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For nearly five decades Miles Davis (1926-91) was at the center of Jazz music, charting directions and introducing other legendary figures at a rate that is unmatched by his contemporaries in any art form. Davis grew up in relative affluence in East St. Louis Illinois and, after joining in with Billy Eckstine's big band while still in high school, came to New York to enroll at Juilliard. He quickly renewed contact with the bebop pioneers he had met in Eckstine's ranks, and by the end of 1945 had assumed the trumpet chair in Charlie Parker's quintet that he continued to hold for the next three years.
Davis's first venture as a band-leader was the innovative nonet he created in collaboration with arranger Gil Evans. This band, provided the more subtle palette that soon became recognized as the "Birth of the cool." Yet in smaller bands that Davis tended to lead in most of his work for the next several years, the emphasis was on a more assertive rhythmic edge and extended improvisation. A list of key collaborators in this 1951-54 period would have to include J.J Johnson, Sonny Rollins, John Lewis, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, Kenny Clarke, and Art Blakey who together were laying the foundation for another stylistic variation, known as hard bop.
After a triumphant performance of "Round Midnight" in a jam session at the 1955 Newport jazz Festival, Davis was finally able to sustain a permanent band. The personnel: John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones. This unit, with the added participation of Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans, became the dominant small jazz band of the late Fifties.
The Sixties found Davis putting together another seminal quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter; and Tony Williams. This band took modern combo concepts to the edge of freedom, then with the incorporation of electric instruments, launched the jazz-rock or fusion phenomenon. Working with larger; highly amplified bands from 1968 forward, and employing such future stars as Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jack De johnette, Joe Zawinul, Keith Jarrett, and john McLaughlin, Davis now concentrated on sound and rhythm more than ever. After a period of retirement in the late Seventies, he returned with another generation of leaders-to-be (John Scofield, Mike Stern, Kenny Garrett, Bob Berg) and remained jazz's most charismatic figure until his death.

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