Miles Davis
Miles Davis (1926-1991) grew up in a well-to-do family in East St. Louis, Illinois. At age 13 he took up the trumpet, and within 3 years he was playing professionally. In 1944, Billy Eckstine's band toured Davis' hometown, and Davis was asked to fill in on trumpet for a sick band member. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were then both members of Eckstine's band. Later that year, Davis graduated from high school and moved to New York City, ostensibly to begin studies at the Julliard School of Music, but his real interest was reconnecting with Charlie Parker, who had become Davis' idol. Davis began frequenting Minton's and Monroe's in Harlem, joining in the late-night jam sessions, and soon dropped out of school to become a member of Parker's band.
In 1949, Miles Davis collaborated with arranger Gil Evans (1912-1988) to produce recordings of the Miles Davis Nonet ♫, which were eventually released as the Birth of the Cool ♫. It was an unusual collection of nine instruments by modern jazz standards, including French horn and tuba, and excluding tenor saxophone. Their effort was inspired by the smooth sound of the Claude Thornhill big band Snowfall ♫. Davis and Evans were attempting to achieve a similar style with an ensemble half the size.
The results were stunning and original. Gil Evans achieves a remarkably homogenous blend of horns, used to great effect in the interplay between ensemble and solo trumpet. Despite moments of dynamic intensity from the ensemble, the overall effect is one of understatement and cool precision.
Davis, for his part, could never display the technical virtuosity of a Dizzy Gillespie. What we hear, though, is the reflective voice of a young trumpeter with the ability to convey intimacy even as he, paradoxically, maintains a sense of detachment that is itself "cool."
Listen to the Miles Davis Nonet perform Boplicity ♫ from The Birth of the Cool. Davis has composed a 32-bar song form as the basis for his piece, and in the opening minute we hear the ensemble perform the complete tune.
Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan then takes a solo over the first half of the second chorus (0:58-1:25), accompanied only by the rhythm section. The ensemble returns for the B section, but it soon becomes evident that the form itself is less than rigid. After a two-bar extension of the first four-bar unit, Davis enters (1:36) to solo over the next 28 bars, the first 20 of which sound like a pleasant, meandering extension of the bridge. At last we can identify a return to the A section (2:11), which provides the structure for the last eight bars of his solo. Pianist John Lewis solos over the next eight bars (2:25-2:40), leading to a concluding ensemble reprise.
The song "Take Five" has been featured in movies, such as Mighty Aphorodite, Pleasantville and Constantine.
