Miles Davis
Topic: A discussion of the development ofimprovisation in jazz music in reference to trumpeterMiles Dewey Davis was born on the 26th of May 1926, inAlton, Illinois. He became famous around the world forhis incredible trumpet and flugelhorn playing, but hewas also an accomplished keyboard player, andAlthough born in Alton, Illinois, Miles Davis lived inEast St Louis. He came from a wealthy middle-classbackground. It isn't surprising to see that a personwith the talent of Miles Davis came from a Davis'father musical family. His mother played the violin,and his sister played the piano. Although Miles wasnot very musical himself, he obviously saw talent inhis son, and for his thirteenth birthday, bought Mileshis first trumpet. Miles was very privileged to comefrom the family he did, because it meant he was ableto have private trumpet lessons. He learnt from ateacher called Elwood Buchanan, who taught Miles allthe basics he needed to know, before his naturaltalent and flare for improvisation took over. Milesprogressed quickly at the trumpet, and played in manybands and ensembles at his school. While still inschool, he joined his first independent group as a
The last two bars of this newchord progression contain the chords EŘ/A, and thenGm+b5/A. Miles Davis was the most prominenttrumpeter in the coming about of cool jazz. In the next Em7 section, Davis brings the solo back toa more basic form. Using this for the analysis, in bar 49 - the beginningof the solo - Davis uses the 9th extension, and in thenext bar he again uses the 9th and the 13thextensions. The accompaniment to bar 65 is anAm7 chord, Davis sticks to the chord in this bar. Davis joinedParker's quintet in 1945. For the first 6 bars of this section, Davis isplaying with a little theme. There arefour main extensions which can be employed above a Dmajor chord. In bar 121, there isanother run, in which all four extensions are used,but he quickly slows down, and for the next 9 bars heuses only the 7th and 9th extensions. These areoften used as passing notes in an ascending phrase,for example in bar 84, but they are also used in theirown right, and this is what separates this sectionfrom the rest of the piece. He plays on a little 3 note motif inbars 101, 102 and 103, which he varies the rhythm ofin bar 103, and then in bar 104 he uses the 13thextension, and then finishes the bar on a D, which isDavis again anticipating the chord change to D in thefollowing bar. In the first two bars of this section, and the lastbar of the previous section, Davis is again developinga theme. The jazz style known as 'cool jazz, is perceived asbeing subdued and understated. Bar 69 moves from F?, to F7, and thenthe next bar is Bb7/F.
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