This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011)

Dave Holland
Background information
Born	(1946-10-01) October 1, 1946 (age 65) Wolverhampton, Staffordshire England United Kingdom
Genres	Jazz, avant-garde, jazz fusion
Occupations	Musician, composer, bandleader
Instruments	Double bass, bass guitar, cello, ukulele
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Dare2
Associated acts	Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Circle, Anthony Braxton, Kenny Wheeler, Gateway, Chris Potter
Website	Dave Holland.com

Dave Holland (born October 1, 1946) is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for 40 years.^[1]

His work ranges from pieces for solo performance to big band. Holland runs his own independent record label, Dare2, which he launched in 2005. He has explained his musical philosophy by quoting fellow jazz artist Sam Rivers. "Sam said, ‘Don’t leave anything out — play all of it,’ ”

Holland has played with some of the greatest names in jazz, and has participated in several classic recording sessions.

Biography[link]

Born in Wolverhampton, England, Holland taught himself how to play stringed instruments, beginning at four on the ukulele, then graduating to guitar and later bass guitar. He quit school at the age of 15 to pursue his profession in a top 40 band, but soon gravitated to jazz. After seeing an issue of Down Beat where Ray Brown had won the critics' poll for best bass player, Holland went to a record store, and bought a couple of LPs featuring Brown backing pianist Oscar Peterson. He also bought two Leroy Vinnegar albums (Leroy Walks! and Leroy Walks Again) because the bassist was posed with his instrument on the cover. Within a week, Holland traded in his bass guitar for an acoustic bass and began practicing with the records. In addition to Brown and Vinnegar, Holland was drawn to the bassists Charles Mingus and Jimmy Garrison.

After moving to London in 1964, Holland played acoustic bass in small venues and studied with James Edward Merrett, principal bassist of the Philharmonia Orchestra and, later, the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Merrett trained him to sight read and then recommended he apply to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Holland received a fulltime scholarship for the three-year program. At 20, Holland was keeping a busy schedule in school, studios and Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, London’s premier jazz club, where he often played in bands that supported such touring American jazz saxophonists as Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Joe Henderson. He also linked up with other British jazz musicians, including guitarist John McLaughlin, saxophonist Evan Parker, reedsman John Surman, South Africa-born London-based pianist Chris McGregor, and drummer John Stevens, and performed on the Spontaneous Music Ensemble's classic 1968 album Karyobin. He also began a working relationship with Canada-born, England-based trumpeter Kenny Wheeler that continues today.

With Miles Davis[link]

In 1968, Miles Davis and Philly Joe Jones heard him at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, playing in a combo that opened for the Bill Evans Trio. Jones told Holland that Davis wanted him to join his band (replacing Ron Carter). Davis left the UK before Holland could contact him directly, and two weeks later Holland was given three days' notice to fly to New York for an engagement at Count Basie's nightclub. He arrived the night before, staying with Jack DeJohnette, a previous acquaintance. The following day Herbie Hancock took him to the club, and his two years with Davis began. This was also Hancock's last gig as Davis's pianist, as he left afterwards for a honeymoon in Brazil and was replaced by Chick Corea when he couldn't return for an engagement due to illness. Holland's first recordings with Davis were in September 1968, and he appears on half of the album Filles de Kilimanjaro (with Davis, Corea, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams).

Holland was a member of Davis's rhythm section through the summer of 1970; he appears on the albums In a Silent Way and Bitches' Brew. All three of his studio recordings with Davis were important in the evolution of jazz fusion.^{[citation needed]} In the first year of his tenure with Davis, Holland played primarily upright bass. By the end of 1969, he played electric bass guitar (often treated with wah-wah pedal and other electronic effects) with greater frequency as Davis's music became increasingly electronic, amp-based and funky.

Holland was also a member of Davis's working group during this time, unlike many of the musicians who would appear only on the trumpeter's studio recordings. The so-called "lost quintet" of Davis, Shorter, Corea, Holland and Jack DeJohnette was active in 1969 but never made any studio recordings as a quintet. A 1970 live recording of this group plus percussionist Airto Moreira, Live at the Fillmore East, March 7, 1970: It's About That Time, was issued in 2001. Steve Grossman replaced Shorter in early 1970; Keith Jarrett joined the group as a second keyboardist thereafter, and Gary Bartz replaced Grossman during the summer of 1970. By the end of the summer, rhythm and blues bass guitarist Michael Henderson would replace Holland.

Post-Davis and the 1970s[link]

After leaving Davis's group, Holland briefly joined the avant-garde jazz group Circle with Chick Corea, Barry Altschul and Anthony Braxton. This started a 34-year association with the ECM record label. After recording a few albums, Circle disbanded when Corea departed. 1972 saw the recording of Conference of the Birds, with Rivers, Altschul and Braxton – Holland's first recording as a leader, and the beginning of a long musical relationship with Rivers. The title of the album is taken from that of a 4,500 line epic poem by Persian Sufist writer, Farid al-Din Attar.

Holland worked as a leader and as a sideman with many other jazz artists in the 1970s. He worked with reed player Anthony Braxton, appearing on several important studio and live recordings from 1972 to 1976. Holland recorded several important albums with Braxton – including "New York, Fall 1974" (1974) and "Five Pieces (1975)" – that were released on Arista Records. His performances with Braxton also were documented on live recordings such as "Quartet (Dortmund)" (1976) and "Town Hall 1972" (1972), originally released on the Swiss Hat Hut label.^[2] Holland also recorded duo sessions with saxophonist Rivers and fellow bassist Barre Phillips, and the solo bass album Emerald Tears. Also in the 1970s he appeared with performers including Stan Getz and the Gateway Trio with John Abercrombie and DeJohnette. The Gateway trio released two influential modern jazz albums in 1975 and 1977, and reformed in 1994 for a recording session which yielded another two albums. As a sideman, he appeared on rock and pop recordings as well, working with singer Bonnie Raitt on her 1972 album Give It Up.

The 1980s[link]

Holland formed his first working quintet in 1983, and over the next four years released Jumpin’ In, Seeds of Time, and Razor’s Edge, featuring alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, trumpeter Wheeler and trombonist Julian Priester. Subsequently, he formed the Dave Holland Trio (with Coleman and DeJohnette) for the 1988 album Triplicate, and teamed with Coleman, electric guitarist Kevin Eubanks and drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith for Extensions. He also recorded Life Cycle, an album of compositions played on solo cello.

The bassist also continued to collaborate with his peers, often connecting with legendary figures from the previous generation of jazz icons. In 1989, Holland teamed with drummer Billy Higgins and pianist Hank Jones to record The Oracle, and joined drummer Roy Haynes and guitarist Pat Metheny in 1989 to record Question and Answer (album).

The 1990s and 2000s[link]

During the ‘90s, he renewed an affiliation, begun in the 1970s, with Joe Henderson, joining the tenor saxophonist on So Near (So Far), a tribute to Miles Davis, Porgy & Bess, and Joe Henderson Big Band. Holland also reunited with vocalist Betty Carter, touring and recording the live album Feed the Fire (1993). Fellow Davis alumnus Herbie Hancock invited Holland to tour with him in 1992, subsequently recording The New Standard. Holland joined Hancock’s band again in 1996. (More recently, he was part of the sessions for River: The Joni Letters, winner of the 2008 Grammy for Album of the Year.)

As a leader, Holland formed his third quartet – and released Dream of the Elders (1995), which introduced the vibraphonist Steve Nelson to his ensembles. Holland also formed his current quintet, which includes tenor saxophonist Chris Potter, trombonist Robin Eubanks and, a more recent addition, drummer Nate Smith. Their recordings to date are Points of View, Not for Nothin, Prime Directive, Extended Play: Live at Birdland and Critical Mass. In addition to releasing four quintet albums on ECM, Holland debuted his Big Band, which released What Goes Around in 2002. The album won Holland his first Grammy award as a leader, in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category. The second Big Band recording, Overtime (2005), was released on Holland's own Dare2 record label and again won the Grammy in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category.

Holland’s work with the group won wide public recognition that year. He won Downbeat's Critics Poll for Musician of the Year, Big Band of the Year, and Acoustic Bassist of the Year (he also garnered top bassist in the 2006 poll). The Jazz Journalist’s Association also honored him as Musician and Acoustic Bassist of the Year. He was the recipient of the prestigious Miles Davis Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Also in 2005, Holland formed Dare2 Records, an independent record label that allowed him to have more control over his recordings. Besides Overtime, the label has released the quintet recording Critical Mass (2006) and the sextet recording Pass It On (2008). Pathways, the debut recording of Holland’s octet, was released on March 23, 2010. On October 5, 2010, Holland released Hands, a studio album featuring flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela.

In 2009, Holland was a co-founder of an all-star group called The Overtone Quartet. The group consisted of Holland on bass, Chris Potter on tenor saxophone, Jason Moran on piano, and Eric Harland on drums. The group toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe.

Off the bandstand, Holland has received honorary doctorates from the New England Conservatory (Boston), where he held a fulltime teaching position in 1987–88 and where he has been visiting artist in residence since 2005; Berklee College of Music (Boston); and Birmingham Conservatoire (Birmingham, England). He was also named Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London). From 1982-'89, Holland served as the artistic director of the Banff Summer Jazz Workshop through the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada. In addition, he has taught workshops and master classes around the world at universities and music schools and is President of the UK based National Youth Jazz Collective.

Holland currently resides in upstate New York.

