Miles Davis
USA, 1944–1991
American trumpeter and bandleader who led several changes of direction in jazz, from the modal Kind of Blue to the electric Bitches Brew, the latter opening the way to jazz-rock.
MusicRoots documents 3 artists who influenced Miles Davis and 16 artists Miles Davis influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Miles Davis?
- Charlie Parker — Davis's apprenticeship was in Parker's quintet (1945–48) — bebop learned nightly on the bandstand beside its creator.
- Clark Terry — Terry mentored Davis in St. Louis when Davis was still a teenager, down to the mouthpiece he played, and the two stayed friends for life.
- Dizzy Gillespie — Standing on the bandstand with Eckstine's band in 1944, Davis heard Gillespie and Parker at close range and was taken over by it - Gillespie's harmonic thinking is what he then spent years learning and reacting against.
Which artists did Miles Davis influence?
- Grateful Dead — Miles Davis was Garcia's model for fearless musical reinvention over a career.
- Traffic — By The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (1971) the band had moved onto the ground of Davis's electric groups — the title track works directly off Bitches Brew.
- Santana — Miles Davis's modal approach and sonic minimalism guided Santana toward space and colour in his playing.
- Bill Laswell — Electric Miles, and not as a listener only: Laswell later took the 1969-74 tapes apart and rebuilt them as Panthalassa.
- The Allman Brothers Band — The band's improvisational reach came from jazz — Betts and Berry Oakley were fascinated by the modal Kind of Blue, the harmonic openness behind their extended jams.
- Mahavishnu Orchestra — John McLaughlin came up through Miles Davis's electric band (In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew); hearing Miles Ahead at 15 was his jazz light-bulb — Mahavishnu extended Miles's fusion.
- Fela Kuti — Fela trained as a musician on modern jazz and was strongly drawn to Miles Davis - the harmonic and improvisational side of Afrobeat comes from there.
- Radiohead — Bitches Brew was a documented touchstone for OK Computer — the band has described chasing its layered, deteriorating beauty.
- A.R. Kane — The other half of the same declared formula — electric Miles as the dream-pop duo's jazz pole.
- Nujabes — Nujabes built his tracks from vinyl jazz - Miles Davis among the sources - making modal jazz the raw material of a hip-hop sound.
- Sting — A jazz bassist before the Police, Sting built his solo band from jazz players and has named Miles Davis's music a lifelong model.
- Joni Mitchell — Mitchell said she learned more as a singer from Miles Davis than anyone — 'Kind of Blue' and 'Sketches of Spain' gave her her expansive harmony.
- Madlib — Madlib names Miles Davis among the musicians he grew up making beats to, and the electric-period records are the ones his jazz digging keeps returning to.
- A Tribe Called Quest — A Tribe Called Quest pioneered jazz-rap by building beats on jazz — Miles Davis among the legends whose recordings and spirit fed their sound.
- Herbie Hancock — Davis recruited him for the Second Great Quintet in 1963 and taught him to leave space and trust the instinct — which is what made the Head Hunters turn possible ten years later.
- Small Faces — Part of the Black American jazz and soul Steve Marriott listened to, with Otis Redding and Booker T.