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Miles Davis
Trumpeter & composer who reinvented jazz across five decades
Every time the audience caught up, he moved on — cool jazz, hard bop, modal, fusion — redefining the art form more often than anyone in its history.
The rise
The son of a prosperous dentist in East St. Louis, Davis moved to New York at 18, ostensibly to study at Juilliard but really to find Charlie Parker. By 20 he was recording with Parker's quintet. After a period of heroin addiction in the early 1950s, he emerged clean and formed a series of legendary ensembles that each pointed jazz in a new direction.