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• 1971 - Music from Two Basses (with Barre Phillips) - ECM
• 1972 - Conference of the Birds - ECM
• 1976 - Dave Holland / Sam Rivers - Improvising Artists
• 1976 - Sam Rivers / Dave Holland Vol. 2 - Improvising Artists
• 1977 - Emerald Tears (double bass solo) - ECM
• 1982 - Life Cycle (cello solo) - ECM
• 1983 - Jumpin' In - ECM
• 1984 - Seeds of Time - ECM
• 1987 - The Razor's Edge - ECM
• 1988 - Triplicate - ECM
• 1990 - Extensions - ECM
• 1993 - Ones All - Intuition
• 1995 - Dream of the Elders - ECM
• 1998 - Points of View - ECM
• 1999 - Prime Directive - ECM
• 2001 - Not for Nothin' - ECM
• 2002 - What Goes Around (with Big Band) - ECM
• 2003 - Extended Play: Live at Birdland - ECM
• 2005 - Overtime - Dare2
• 2006 - Critical Mass - Dare2
• 2007 - Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival
• 2008 - Pass It On - Dare2
• 2010 - Pathways - Dare2
• 2010 - Hands (with Pepe Habichuela) - Dare2

With Gateway

• Gateway (ECM, 1975)
• Gateway 2 (ECM, 1977)
• Homecoming (ECM, 1994)
• In the Moment (ECM, 1994)

With Scolohofo

• Oh! (Blue Note, 2003)

Compilation:

• Rarum, Vol. 10: Selected Recordings (ECM, 2004)

As sideman[link]

With Claudia Acuna

• Rhythm of Life (Verve, 2002)

With Norman Blake, Tut Taylor, Sam Bush, Butch Robins, Vassar Clements and Jethro Burns

• Norman Blake/Tut Taylor/Sam Bush/Butch Robins/Vassar Clements/David Holland/Jethro Burns (Flying Fish, 1976)

With George Adams

• Sound Suggestions (ECM, 1979)

With Anouar Brahem

• Thimar (ECM, 1997)

With Anthony Braxton

• Town Hall 1972 (Trio, 1972)
• New York, Fall 1974 (Arista, 1974)
• Five Pieces 1975 (Arista, 1975)
• Creative Orchestra Music 1976 (Arista, 1976)
• Dortmund (Quartet) 1976 (hatART, 1976 [1991])
• The Montreux/Berlin Concerts (Arista, 1975-6)

With Michael Brecker

• Tales from the Hudson (Impulse!, 1996)

With Betty Carter

• Feed the Fire (Verve, 1993)

With Steve Coleman

• Rhythm People (Novus/RCA, 1990)
• Phase Space (Rebel-X/DIW, 1991) Duo recording
• Black Science (Novus/BMG, 1991)
• Rhythm in Mind (Novus/BMG, 1991)

With Chick Corea

• Is (Groove Merchant, 1969)
• Sundance (Groove Merchant, 1969)
• The Song of Singing (Blue Note, 1970)
• A.R.C. (ECM, 1971)

With Circle

• Circling In (1970)
• Circulus (1970)
• Circle 1: Live in Germany Concert (1970)
• Paris Concert (1971)
• Circle 2: Gathering (1971)

With Miles Davis

• Filles de Kilimanjaro (1968)
• In a Silent Way (1969)
• 1969 Miles - Festival de Juan Pins (1969)
• Bitches Brew (1969)
• Live at the Fillmore East, March 7, 1970: It's About That Time (1970)
• Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East (1970)
• Black Beauty: Live at the Fillmore West (1970)
• Live-Evil (1970)
• Big Fun (1969–1972)

With Bill Frisell

• With Dave Holland and Elvin Jones (Nonesuch, 2001)

With Laszlo Gardony

• The Legend of Tsumi (Antilles, 1989)

With Herbie Hancock

• River: The Joni Letters (Verve, 2006)

With Billy Hart

• Oshumare (Gramavision, 1985)

With John Hartford

• Morning Bugle (Warner Bros., 1972)
• Vassar Clements, John Hartford, Dave Holland (Rounder, 1988)

With Joe Henderson

• So Near, So Far (Musings for Miles) (1993)

With Lee Konitz

• Satori (1974)

With Joe Lovano

• Trio Fascination: Edition One (Blue Note, 1997)

With Pat Metheny (and Roy Haynes

• Question and Answer (Geffen, 1990)

With Sam Rivers

• Sizzle (Impulse!, 1975)
• Waves (Tomato, 1978)
• Contrasts (ECM, 1981)

With Tomasz Stańko

• Balladyna (ECM, 1976)

With Collin Walcott

• Cloud Dance (ECM, 1975)

With Kenny Wheeler

• Gnu High (ECM, 1975)
• Deer Wan (ECM, 1977)
• Double, Double You (ECM, 1984)
• Flutter By, Butterfly (Soul Note, 1988)
• Music for Large & Small Ensembles (ECM, 1990)
• The Widow in the Window (ECM, 1990)
• Angel Song (ECM, 1997)
• What Now? (CAM Jazz, 2005)

Filmography[link]

As a leader[link]

• 2000 - DeJohnette, Hancock, Holland and Metheny - Live in Concert
• 2005 - Dave Holland Quintet - Live in Freiburg
• 2009 - Dave Holland Quintet: Vortex
• 2009 - Dave Holland Quintet - Live from the Zelt-Musik-Festival, Freiburg 1986

As a sideman[link]

• 1992 - Renaud Le Van Kim: Miles Davis and Friends (Bravo!)
• 2001 - Mike Dibb: The Miles Davis Story (Channel 4)
• 2004 - Murray Lerner: Miles Electric - A Different Kind of Blue (Eagle Rock) - about the Isle of Wight Festival 1970

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dave Holland

• Official website
• Dave Holland on ECM's official website, with reviews
• Dave Hollands ECM recordings on trovar.com
• Audio Interview with Dave Holland
• Review of the album Critical Mass from JazzChicago.net
• Dave Holland: Jazz at the Bass Level, Oregon Music News
• Dave Holland at All About Jazz
• Discography on Discogs

Coat of arms of the former County of Holland

Holland is a region in the western part of the Netherlands. The term Holland is also frequently used as a pars pro toto to refer to the whole of the Netherlands. This usage is generally accepted but disliked by Dutch people in the other parts of the Netherlands.^[1]

From the 10th century to the 16th century, Holland proper was a unified political region, a county ruled by the Counts of Holland. By the 17th century, Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, dominating the other provinces of the Dutch Republic.

Today, the former County of Holland consists of the two Dutch provinces of North Holland and South Holland, which together include the Netherlands' three largest cities: country capital Amsterdam; seat of government The Hague; and Rotterdam, home of Europe's largest port.

Etymology[link]

Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) referred to this region as the land between the Helinium and Flevo ("inter Helinium ac Flevum"), the names of the mouths into which the Rhine divided itself, the first discharging its waters in the Mosa in the neighbourhood of Brielle and the second into "the lakes of the north" (present IJsselmeer).^[2] The name Holland first appeared in sources in 866 for the region around Haarlem, and by 1064 was being used as the name of the entire county. By this time, the inhabitants of Holland were referring to themselves as "Hollanders".^[3] Holland is derived from the Middle Dutch term holtland ("wooded land").^{[citation needed]} This spelling variation remained in use until around the 14th century, at which time the name stabilised as Holland (alternative spellings at the time were Hollant and Hollandt). Popular, but incorrect etymology holds that Holland is derived from hol land ("hollow land") and was inspired by the low-lying geography of Holland.^{[citation needed]}

Usage[link]

The proper name of the area in both Dutch and English is "Holland". "Holland" is a part of the Netherlands. "Holland" is informally used in English and other languages, including sometimes the Dutch language itself, to mean the whole of the modern country of the Netherlands.^[4] (This example of pars pro toto or synecdoche is similar to the tendency to refer to the United Kingdom as "England".)

The people of Holland are referred to as "Hollanders" in both Dutch and English. Today this refers specifically to people from the current provinces of North Holland and South Holland. Strictly speaking, the term "Hollanders" does not refer to people from the other provinces in the Netherlands, but colloquially "Hollanders" is sometimes mistakenly used in this wider sense.

In Dutch, the Dutch word "Hollands" is the adjectival form for "Holland". The Dutch word "Hollands" is also colloquially and occasionally used by some Dutch people in the sense of "Nederlands" (Dutch), but then often with the intention of contrasting with other types of Dutch people or language, for example Limburgish, the Belgian form of the Dutch language ("Flemish"), or even any southern variety of Dutch within the Netherlands itself.

However, in English there is no commonly used adjective for "Holland". "Dutch" refers to the Netherlands as a whole, not just the region of Holland. "Hollands" is ordinarily expressed in English in two ways:

• a possessive construction (e.g. "Holland's economic power"); or
• an "of Holland" or "from Holland" construction (e.g. "the Maid of Holland"; "a girl from Holland").

The following usages apply in certain limited situations but do not ordinarily serve as the English equivalent of the commonly used Dutch adjective "Hollands".

• Occasionally, the noun "Holland" is used in apposition (e.g. "the Holland Society").
• The adjective "Hollandic" is occasionally used by some historians and other academic writers as an adjective for Holland. Historians who use the word tend to reserve it to pre-Napoleonic Holland. Hollandic is also the name linguists give to the dialect spoken in Holland.
• The adjective "Hollandish" is a word in English but is no longer in use.

Geography[link]

North Holland

South Holland

Holland is situated in the west of the Netherlands. A maritime region, Holland lies on the North Sea at the mouths of the Rhine and the Meuse (Maas). It has numerous rivers and lakes and an extensive inland canal and waterway system. To the south is Zealand. The region is bordered on the east by the IJsselmeer and four different provinces of the Netherlands.

