The Early Years: In 1944, the
Billy Eckstine band visited St. Louis.
Dizzy Gillespie and
Charlie Parker were members of the band & Miles was taken on as 3rd trumpet for a couple of weeks because of the illness of regular sideman Buddy Anderson.
This started the ball rolling & so Miles moved to New York later that year. Rather than pursuing his studies at the Juilliard School of Music (the reason he gave his parents for going) he instead hunted down Bird.
His first recordings were made in 1945 with blues singer Rubberlegg Williams & tenor saxophonist Herbie Fields.
In the autumn of that year he became a member of Parker's unofficial quintet, appearing on many of Parker's seminal bebop recordings for the Savoy and Dial labels.
By 1948 he had completed his apprenticeship as a sideman & began to worth as a solo artist with a Nonet including
Gerry Mulligan and
Lee Konitz.
He was signed by Capitol records later that year & released several singles featuring arrangements by Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and
John Lewis. This began his association with
Gil Evans, with whom he would collaborate with several times in the years to come.
Between 1950 and 1955, Davis mainly recorded as a leader for the Prestige & Blue Note labels in a variety of small group settings. Sidemen included
Sonny Rollins,
John Lewis,
Kenny Clarke,
Jackie McLean,
Art Blakey,
Horace Silver,
Thelonious Monk,
J. J. Johnson, Percy Heath,
Milt Jackson &
Charles Mingus.
Davis was also influenced at around this time by pianist
Ahmad Jamal.
About 1954 he started with his use of the Harmon mute that was to become a trademark of his sound.
In July 1955, he played a legendary solo on Thelonius Monk's 'Round Midnight' at the Newport Jazz Festival. This performance thrust Davis firmly into the jazz spotlight, leading to George Avakian signing him to Columbia & the formation of his 'First Great Quintet'.
To be continued ...
Fraud and James Allsopp, Tim Giles, Dave Kane in Session Friday 26 October 2007 23:30-1:00 Jez Nelson presents two sessions by groups centred around the duo of multi-instrumentalist James Allsopp and drummer Tim Giles. East London based Fraud, in which Allsopp and Giles join forces with guitarist Stian Westerhus, keyboardist Philip Hochstrade and drummer Ben Reynolds, combine a frenetic and eclectic amalgamation of influences, from punk to free jazz through contemporary classical, all contained within meticulously structured compositions.
