Trumpeter and Composer Miles Davis (1926-91) was a hugely influential figure in the development of jazz. He established several new trends that became distinct styles in their own right, including modal jazz, jazz-rock fusion and cool jazz.

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A2 Miles Davis Essay                                                                                                            Stephen Beattie

Trumpeter and Composer Miles Davis (1926-91) was a hugely influential figure in the development of jazz. He established several new trends that became distinct styles in their own right, including modal jazz, jazz-rock fusion and cool jazz.                                                                                                                                         Cool jazz was a style with revolutionary characteristics of an increased degree of complexity to include fast tempi and driving rhythms, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody. Vast chord extensions became more common  to include added 7th’s, 9th’s and even 11th’s which suited the chromatic and highly decorated melodic lines that often used wide intervals and many sudden changes of direction.                                                                                            Cool jazz was developed in the early 1950’s and was associated with an intellectual approach of its theory. In the 1950’s a younger generation of jazz musicians forged this new style and Miles Davis was perhaps the most prolific and profound composer of the medium. It also became more common for black musicians to be allowed access to recording studios.                               The previous generation’s maverick’s such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were highly influential characters for Miles Davis as he decided to study informally with them after abandoning his course at Juilliard. However, Davis was not naturally suited to the rigorous trumpet playing of the Bebop era as he preferred solos in the middle range of the trumpet with soft, legato articulation. This experience nevertheless gave Davis insight into the key harmonic and chordal innovations that would be the cornerstones of his new music and he advanced these various techniques with a more freewheeling, intricate and often arcane approach.

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Having come closer to the realisation of his new style he met an arranger called Gil Evans towards the end of the 1940’s. Together they resulted in the creation of the Miles Davis Nonet. By 1959 they had become a sextet but still setting a ‘gold standard’ for jazz performance. As a soloist; Miles began to explore a different range of moods and emotions. Davis sought to open up standard jazz harmonies to express a personal atmosphere. His experiments led to new harmonic structures and variations of cadence-orientated progressions and resulted in the creation of his two albums, ‘Milestones’ and ...

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