Holland is protected from the sea by a long line of coastal dunes. Most of the land area behind the dunes consists of polder landscape lying well below sea level. At present the lowest point in Holland is a polder near Rotterdam, which is about seven meters below sea level. Continuous drainage is necessary to keep Holland from flooding. In earlier centuries windmills were used for this task. The landscape was (and in places still is) dotted with windmills, which have become a symbol of Holland.

Holland is 7,494 square kilometres (land and water included), making it roughly 13% of the area of the Netherlands. Looking at land alone, it is 5,488 square kilometres in size. The combined population is 6.1 million.

The main cities in Holland are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. Amsterdam is formally the capital of the Netherlands and its largest city. The Port of Rotterdam is Europe's largest and most important harbour and port. The Hague is the seat of government of the Netherlands. These cities, combined with Utrecht and other smaller municipalities, effectively form a single city—a conurbation called Randstad.

The Randstad area is one of the most densely populated regions of Europe, but still relatively free of urban sprawl. There are strict zoning laws. Population pressures are enormous, property values are high, and new housing is constantly under development on the edges of the built-up areas. Surprisingly, much of the province still has a rural character. The remaining agricultural land and natural areas are highly valued and protected. Most of the arable land is used for intensive agriculture, including horticulture and greenhouse agri-businesses.

Language[link]

The predominant language spoken in the Holland is Dutch. Hollanders sometimes refer to the Dutch language as "Hollands", instead of the standard term Nederlands. Inhabitants of Belgium and other provinces of the Netherlands refer to "Hollands" to indicate someone speaking in a Hollandic dialect, or strong accent.

Standard Dutch was historically largely based on the dialect of the County of Holland, incorporating many traits derived from the dialects of the previously more powerful Duchy of Brabant and County of Flanders. Strong dialectal variation still exists throughout the Low Countries. Today, Holland-proper is the region where the original dialects are least spoken, in many areas having been completely replaced by standard Dutch, and the Randstad has the largest influence on the developments of the standard language—with the exception of the Dutch spoken in Belgium.^[5]

Despite this correspondence between standard Dutch and the Dutch spoken in the Randstad, there are local variations within Holland itself that differ from standard Dutch. The main cities each have their own modern urban dialect, that can be considered a sociolect.^[6] A small number of people, especially in the area north of Amsterdam, still speak the original dialect of the county, Hollandic. The Hollandic dialect is present in the north: Volendam and Marken and the area around there, West Friesland and the Zaanstreek; and in a south-eastern fringe bordering on the provinces of North Brabant and Utrecht. In the south on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee, Zealandic is spoken.

History[link]

Each of the provinces in the Netherlands has a history that deserves full attention on its own. However, to a certain extent at least, the history of Holland is the history of the Netherlands, and vice versa. See the article on "History of the Netherlands" for a more detailed history. The article here focuses on those points that are specific to Holland itself or that highlight the nature of the role played by Holland in the Netherlands as a whole.

Reclamation of the land[link]

The land that is now Holland had never been stable. Over the millennia the geography of the region had been dynamic. The western coastline shifted up to thirty kilometres to the east and storm surges regularly broke through the row of coastal dunes. The Frisian Isles, originally joined to the mainland, became detached islands in the north. The main rivers, the Rhine and the Meuse (Maas), flooded regularly and changed course repeatedly and dramatically.

The people of Holland found themselves living in an unstable, watery environment. Behind the dunes on the coast of the Netherlands a high peat plateau had grown, forming a natural protection against the sea. Much of the area was marsh and bog. By the tenth century the inhabitants set about cultivating this land by draining it. However, the drainage resulted in extreme soil shrinkage, lowering the surface of the land by up to fifteen metres.

Benthuizen polder, seen from a dike

To the south of Holland, in Zeeland, and to the north, in Frisia, this development led to catastrophic storm floods literally washing away entire regions, as the peat layer disintegrated or became detached and was carried away by the flood water. From the Frisian side the sea even flooded the area to the east, gradually hollowing Holland out from behind and forming the Zuiderzee (the present IJsselmeer). This inland sea threatened to link up with the "drowned lands" of Zealand in the south, reducing Holland to a series of narrow dune barrier islands in front of a lagoon. Only drastic administrative intervention saved the county from utter destruction. The counts and large monasteries took the lead in these efforts, building the first heavy emergency dikes to bolster critical points. Later special autonomous administrative bodies were formed, the waterschappen ("water control boards"), which had the legal power to enforce their regulations and decisions on water management. As the centuries went by, they eventually constructed an extensive dike system that covered the coastline and the polders, thus protecting the land from further incursions by the sea.

However, the Hollanders did not stop there. Starting around the 16th century, they took the offensive and began land reclamation projects, converting lakes, marshy areas and adjoining mudflats into polders. This continued right into the 20th century. As a result, historical maps of mediaeval and early modern Holland bear little resemblance to the maps of today.

This ongoing struggle to master the water played an important role in the development of Holland as a maritime and economic power and in the development of the character of the people of Holland.

County of Holland[link]

Until the 9th century, the inhabitants of the area that became Holland were Frisians. The area was part of Frisia. At the end of the 9th century, Holland became a separate county in the Holy Roman Empire. The first Count of Holland known about with certainty was Dirk I, who ruled from 896 to 931. He was succeeded by a long line of counts in the House of Holland (who were in fact known as counts of Frisia until 1101). When John I, count of Holland, died childless in 1299, the county was inherited by John II of Avesnes, count of Hainaut. By the time of William V (House of Wittelsbach; 1354–1388) the count of Holland was also the count of Hainaut, Flanders and Zealand.

In this time a part of Frisia, West Friesland, was conquered (as a result, most provincial institutions, including the States of Holland and West Frisia, would for centuries refer to "Holland and West Frisia" as a unit). The Hook and Cod wars started around this time and ended when the countess of Holland, Jacoba or Jacqueline was forced to give up Holland to the Burgundian Philip III, known as Philip the Good, in 1432.

The last count of Holland was Philip III, better known as Philip II king of Spain. He was abolished in 1581 by the so-called Act of Abjuration, although the kings of Spain continued to carry the titular appellation of count of Holland until the Peace of Münster signed in 1648.

Holland's prominence in the United Provinces and Dutch Republic[link]

In 1432, Holland became part of the Burgundian Netherlands and since 1477 of the Habsburg Seventeen Provinces. In the 16th century the county became the most densely urbanised region in Europe, with the majority of the population living in cities. Within the Burgundian Netherlands, Holland was the dominant province in the north; the political influence of Holland largely determined the extent of Burgundian dominion in that area.

Comitatus Hollandiae (1682)

In the Dutch Rebellion against the Habsburgs during the Eighty Years' War, the naval forces of the rebels, the Watergeuzen, established their first permanent base in 1572 in the town of Brill. In this way, Holland, now a sovereign state in a larger Dutch confederation, became the centre of the rebellion. It became the cultural, political and economic centre of the United Provinces, in the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age, the wealthiest nation in the world. After the King of Spain was deposed as the count of Holland, the executive and legislative power rested with the States of Holland, which was led by a political figure who held the office of Grand Pensionary.

The largest cities in the Dutch Republic were in the province of Holland, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden, Alkmaar, The Hague, Delft, Dordrecht and Haarlem. From the great ports of Holland, Hollandic merchants sailed to and from destinations all over Europe, and merchants from all over Europe gathered to trade in the warehouses of Amsterdam and other trading cities of Holland.

Many Europeans thought of the United Provinces first as "Holland" rather than as the "Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands". A strong impression of "Holland" was planted in the minds of other Europeans, which then was projected back onto the Republic as a whole. Within the provinces themselves, a gradual slow process of cultural expansion took place, leading to a "Hollandification" of the other provinces and a more uniform culture for the whole of the Republic. The dialect of urban Holland became the standard language.

Kingdom of Holland[link]

The formation of the Batavian Republic, inspired by the French revolution, led to a more centralised government. Holland became a province of a unitary state. Its independence was further reduced by an administrative reform in 1798, in which its territory was divided into several departments called Amstel, Delf, Texel, and part of Schelde en Maas.

From 1806 to 1810 Napoleon styled his vassal state, governed by his brother Louis Napoleon and shortly by the son of Louis, Napoleon Louis Bonaparte, as the "Kingdom of Holland". This kingdom encompassed much of what would become the modern Netherlands. The name reflects how natural at the time it had become to equate Holland with the non-Belgian Netherlands as a whole.^[7]

During the period the Low Countries were annexed by the French Empire and actually incorporated into France (from 1810 to 1813), Holland was divided into the départements Zuyderzée and Bouches-de-la-Meuse.

Provinces like any other[link]

After 1813, Holland was restored as a province of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Holland was divided into the present provinces North Holland and South Holland in 1840, after the Belgian Revolution of 1830. This reflected an historical division of Holland along the IJ into a Southern Quarter (Zuiderkwartier) and a Northern Quarter (Noorderkwartier). But the actual division is different from the old division.

From 1850 a strong process of nation formation took place, the Netherlands being culturally unified and economically integrated by a modernisation process, with the cities of Holland as its centre.^[8]

Image of Holland at home and abroad[link]

The predominance of Holland in the Netherlands has resulted in regionalism on the part of the other provinces. This is a reaction to the perceived threat that Holland poses to the identities and local cultures of the other provinces. The other provinces have a strong, and often negative,^[9] image of Holland and the Hollanders, to whom certain qualities are ascribed within a mental geography, a conceptual mapping of spaces and their inhabitants.^[10] On the other hand, some Hollanders take Holland's cultural dominance for granted and treat the concepts of "Holland" and the "Netherlands" as coincidental. Consequently, they see themselves not primarily as "Hollanders", but simply as "Dutch" (Nederlanders).^[11] This phenomenon has been called "hollandocentrism".^[12]

Holland tends to be associated with a particular image. The stereotypical image of Holland is an artificial amalgam of tulips, windmills, clogs, cheese and traditional dress (klederdracht). As is the case with many stereotypes, this is far from the truth and reality of life in Holland. This can at least in part be explained by the active exploitation of these stereotypes in promotions of Holland and the Netherlands. In fact only in a few of the more traditional villages, such as Volendam and locations in the Zaan area, are the different costumes with wooden shoes still worn by some inhabitants.

New Holland[link]

The province of Holland gave its name to a number of colonial settlements and discovered regions that were called Nieuw Holland or New Holland. The most extensive of these was the island continent presently known as Australia: New Holland was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman as a Latin Nova Hollandia, and remained in international use for 190 years. On the same voyage he named New Zealand after the Dutch province of Zeeland. In the Netherlands Nieuw Holland would remain the usual name of the continent until the end of the 19th century; it is now no longer in use there, the Dutch name today being Australië.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Holland

• Map of Holland (the provinces of North Holland and South Holland) on Google Maps

Coordinates: 52°15′00″N 4°40′01″E / 52.250°N 4.667°E / 52.250; 4.667

Jack DeJohnette
DeJohnette in 2006
Background information
Born	(1942-08-09)August 9, 1942 Chicago, Illinois United States
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion, new age
Occupations	Musician, composer
Instruments	Drums, piano, percussion, melodica
Years active	1961–present
Labels	Milestone/Prestige, ECM, MCA, Blue Note, Columbia, Kindred Rhythm
Website	www.jackdejohnette.com

Jack DeJohnette (born 9 August 1942)^[1] is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. An important figure of the fusion era of jazz, DeJohnette is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Sonny Rollins, and John Scofield.

Biography[link]

Early Life and Musical Beginnings[link]

DeJohnette was born on 9 August 1942 in Chicago, Illinois.^[2] He began his musical career as a piano player, studying from age four and beginning to play professionally at age 14,^[3] but he decided to forsake it and took on the drums as his main instrument.^[4] DeJohnette would later credit an uncle, Roy I. Wood Sr., as the person in his life who inspired him to play music. Wood was a Chicago disc jockey who would later become vice president of the National Network of Black Broadcasters.^[5]

DeJohnette began his drumming career playing R&B, hard bop, and avant-garde music in Chicago, leading his own groups while playing also with Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell, both of whom were members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.^[6] In the early 1960s, Dejohnette had the opportunity to perform with John Coltrane and his quintet, an early foray into playing with big name jazz musicians.^[7]

In 1966 DeJohnette moved to New York City, where he became a member of the Charles Lloyd Quartet.^[8] A band that recognized the potential influence of rock and roll on jazz, Lloyd’s group was where DeJohnette would first encounter pianist Keith Jarrett, who would work extensively with DeJohnette throughout his career.^[9] However, DeJohnette left the group in early 1968, citing Lloyd’s deteriorating, “flat” playing as his main reason for leaving.^[10] While Lloyd’s band was where he received international recognition for the first time,^[11] it was not the only group DeJohnette played with during his early years in New York, as he also worked with groups including Jackie McLean, Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter, and Bill Evans.^[12] DeJohnette joined Evan’s trio in 1968, the same year the group headlined the Montreux Jazz Festival and produce the album Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In November 1968 he worked briefly with Stan Getz and his quartet, which led to his first recordings with Miles Davis.^[13]

The Miles Davis Years[link]

In 1969, DeJohnette left the Evans trio and replaced Tony Williams in Miles Davis’ live band. Davis had seen DeJohnette play many times, one of which was during a stint with Evans at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London in 1968, where he also first saw the exploits of bassist Dave Holland.^[14] Davis recognized DeJohnette’s ability to combine the driving grooves associated with rock and roll with improvisational aspects associated with jazz.^[15]

DeJohnette put some work into the album Directions, and was the drummer on the landmark album Bitches Brew. DeJohnette himself, along with others, saw the sessions that brought about this album as unstructured and done in fragments but as innovative nonetheless: “As the music was being played, as it was developing, Miles would get new ideas...He’d do a take, and stop, and then get an idea from what had just gone on before, and elaborate on it...The recording of Bitches Brew was a stream of creative musical energy. One thing was flowing into the next, and we were stopping and starting all the time.”^[16] While he was not the only drummer involved in the project, as Davis had also enlisted Billy Cobham, Don Alias, and Lenny White, DeJohnette was considered the leader of the rhythm section within the group.^[17] He played on the live albums that would follow the release of Bitches Brew, taken from concerts at the Fillmore East in New York and Fillmore West in San Francisco. These ventures were undertaken at the behest of Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records.^[18]

DeJohnette continued to work with Davis for the next three years, which led to collaborations with other Davis band members John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, and Holland; he also drew Keith Jarrett into the band.^[19] He contributed to such famous Davis albums as Live-Evil (1971), A Tribute to Jack Johnson (1971), and On the Corner (1972).^[20] He left the Davis group in the middle of 1971, although he returned to the group for several concerts through the rest of that year.^[21]

DeJohnette as a Solo Artist and Bandleader in the 1970s and 80s[link]

DeJohnette had begun his career as a bandleader during his time in the Davis group. His first record, The DeJohnette Complex, was released in 1968; on the album, DeJohnette played melodica as well as drums, preferring often to let a mentor of his, Roy Haynes, sit behind the set. He also recorded, in the early 1970s, the albums Have You Heard, Sorcery, and Cosmic Chicken.^[22] He released these first four albums on either the Milestone or Prestige labels,^[23] and then switched to ECM for his next endeavors; ECM gave him a “fertile platform” for his “atmospheric drumming and challenging compositions.”^[24]

The musical freedom he had while recording for ECM offered DeJohnette many dates as a sideman and opportunities to start his own groups.^[25] He first formed the group Compost in 1972, but this was a short-lived endeavor, and DeJohnette cited the music as far too experimental to achieve commercial success.^[26] During this period, DeJohnette continued his career as a sideman as well, rejoining Stan Getz’s quartet from 1973 to October 1974, and also enticing Dave Holland to join Getz’s rhythm section.^[27] This stint briefly preceded the formation of the Gateway Trio, a group that DeJohnette helped form but did not lead. This group came directly out of the DeJohnette’s time with Getz, as Holland joined him in this group along with guitarist John Abercrombie, both of whom would become associated with DeJohnette throughout his career.^[28] His next group effort was Directions, a group formed in 1976 featuring saxophonist [Alex Foster], bassist Mike Richmond, and Abercrombie,^[29] showing the links between the members of the Gateway trio. This was another short-lived group, yet it led directly to the formation of DeJohnette’s next group, New Directions, which featured Abercrombie again on guitar along with Lester Bowie on trumpet and Eddie Gomez on bass.^[30] This group coexisted with another DeJohnette group, Special Edition, which was the first DeJohnette-led group to receive critical acclaim.^[31] This group also helped the careers of many lesser-known young horn players, as it had a rotating front line that included David Murray, Arthur Blythe, Chico Freeman, John Purcell, and Rufus Reid, among many others.^[32]

During this period, especially with Special Edition, DeJohnette offered “the necessary gravity to keep the horns in a tight orbit” in his compositions while also treating his listeners to “the expanded vocabulary of the avant-garde plus the discipline of traditional jazz compositions.”^[33] DeJohnette’s work with Special Edition has been interrupted regularly by other projects, the most significant of which are his recordings in 1983 and tours from 1985 as a member of Keith Jarrett’s trio, which was totally devoted to playing jazz standards.^[34] The trio included his longtime compatriot Jarrett and bassist Gary Peacock, and all three have been members of the group for over 25 years.^[35]

DeJohnette in the 1990s and the present[link]

DeJohnette continued to work with Special Edition into the 1990s, but did not limit himself to that. In 1990 he toured in a quartet consisting of himself, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and his longtime collaborator Holland,^[36] and released the Parallel Realities CD with this group the same year.^[37] In 1992 he released a major collaborative record, Music for the Fifth World, which was inspired by studies with a Native American elder and brought him together musically with players like Vernon Reid and John Scofield.^[38] He had also, during the 1980s, resumed playing piano, which led to his 1994 tour as an unaccompanied pianist.^[39] He also began working again with Abercrombie and Holland, reviving the Gateway trio.^[40]

In 2004 he was nominated for a GRAMMY award for his work on Keith Jarrett’s live album The Out-of-Towners, and continued to work with that group into 2005.^[41] In the next few years DeJohnette would begin and lead three new projects, the first of which was the Latin Project consisting of percussionists Giovanni Hidalgo and Luisito Quintero, reedman Don Byron, pianist Edsel Gomez, and bassist Jerome Harris.^[42] The other two new projects were the Jack DeJohnette Quartet, featuring Harris again alongside Danilo Perez and John Patitucci, and the Trio Beyond, a tribute to DeJohnette’s friend Tony Williams and his The Tony Williams Lifetime trio (consisting of Williams, Larry Young and John McLaughlin)featuring John Scofield and Larry Goldings.^[43] He also founded his own label, Golden Beams Productions, in 2005. That same year, he released Music in the Key of OM on his new label, an electronic album which he created for relaxing and meditative purposes on which he played synthesizer and resonating bells, and which was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best New Age Album category.^[44] He continued to makes albums as a leader and sideman throughout this period as well, one of which was The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers, a collaboration that documents the first meeting of DeJohnette and guitarist Bill Frisell in 2001 and led to another tour, with Frisell and Jerome Harris.^[45] The next year Trio Beyond released Saudades, a live recording of a concert commemorating Tony Williams in London in 2004. In 2008 he toured with Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea, and the Jarrett trio, and the next year won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Albumwith Peace Time.^[46] In 2010 he founded the Jack DeJohnette Group, featuring Rudresh Mahanthappa on alto saxophone, David Fiuczynski on double-neck guitar, George Colligan on keyboards and piano, and long-time associate Jerome Harris on electric and acoustic bass guitars.^[47] In 2012, DeJohnette released Sound Travels, a multi-genre album that DeJohnette himself dominates but features many new collaborators like Bruce Hornsby, Esperanza Spalding, and Lionel Loueke as well as old faces such as McFerrin, Quintero, and Jason Moran.^[48] He was also, in 2012, awarded with an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for his "significant lifetime contributions have helped to enrich jazz and further the growth of the art form."^[49]

Style[link]

Jack DeJohnette successfully incorporates elements of free jazz and world music, while maintaining the deep grooves of jazz and R&B drummers. His exceptional experience of time and style, combined with astounding improvisational ingenuity, make him one of the most highly regarded and in-demand drummers. He also occasionally appears on piano, on his own recordings. His drumming style has been called unique by many; some see him not as a drummer but as a “percussionist, colourist and epigrammatic commentator mediating the shifting ensemble densities” in his groups. Though he is often content with his drumming remaining behind the music, “his drumming is always part of the music's internal construction.”^[50] Modern Drummer magazine, in a 2004 interview, called DeJohnette’s drumming “beyond technique.”^[51] While most of his drumming is considered free and flowing, he commented that he has to play with a lot of restraint when playing with Keith Jarrett and his trio, saying that he’s challenged when playing in that group “to play with the subtlety that the music requires.”^[52] His work on the cymbals especially has been described as “loose,” creating an almost free tempo, and he calls himself an “abstract thinker” when it comes to soloing, saying that he puts “more weight on the abstract than, ‘What were you thinking in bar 33?’ I don’t like to think that way. I can do it, but I like to be more in the flow.”^[53] In terms of what he feels when he plays, DeJohnette said that when he plays, he goes “into an altered state, a different headspace. I plug into my higher self, into the cosmic library of ideas.”^[54]

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• The DeJohnette Complex (Milestone, 1969)
• Have You Heard (Milestone, 1970)
• Sorcery (Prestige, 1974)
• Cosmic Chicken (Prestige, 1975)
• Untitled (ECM, 1976)
• Pictures (ECM, 1976)
• New Rags (ECM, 1977)
• New Directions (ECM, 1978) with John Abercrombie, Lester Bowie and Eddie Gomez
• Special Edition (ECM, 1979) with Arthur Blythe and David Murray
• New Directions in Europe (ECM, 1980)
• Tin Can Alley (ECM, 1980) with Chico Freeman, John Purcell and Peter Warren
• Inflation Blues (ECM, 1982)
• Album Album (ECM, 1984) with John Purcell and David Murray
• The Jack DeJohnette Piano Album (1985)
• Zebra (1989) with Lester Bowie
• In Our Style (DIW, 1986) with David Murray
• Irresistible Forces (1987)
• Audio-Visualscapes (1988)
• Parallel Realities (1990) with Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock and Dave Holland
• Earthwalk (1991)
• Music for the Fifth World (1992)
• Extra Special Edition (1994)
• Dancing with Nature Spirits (ECM, 1995)
• Oneness (ECM, 1997)
• Music in the Key of Om (2005), nominated for a 2006 Grammy as Best New Age Album
• Music from the Hearts of the Masters (2005) with Foday Musa Suso
• The Ripple Effect (2005) with Ben Surman and Foday Musa Suso
• Hybrids (2005) with Ben Surman and Foday Musa Suso
• The Elephant Sleeps but Still Remembers (2006) with Bill Frisell
• Peace Time (2008)
• Music We Are (2009) with John Patitucci and Danilo Perez
• Sound Travels (2012)

As co-leader[link]

• Saudades on ECM Label, with John Scofield and Larry Goldings

• Gateway Trio on ECM with John Abercrombie and Dave Holland

• In Our Style with Dave Murray

• The Super Premium Band with Ron Carter and Kenny Baron

As sideman[link]

With John Abercrombie

• Timeless (ECM, 1974)
• Night (ECM, 1984)

With George Adams

• Sound Suggestions (ECM, 1979)

With Cannonball Adderley

• Lovers (1975)

With Geri Allen

• The Life of a Song (2004)

With Chet Baker

• She Was Too Good to Me (1974)

With Richard Beirach

• Elm (ECM, 1979)
• Trust (1993)

With George Benson

• Beyond the Blue Horizon (1971)
• Body Talk (1972)

With Joanne Brackeen

• Keyed In (1979)
• Special Identity (1981)

With Michael Brecker

• Michael Brecker (1986)
• Tales from the Hudson (1996)
• Don't Try This at Home (1998)
• Nearness of You (2000)
• Pilgrimage (2007)

With Henry Butler

• The Village (1987, Impulse!)

With Alice Coltrane and Carlos Santana

• Illuminations (1974)

With Compost

• Compost (1971)
• Life is Round (1973)

With Bill Connors

• Of Mist and Melting (ECM, 1977)

With Chick Corea

• Is (1969)
• Sundance (1969)

With Miles Davis

• Directions (1968–70)
• Bitches Brew (1969)
• Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East (1970)
• Live-Evil (1970)
• Big Fun (1970)
• Black Beauty: Live at the Fillmore West (1970)
• Live at the Fillmore East, March 7, 1970: It's About that Time (1970)
• A Tribute to Jack Johnson (1970)
• Circle in the Round (1970)
• On the Corner (1972)

With Paul Desmond

• Skylark (CTI, 1973)

With Eliane Elias

• Cross Currents (1987)

With Bill Evans

• Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival (1968)

With Antonio Farao

• Thorn (2000)

With Joe Farrell

• Joe Farrell Quartet (1970)
• Moon Germs (1972)

With Chico Freeman

• The Outside Within (1981)
• Freeman & Freeman (1981)
• Tradition in Transition (1982)

With Jan Garbarek

• Places (1977)

With Gateway

• Gateway (1975)
• Gateway 2 (1977)
• Homecoming (1994)
• In the Moment (1994)

With Stan Getz

• The Song Is You (1969)

With Mick Goodrick

• In Pas(s)ing (ECM, 1978)

With Herbie Hancock

• Blow-Up (1966)
• The New Standard (1996)

With Joe Henderson

• Tetragon (1968)
• Power to the People (1969)
• Black is the Color (1973)
• Multiple (1973)
• Double Rainbow: The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim (1995)

With Dave Holland

• Triplicate (ECM, 1988)

With Freddie Hubbard

• Straight Life (1970)
• First Light (1971)
• Freddie Hubbard/Stanley Turrentine In Concert Volume One (1974)
• In Concert Volume Two (1974)
• Polar AC (1975)
• Super Blue (1978)

With D. D. Jackson

• Anthem (1999)

With Keith Jarrett

• Ruta and Daitya (1971)
• Standards, Vol. 1 (January 1983; studio recording)
• Standards, Vol. 2 (January 1983; studio recording)
• Changes (January 1983; studio recording)
• Standards Live (July 1985; live recording)
• Still Live (July 1986; live recording)
• Changeless (October 1987; live recording), a record of free improvisation
• Standards in Norway (October 1989; live recording)
• Tribute (October 1989; live recording), which consists of songs played in tribute to various jazz figures associated with them
• The Cure (April 1990; live recording)
• Bye Bye Blackbird (October 1991; studio recording), a tribute to the recently deceased Miles Davis
• Keith Jarrett at the Blue Note (June 1994; live recording), a six-disc boxed set that documents three nights (six sets) in the famous New York City nightclub
• Tokyo '96 (March 1996; live recording)
• Whisper Not (July 1999; live recording)
• Inside Out (July 2000; live recording), a record of free improvisation
• Always Let Me Go (April 2001; live recording), a double album of free improvisation
• The Out-of-Towners (July 2001; live recording)
• Up for It - Live in Juan-les-Pins, July 2002 (July 2002; live recording)
• My Foolish Heart (July 2001; a double album of a live recording, Montreux Jazz Festival 2001)
• Setting Standards - New York Sessions (2008; 3CD set of the first three albums by the trio: Standards1, Standards2, Changes from 1983)
• Yesterdays (2009)

With Steve Khan

• Got My Mental (1996)

With Eric Kloss

• Sky Shadows (1968)
• To Hear is To See! (1969)
• Consciousness! (1970)

With Eero Koivistoinen

• Picture in Three Colours (1983)
• Altered Things (1992)

With Lee Konitz

• Peacemeal (1969)
• Satori (1974)

With Steve Kuhn

• Trance (ECM, 1974)

With Hubert Laws

• The Rite of Spring (CTI, 1971)

With Dave Liebman

• Trio + One (1988)

With Charles Lloyd

• Dream Weaver (1966)
• Forest Flower (1966)
• Charles Lloyd in Europe (1966)
• The Flowering (1966)
• Love-In (1967)
• Journey Within (1967)
• Charles Lloyd in the Soviet Union (1967)
• Soundtrack (1968)

With Joe Lovano

• Universal Language (Blue Note 1992)

With Harold Mabern

• Straight Street (1989)
• The Leading Man (1993)

With Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green

• Apex (2010)

With Michael Mantler

• The Hapless Child and Other Inscrutable Stories (1976)

With Lyle Mays

• Fictionary (1992)

With John McLaughlin

• Electric Guitarist (1979)

With Jackie McLean

• Jacknife (1966)
• Demon's Dance (1967)

With Pat Metheny

• 80/81 (1980)
• Song X (1985) with Ornette Coleman

With Kalman Olah

• Always (2006)

With Gary Peacock

• Tales of Another (ECM, 1977)
• Voice from the Past - Paradigm (ECM, 1981)

With Chris Potter

• Unspoken (1997)

With Teri Roiger

• Misterioso (1998)

With Sonny Rollins

• Next Album (1972)
• Reel Life (1982)
• Falling in Love with Jazz (1989)
• Here's to the People (1991)
• Old Flames (1993)
• Sonny Rollins + 3 (1996)
• This Is What I Do (2000)

With Terje Rypdal

• Terje Rypdal / Miroslav Vitous / Jack DeJohnette (ECM, 1978)
• To Be Continued (ECM, 1981)

With John Scofield

• Time on my Hands (1989)

With Don Sebesky

• Giant Box (CTI, 1973)

With Wayne Shorter

• Super Nova (1969)
• Tribute to John Coltrane: Live under the Sky (1987)

With Wadada Leo Smith

• Golden Quartet (2000)
• America (Tzadik, 2009)

With John Surman

• The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon (ECM, 1981)
• Invisible Nature (ECM, 1999)
• Free and Equal (ECM, 2001)
• Brewster's Rooster (ECM, 2008)

With Steve Swallow

• Real Book (1993)

With Gábor Szabó

• Mizrab (CTI, 1972)

With Szakcsi Generation

• 8 Trios for 4 Pianists (2005)

With Bobby Timmons

• Do You Know the Way? (1968)

With Ralph Towner

• Batik (ECM, 1978)

With Trio Beyond

• Saudades (2007)

With Stanley Turrentine

• Have You Ever Seen the Rain (1975)

With McCoy Tyner

• Supertrios (1977)
• Together (1979)
• 13th House (1982)

With Miroslav Vitous

• Infinite Search (1969)
• Magical Shepard (1976)
• Universal Syncopations (2003)

With Collin Walcott

• Cloud Dance (ECM, 1976)

With Bennie Wallace

• Twilight Time (1985)

With Peter Warren

• Solidarity (1981)

With Sadao Watanabe

• Round Trip (1974)

With Kenny Werner

• A Delicate Balance (1997)

With Kenny Wheeler

• Gnu High (1975)
• Deer Wan (1977)
• Double, Double You (1983)

With the World Saxophone Quartet

• Selim Sivad: a Tribute to Miles Davis (1998)

With Joe Zawinul

• Joe Zawinul (1971)

References[link]

1. ^ "Jack DeJohnette:Artist Info". Riad.usk.pk.edu.pl. 1942-08-09. http://riad.usk.pk.edu.pl/~pmj/dejohnette/info.html. Retrieved 2011-10-11. 
2. ^ Stephen L. Barnhart, Percussionists: a Biographical Dictionary (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), 88.
3. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
4. ^ Barnhart, Percussionists, 88.
5. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
6. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
7. ^ Lewis Porter, “Jack DeJohnette,” in Barry Kernfield, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, volume 1 (New York: Grove, 2002), 594.
8. ^ Barnhart, Percussionists, 88.
9. ^ Stuart Nicholson, Jazz Rock: a History (New York: Schirmer Books, 1998), 77-78.
10. ^ Nicholson, Jazz Rock, 81.
11. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
12. ^ Barnhart, Percussionists, 88.
13. ^ Porter, “Jack DeJohnette,” in Kernfield, ed., New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 594.
14. ^ Paul Tingen, Miles Beyond: the Electric Explorations of Miles Davis, 1967-1991 (New York: Billboard Books, 2001), 51.
15. ^ Tingen, Miles Beyond, 55.
16. ^ Jack DeJohnette, quoted in Tingen, Miles Beyond, 65.
17. ^ Tingen, Miles Beyond, 65.
18. ^ Nicholson, Jazz Rock, 115.
19. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
20. ^ Barnharrt, Percussionists, 89; Nicholson, Jazz Rock, 117.
21. ^ Porter, “Jack DeJohnette,” in Kernfield, ed., New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 594.
22. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
23. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
24. ^ Modern Drummer (12 May 2004). "Jack DeJohnette". Modern Drummer Magazine. http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2004/05/jack-dejohnette/#.T4zA39VObbg. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
25. ^ Modern Drummer (12 May 2004). "Jack DeJohnette". Modern Drummer Magazine. http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2004/05/jack-dejohnette/#.T4zA39VObbg. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
26. ^ Marjorie Burgess. "Jack DeJohnette Biography". Musician Biographies. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000691/Jack-DeJohnette.html. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
27. ^ Porter, “Jack DeJohnette,” in Kernfield, ed., New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 594.
28. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
29. ^ Marjorie Burgess. "Jack DeJohnette Biography". Musician Biographies. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000691/Jack-DeJohnette.html. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
30. ^ Marjorie Burgess. "Jack DeJohnette Biography". Musician Biographies. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000691/Jack-DeJohnette.html. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
31. ^ Porter, “Jack DeJohnette,” in Kernfield, ed., New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 594.
32. ^ Porter, “Jack DeJohnette,” in Kernfield, ed., New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 594.
33. ^ Geoffrey Himes (3 June 1983). "Jack DeJohnette and Art Blakey". The Washington Post. http://search.proquest.com/docview/147551728/pageviewPDF?accountid=11837. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
34. ^ Porter, “Jack DeJohnette,” in Kernfield, ed., New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 594.
35. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
36. ^ Porter, “Jack DeJohnette,” in Kernfield, ed., New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 594.
37. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
38. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
39. ^ Porter, “Jack DeJohnette,” in Kernfield, ed., New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 594.
40. ^ Porter, “Jack DeJohnette,” in Kernfield, ed., New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 594.
41. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
42. ^ C. Andrew Hovan (19 February 2005). "Reviews: Jack DeJohnette Latin Project". All About Jazz. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=16688. Retrieved 24 April 2012. 
43. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 24 April 2012. 
44. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 24 April 2012. 
45. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 24 April 2012. 
46. ^ "Jack DeJohnette: Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 24 April 2012. 
47. ^ "Jack DeJohnette:Biography". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography. Retrieved 16 July 2011. 
48. ^ "Sound Travels". http://www.jackdejohnette.com/music/sound-travels. Retrieved 24 April 2012. 
49. ^ "National Endowment for the Arts Announces the 2012 NEA Jazz Masters". http://www.nea.gov/honors/jazz/2012-NEA-Jazz-Masters-Announced.html. Retrieved 16 July 2011. 
50. ^ Stuart Nicholson (2 August 1998). "Jazz: Jack DeJohnette/Oneness: Drum major". The Observer. http://au8dt3yy7l.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Jazz%3A+Jack+DeJohnette%2F+Oneness%3A+Drum+major&rft.jtitle=The+Observer&rft.au=STUART+NICHOLSON&rft.date=1998-08-02&rft.issn=0029-7712&rft.spage=009&rft.externalDBID=OBSV&rft.externalDocID=32581846. Retrieved 24 April 2012. 
51. ^ Modern Drummer (12 May 2004). "Jack DeJohnette". Modern Drummer Magazine. http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2004/05/jack-dejohnette/#.T4zA39VObbg. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
52. ^ Modern Drummer (12 May 2004). "Jack DeJohnette". Modern Drummer Magazine. http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2004/05/jack-dejohnette/#.T4zA39VObbg. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
53. ^ Modern Drummer (12 May 2004). "Jack DeJohnette". Modern Drummer Magazine. http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2004/05/jack-dejohnette/#.T4zA39VObbg. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
54. ^ Modern Drummer (12 May 2004). "Jack DeJohnette". Modern Drummer Magazine. http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2004/05/jack-dejohnette/#.T4zA39VObbg. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 

Bibliography[link]

• Barnhart, Stephen L. Percussionists: a Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
• Burgess, Marjorie. “Jack DeJohnette Biography.” Musician Biographies. http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000691/Jack-DeJohnette.html (accessed 23 April 2012).
• Himes, Geoffrey. “Jack DeJohnette and Art Blakey.” The Washington Post, 3 June 1983. http://search.proquest.com/docview/147551728/pageviewPDF?accountid=11837 (accessed 23 April 2012).
• Hovan, C. Andrew. “Live Reviews: Jack DeJohnette Latin Project.” All About Jazz, 19 February 2005. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=16688 (accessed 24 April 2012).
• Nicholson, Stuart. Jazz Rock: a History. New York: Schirmer Books, 1998.
• Porter, Lewis. “Jack DeJohnette.” In Barry Kernfield, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, volume 1. New York: Grove, 2002.
• Tingen, Paul. Miles Beyond: the Electric Explorations of Miles Davis, 1967-1991. New York: Billboard Books, 2001.
• “Jack DeJohnette: Biography.” Jack DeJohnette official website. http://www.jackdejohnette.com/biography (accessed 23 April 2012).
• Modern Drummer. “Jack DeJohnette.” Modern Drummer Magazine, 12 May 2004. http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2004/05/jack-dejohnette/#.T4zA39VObbg (accessed 23 April 2012).
• “Sound Travels.” Jack DeJohnette official website. http://www.jackdejohnette.com/music/sound-travels (accessed 24 April 2012).

