which required daily insulin injections.

Despite these recurring illnesses, Davis exhibited a defiant focus on recovery. He used painting and exercise as therapy, determined to continue creating regardless of his physical state. His remarkable physical endurance mirrored his artistic drive: both were fuelled by the same stubborn, unbreakable will to keep moving forward.

His health deteriorated significantly in his final years due to the cumulative effects of drug abuse and chronic illnesses.

HOMES 1701 Kansas Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois, was Miles Davis’s childhood home from 1939 to 1944. Davis’s father purchased the property in 1930, and it remained a significant place for the family throughout Miles’s formative years. This modest gable-roofed house saw Davis learn trumpet and receive lessons from Elwood Buchanan, who taught him a clear tone without vibrato, shaping his musical style. He practiced trumpet in the attic, often with local bands and talent shows, and brought his first band to rehearse in the basement. 

1701 Kansas Avenue in East St. Louis, by Bastoszak - Wikipedia

Davis' most famous home was a five-story Renaissance Revival brownstone at 312 West 77th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where he lived from approximately 1960 to the mid-1980s. This house featured a distinctive curved, multi-level interior design with carpeting covering most surfaces, circular furniture, and Mediterranean-style elements. He often hung out on the stoop with neighbors and hosted other jazz legends like Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Dizzy Gillespie. It was in this house that he wrote music for albums like Kind of Blue and Bitches Brew. Later, he moved to Los Angeles and lived in a beachfront house in Malibu.

TRAVEL Davis travelled extensively throughout his career, touring the US and internationally. His 1949 trip to Paris, for the Paris International Jazz Festival, was pivotal; he was treated without racial prejudice, which he later said made it difficult to return to segregated America and was an important factor in his outlook. Paris became his "spiritual home," and he returned many times throughout his career. 

DEATH Miles Davis died on September 28, 1991, at age 65, at St. John's Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, California. He died from a combination of pneumonia, respiratory failure, and stroke. He had been admitted to the hospital early in September for routine tests. 

His funeral was held on October 5, 1991, in New York City, with about 500 friends, family, and musicians in attendance. 

Davis was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City, near Duke Ellington's grave, with one of his trumpets buried with him.

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Davis appeared in numerous documentaries and films throughout his career. Notable appearances include.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019), a comprehensive documentary by Stanley Nelson. 

Davis made his television acting debut in the Miami Vice episode Junk Love, playing a pimp named Ivory Jones. His distinctive voice and charisma translated naturally to screen.

He appeared on the CBS television show 60 Minutes in 1989. 

In 1991, he had a cameo role in the Australian film Dingo. Davis composed the soundtrack in cooperation with Michel Legrand.

The biographical film Miles Ahead (2016), directed by and starring Don Cheadle, portrayed his life. His home at 312 West 77th Street was featured in this film. 

Various other documentaries have chronicled his life and music, including The Miles Davis Documentary (2021).

ACHIEVEMENTS Revolutionized jazz multiple times (bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz, fusion).

Released Kind of Blue (1959), the best-selling jazz album of all time, certified quadruple platinum.

Winner of eight Grammy Awards and recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1990).

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2006) for his profound influence on modern music.

Sources: (1) BBC (2) Boxing Insider