Miles Davis (1926–1991) reshaped jazz across every era he touched — bebop, cool, modal, fusion — and Kind of Blue (1959) remains the highest-selling jazz album of all time. Start there, then follow the trail through Sketches of Spain to Bitches Brew. Find Miles Davis vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Miles Dewey Davis III was born in Alton, Illinois on May 26, 1926 and raised in East St. Louis, Illinois. He moved to New York City in 1944 to attend the Juilliard School and became involved in the emerging bebop scene around Charlie Parker. His foundational influence spans multiple jazz eras - bebop and hard bop in the late 1940s and 1950s (the Birth of the Cool sessions, his work with Charlie Parker), modal jazz in the late 1950s (Kind of Blue, 1959), the Spanish-influenced orchestral collaborations with Gil Evans (Sketches of Spain, 1960), the groundbreaking jazz fusion explorations of the late 1960s and 1970s (In a Silent Way, 1969; Bitches Brew, 1970; Get Up with It, 1974), and the electric-funk and pop-influenced material of the 1980s (Tutu, 1986; Amandla, 1989). His 1959 album Kind of Blue is widely cited as one of the most important albums in jazz and broader popular music history, with over 5 million copies sold (the highest-selling jazz album of all time). He died of complications from a stroke on September 28, 1991 at age 65 in Santa Monica. He won nine Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. His foundational influence on jazz, popular music, and broader American music history is widely cited as one of the most important contributions to the form.
Miles Davis's sound spans the most range of any jazz musician - combining bebop, hard bop, cool jazz, modal jazz, third stream, post-bop, jazz fusion, electric jazz, jazz funk, and contemporary jazz across his multi-decade career. His distinctive trumpet tone (using the Harmon mute) and his foundational compositional and bandleading approach have been widely influential. His foundational influence on multiple jazz eras and broader contemporary music is widely documented.
Original Prestige, Columbia, and Warner Bros. pressings of the Miles Davis catalog are foundational items in jazz and broader popular music collecting. Multiple anniversary editions, audiophile reissues (Mobile Fidelity, Acoustic Sounds, Analogue Productions, Tone Poet), and the comprehensive Columbia/Legacy reissue programs have been released.
Listeners new to Miles Davis typically start with Kind of Blue (1959).