External links[link]

• Official website
• Jack DeJohnette's MySpace page
• Official biography
• At drummerworld.com
• Jack DeJohnette at BehindTheDrums.com - discography and equipment list
• Jack DeJohnette page and discography
• Jack DeJohnette on ECM Records
• Photos of Jack DeJohnette in Salzburg
• "Autumn Leaves" by Jack DeJohnette with Keith Jarrett and Gary Peacock
• Vic Firth page with four DeJohnette sample videos
• "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down": October 27, 1969 at Teatro Sistina, Rome, Italy with Miles Davis (tr), Wayne Shorter (ss, ts), Chick Corea (kb), Dave Holland (b), Jack DeJohnette (d)
• Jack DeJohnette interview at allaboutjazz
• http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004Z3ZD

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (March 2012)

Miles Davis
Photo of Davis in 1955 taken by Tom Palumbo
Background information
Birth name	Miles Dewey Davis III
Born	(1926-05-26)May 26, 1926 Alton, Illinois, United States
Died	September 28, 1991(1991-09-28) (aged 65) Santa Monica, California, United States
Genres	Jazz, hard bop, bebop, cool jazz, modal, fusion, third stream, jazz-funk, jazz rap[1][2]
Occupations	Bandleader, composer, trumpeter, artist
Instruments	Trumpet, flugelhorn, piano, organ
Years active	1944–1975, 1980–1991
Labels	Capitol Jazz/EMI, Columbia/CBS, Warner Bros.
Associated acts	Billy Eckstine, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis Quintet, Gil Evans
Website	www.milesdavis.com

Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century,^[3] Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion.

Biography[link]

Early life (1926–44)[link]

Miles Dewey Davis was born on May 26, 1926, to an affluent African American family in Alton, Illinois. His father, Dr. Miles Henry Davis, was a dentist. In 1927 the family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois. They also owned a substantial ranch in northern Arkansas, where Davis learned to ride horses as a boy.

Davis' mother, Cleota Mae (Henry) Davis, wanted her son to learn the piano; she was a capable blues pianist but kept this fact hidden from her son. His musical studies began at 13, when his father gave him a trumpet and arranged lessons with local musician Elwood Buchanan. Davis later suggested that his father's instrument choice was made largely to irk his wife, who disliked the trumpet's sound. Against the fashion of the time, Buchanan stressed the importance of playing without vibrato; he was reported to have slapped Davis' knuckles every time he started using heavy vibrato.^[4] Davis would carry his clear signature tone throughout his career. He once remarked on its importance to him, saying, "I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a round voice with not too much tremolo and not too much bass. Just right in the middle. If I can’t get that sound I can’t play anything."^[5] Clark Terry was another important early influence.^{[citation needed]}

By age 16, Davis was a member of the music society and playing professionally when not at school. At 17, he spent a year playing in Eddie Randle's band, the Blue Devils. During this time, Sonny Stitt tried to persuade him to join the Tiny Bradshaw band, then passing through town, but Davis' mother insisted that he finish his final year of high school. He graduated from East St. Louis Lincoln High School in 1944.

In 1944, the Billy Eckstine band visited East St. Louis. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were members of the band, and Davis was brought in on third trumpet for a couple of weeks because the regular player, Buddy Anderson, was out sick. Even after this experience, once Eckstine's band left town, Davis' parents were still keen for him to continue formal academic studies.

New York and the bebop years begin (1944–48)[link]

Charlie Parker, Tommy Potter, Miles Davis, Duke Jordan, Max Roach, August 1947

In the fall of 1944, following graduation from high school, Davis moved to New York City to study at the Juilliard School of Music.

Upon arriving in New York, he spent most of his first weeks in town trying to get in contact with Charlie Parker, despite being advised against doing so by several people he met during his quest, including saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.^[4]

Finally locating his idol, Davis became one of the cadre of musicians who held nightly jam sessions at two of Harlem's nightclubs, Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's. The group included many of the future leaders of the bebop revolution: young players such as Fats Navarro, Freddie Webster, and J. J. Johnson. Established musicians including Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke were also regular participants.

Davis dropped out of Juilliard, after asking permission from his father. In his autobiography, Davis criticized the Juilliard classes for centering too much on the classical European and "white" repertoire. However, he also acknowledged that, while greatly improving his trumpet playing technique, Juilliard helped give him a grounding in music theory that would prove valuable in later years.

Davis began playing professionally, performing in several 52nd Street clubs with Coleman Hawkins and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. In 1945, he entered a recording studio for the first time, as a member of Herbie Fields's group. This was the first of many recordings to which Davis contributed in this period, mostly as a sideman. He finally got the chance to record as a leader in 1946, with an occasional group called the Miles Davis Sextet plus Earl Coleman and Ann Hathaway—one of the rare occasions when Davis, by then a member of the groundbreaking Charlie Parker Quintet, can be heard accompanying singers.^[6] In these early years, recording sessions where Davis was the leader were the exception rather than the rule; his next date as leader would not come until 1947.

Around 1945, Dizzy Gillespie parted ways with Parker, and Davis was hired as Gillespie's replacement in his quintet, which also featured Max Roach on drums, Al Haig (replaced later by Sir Charles Thompson and Duke Jordan) on piano, and Curley Russell (later replaced by Tommy Potter and Leonard Gaskin) on bass.

Coleman Hawkins and Miles Davis, ca. September 1947

With Parker's quintet, Davis went into the studio several times, already showing hints of the style for which he would become known. On an oft-quoted take of Parker's signature song, "Now's the Time", Davis takes a melodic solo, whose unbop-like quality anticipates the "cool jazz" period that would follow. The Parker quintet also toured widely. During a stop in Los Angeles, Parker had a nervous breakdown that landed him in the Camarillo State Mental Hospital for several months, and Davis found himself stranded. He roomed and collaborated for some time with bassist Charles Mingus, before getting a job on Billy Eckstine's California tour, which eventually brought him back to New York.^[7] In 1948, Parker returned to New York, and Davis rejoined his group.

Miles Davis on piano with Howard McGhee and Brick Fleagle, September 1947

The relationships within the quintet, however, were growing tense. Parker's erratic behavior (attributable to his well-known drug addiction) and artistic choices (both Davis and Roach objected to having Duke Jordan as a pianist^[4] and would have preferred Bud Powell) became sources of friction. In December 1948, disputes over money (Davis claims he was not being paid) began to strain their relationship even further. Davis finally left the group following a confrontation with Parker at the Royal Roost.

For Davis, his departure from Parker's group marked the beginning of a period in which he worked mainly as a freelancer and as a sideman in some of the most important combos on the New York jazz scene.

Birth of the Cool (1948–49)[link]

In 1948 Davis grew close to the Canadian composer and arranger Gil Evans. Evans' basement apartment had become the meeting place for several young musicians and composers such as Davis, Roach, pianist John Lewis, and baritone sax player Gerry Mulligan who were unhappy with the increasingly virtuoso instrumental techniques that dominated the bebop scene. Evans had been the arranger for the Claude Thornhill orchestra, and it was the sound of this group, as well as Duke Ellington's example, that suggested the creation of an unusual line-up: a nonet including a French horn and a tuba (this accounts for the "tuba band" moniker that was to be associated with the combo).

Davis took an active role in the project,^[8] so much so that it soon became "his project". The objective was to achieve a sound similar to the human voice, through carefully arranged compositions and by emphasizing a relaxed, melodic approach to the improvisations.

The nonet debuted in the summer of 1948, with a two-week engagement at the Royal Roost. The sign announcing the performance gave a surprising prominence to the role of the arrangers: "Miles Davis Nonet. Arrangements by Gil Evans, John Lewis and Gerry Mulligan". It was, in fact, so unusual that Davis had to persuade the Roost's manager, Ralph Watkins, to allow the sign to be worded in this way; he prevailed only with the help of Monte Kay, the club's artistic director.

The nonet was active until the end of 1949, along the way undergoing several changes in personnel: Roach and Davis were constantly featured, along with Mulligan, tuba player Bill Barber, and alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, who had been preferred to Sonny Stitt (whose playing was considered too bop-oriented). Over the months, John Lewis alternated with Al Haig on piano, Mike Zwerin with Kai Winding on trombone (Johnson was touring at the time), Junior Collins with Sandy Siegelstein and Gunther Schuller on French horn, and Al McKibbon with Joe Shulman on bass. Singer Kenny Hagood was added for one track during the recording

The presence of white musicians in the group angered some black jazz players, many of whom were unemployed at the time, but Davis rebuffed their criticisms.^[9]

A contract with Capitol Records granted the nonet several recording sessions between January 1949 and April 1950. The material they recorded was released in 1956 on an album whose title, Birth of the Cool, gave its name to the "cool jazz" movement that developed at the same time and partly shared the musical direction begun by Davis' group.

For his part, Davis was fully aware of the importance of the project, which he pursued to the point of turning down a job with Duke Ellington's orchestra.^[4]

The importance of the nonet experience would become clear to critics and the larger public only in later years, but, at least commercially, the nonet was not a success. The liner notes of the first recordings of the Davis Quintet for Columbia Records call it one of the most spectacular failures of the jazz club scene. This was bitterly noted by Davis, who claimed the invention of the cool style and resented the success that was later enjoyed—in large part because of the media's attention—by white "cool jazz" musicians (Mulligan and Dave Brubeck in particular).

This experience also marked the beginning of the lifelong friendship between Davis and Gil Evans, an alliance that would bear important results in the years to follow.

Hard bop and the "Blue Period" (1950–54)[link]

The first half of the 1950s was, for Davis, a period of great personal difficulty. At the end of 1949, he went on tour in Paris with a group including Tadd Dameron, Kenny Clarke (who remained in Europe after the tour), and James Moody. Davis was fascinated by Paris and its cultural environment, where black jazz musicians, and African Americans in general, often felt better respected than they did in their homeland. While in Paris, Davis began a relationship with French actress and singer Juliette Gréco.

Many of his new and old friends (Davis, in his autobiography, mentions Clarke) tried to persuade him to stay in France, but Davis decided to return to New York. Back in the States, he began to feel deeply depressed. The depression was due in part to his separation from Gréco, in part to his feeling underappreciated by the critics (who were hailing Davis' former collaborators as leaders of the cool jazz movement), and in part to the unraveling of his liaison with a former St. Louis schoolmate who was living with him in New York and with whom he had two children.

These are the factors to which Davis traces a heroin habit that deeply affected him for the next four years. Though Davis denies it in his autobiography, it is also likely that the environment in which he was living played a role. Most of Davis' associates at the time, some of them perhaps in imitation of Charlie Parker, had drug addictions of their own (among them, sax players Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon, trumpeters Fats Navarro and Freddie Webster, and drummer Art Blakey). For the next four years, Davis supported his habit partly with his music and partly by living the life of a hustler.^[10] By 1953, his drug addiction was beginning to impair his ability to perform. Heroin had killed some of his friends (Navarro and Freddie Webster). He himself had been arrested for drug possession while on tour in Los Angeles, and his drug habit had been made public in a devastating interview that Cab Calloway gave to Down Beat.^[11]

Realizing his precarious condition, Davis tried several times to end his drug addiction, finally succeeding in 1954 after returning to his father's home in St. Louis for several months and literally locking himself in a room until he had gone through a painful withdrawal. During this period he avoided New York and played mostly in Detroit and other midwestern towns, where drugs were then harder to come by. A widely-related story, attributed to Richard (Prophet) Jennings^[12][13] was that Davis, while in Detroit playing at the Blue Bird club as a guest soloist in Billy Mitchell's house band along with Tommy Flanagan, Elvin Jones, Betty Carter, Yusef Lateef, Barry Harris, Thad Jones, Curtis Fuller and Donald Byrd stumbled into Baker's Keyboard Lounge out of the rain, soaking wet and carrying his trumpet in a paper bag under his coat, walked to the bandstand and interrupted Max Roach and Clifford Brown in the midst of performing Sweet Georgia Brown by beginning to play My Funny Valentine, and then, after finishing the song, stumbled back into the rainy night. Davis was supposedly embarrassed into getting clean by this incident. In his autobiography, Davis disputed this account, stating that Roach had requested that Davis play with him that night, and that the details of the incident, such as carrying his horn in a paper bag and interrupting Roach and Brown, were fictional and that his decision to quit heroin was unrelated to the incident.^[14]

Despite all the personal turmoil, the 1950–54 period was actually quite fruitful for Davis artistically. He made quite a number of recordings and had several collaborations with other important musicians. He got to know the music of Chicago pianist Ahmad Jamal, whose elegant approach and use of space influenced him deeply. He also definitively severed his stylistic ties with bebop.^[15]

In 1951, Davis met Bob Weinstock, the owner of Prestige Records, and signed a contract with the label. Between 1951 and 1954, he released many records on Prestige, with several different combos. While the personnel of the recordings varied, the lineup often featured Sonny Rollins and Art Blakey. Davis was particularly fond of Rollins and tried several times, in the years that preceded his meeting with John Coltrane, to recruit him for a regular group. He never succeeded, however, mostly because Rollins was prone to make himself unavailable for months at a time. In spite of the casual occasions that generated these recordings, their quality is almost always quite high, and they document the evolution of Davis' style and sound. During this time he began using the Harmon mute, held close to the microphone, in a way that grew to be his signature, and his phrasing, especially in ballads, became spacious, melodic, and relaxed. This sound was to become so characteristic that the use of the Harmon mute by any jazz trumpet player since immediately conjures up Miles Davis.

The most important Prestige recordings of this period (Dig, Blue Haze, Bags' Groove, Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants, and Walkin') originated mostly from recording sessions in 1951 and 1954, after Davis' recovery from his addiction. Also of importance are his five Blue Note recordings, collected in the Miles Davis Volume 1 album.

With these recordings, Davis assumed a central position in what is known as hard bop. In contrast with bebop, hard bop used slower tempos and a less radical approach to harmony and melody, often adopting popular tunes and standards from the American songbook as starting points for improvisation. Hard bop also distanced itself from cool jazz by virtue of a harder beat and by its constant reference to the blues, both in its traditional form and in the form made popular by rhythm and blues.^[16] A few critics^[5] go as far as to call Walkin' the album that created hard bop, but the point is debatable, given the number of musicians who were working along similar lines at the same time (and of course many of them recorded or played with Davis).

Also in this period Davis gained a reputation for being distant, cold, and withdrawn and for having a quick temper. Among the several factors that contributed to this reputation were his contempt for the critics and specialized press and some well-publicized confrontations with the public and with fellow musicians. (One occasion, in which he had a near fight with Thelonious Monk during the recording of Bags' Groove, received wide exposure in the specialized press.)^[17]

The "nocturnal" quality of Davis' playing and his somber reputation, along with his whispering voice,^[18] earned him the lasting moniker of "prince of darkness", adding a patina of mystery to his public persona.^[19]

First great quintet and sextet (1955–58)[link]

Back in New York and in better health, in 1955 Davis attended the Newport Jazz Festival, where his performance (and especially his solo on "'Round Midnight") was greatly admired and prompted the critics to hail the "return of Miles Davis". At the same time, Davis recruited the players for a formation that became known as his "first great quintet": John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

None of these musicians, with the exception of Davis, had received a great deal of exposure before that time; Chambers, in particular, was very young (19 at the time), a Detroit player who had been on the New York scene for only about a year, working with the bands of Bennie Green, Paul Quinichette, George Wallington, J. J. Johnson, and Kai Winding. Coltrane was little known at the time, in spite of earlier collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic, and Johnny Hodges. Davis hired Coltrane as a replacement for Sonny Rollins, after unsuccessfully trying to recruit alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley.

The repertoire included many bebop mainstays, standards from the Great American Songbook and the pre-bop era, and some traditional tunes.^[20] The prevailing style of the group was a development of the Davis experience in the previous years—Davis playing long, legato, and essentially melodic lines, while Coltrane, who during these years emerged as a leading figure on the musical scene, contrasted by playing high-energy solos.

With the new formation also came a new recording contract. In Newport, Davis had met Columbia Records producer George Avakian, who persuaded him to sign with his label. The quintet made its debut on record with the extremely well received 'Round About Midnight. Before leaving Prestige, however, Davis had to fulfill his obligations during two days of recording sessions in 1956. Prestige released these recordings in the following years as four albums: Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, and Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet. While the recording took place in a studio, each record of this series has the structure and feel of a live performance, with several first takes on each album. The records became almost instant classics and were instrumental in establishing Davis' quintet as one of the best on the jazz scene.

The quintet was disbanded for the first time in 1957, following a series of personal problems that Davis blames on the drug addiction of the other musicians.^[21] Davis played some gigs at the Cafe Bohemia with a short-lived formation that included Sonny Rollins and drummer Art Taylor, and then traveled to France, where he recorded the score to Louis Malle's film Ascenseur pour l'échafaud. With the aid of French session musicians Barney Wilen, Pierre Michelot, and René Urtreger, and American drummer Kenny Clarke, he recorded the entire soundtrack with an innovative procedure, without relying on written material: starting from sparse indication of the harmony and a general feel of a given piece, the group played by watching the movie on a screen in front of them and improvising.

Returning to New York in 1958, Davis successfully recruited Cannonball Adderley for his standing group. Coltrane, who in the meantime had freed himself from his drug habits, was available after a highly fruitful experience with Thelonious Monk and was hired back, as was Philly Joe Jones. With the quintet re-formed as a sextet, Davis recorded Milestones, an album anticipating the new directions he was preparing to give to his music.

Almost immediately after the recording of Milestones, Davis fired Garland and, shortly afterward, Jones, again for behavioral problems; he replaced them with Bill Evans——a young white pianist with a strong classical background——and drummer Jimmy Cobb. With this revamped formation, Davis began a year during which the sextet performed and toured extensively and produced a record (1958 Miles, also known as 58 Sessions). Evans had a unique, impressionistic approach to the piano, and his musical ideas had a strong influence on Davis. But after only eight months on the road with the group, he was burned out and left. He was soon replaced by Wynton Kelly, a player who brought to the sextet a swinging, bluesy approach that contrasted with Evans' more delicate playing.

Recordings with Gil Evans (1957–63)[link]

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Davis recorded a series of albums with Gil Evans, often playing flugelhorn as well as trumpet. The first, Miles Ahead (1957), showcased his playing with a jazz big band and a horn section arranged by Evans. Songs included Dave Brubeck's "The Duke," as well as Léo Delibes's "The Maids of Cadiz," the first piece of European classical music Davis had recorded. Another distinctive feature of the album was the orchestral passages that Evans had devised as transitions between the different tracks, which were joined together with the innovative use of editing in the post-production phase, turning each side of the album into a seamless piece of music.^[22]

In 1958, Davis and Evans were back in the studio to record Porgy and Bess, an arrangement of pieces from George Gershwin's opera of the same name. The lineup included three members of the sextet: Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. Davis called the album one of his favorites.^{[citation needed]}

Sketches of Spain (1959–1960) featured songs by contemporary Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo and also Manuel de Falla, as well as Gil Evans originals with a Spanish flavor. Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall (1961) includes Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, along with other compositions recorded in concert with an orchestra under Evans' direction.

Sessions with Davis and Evans in 1962 resulted in the album Quiet Nights, a short collection of bossa novas that was released against the wishes of both artists: Evans stated it was only half an album, and blamed the record company; Davis blamed producer Teo Macero, whom he didn't speak to for more than two years.^[23] This was the last time Evans and Davis made a full album together; despite the professional separation, however, Davis noted later that "my best friend is Gil Evans."^[24]

[edit] Kind of Blue (1959–64)

In March and April 1959, Davis re-entered the studio with his working sextet to record what is widely considered his magnum opus, