Miles Davis

Miles Davis was born in Alton, Illinois, on May 26, 1926, and grew up in East St. Louis. His father was a dentist, his mother a music teacher. At twelve he started playing the trumpet, and by sixteen he was playing outside the city on weekends. At seventeen he joined the Eddie Randle's Blue Devils, a band from St. Louis, and eventually became its musical director.The leap to first-rate jazz came in 1944, when the orchestra of Billy Eckstine passed through his city. There was a need for a trumpeter and Davis filled the position for two weeks. There were Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the two engines of bebop: a fast style, with inventive solos and very changing rhythms.

Davis came from a completely different place and had to adapt on the spot. After that, he went to New York to study at the Juilliard School.But the classes lasted only a short time. He became a regular at the jam sessions of the Minton's Playhouse, reunited with Parker and started playing with him. In mid-1945 he left the studies. In November of that year he was in the first session as a leader for Savoy Records. After that he played with Benny Carter and again with Eckstine, until he was integrated into Parker's quintet. With him he recorded tracks that became part of the history of bebop: Yardbird Suite, A Night in Tunisia, Donna Lee and Ornithology.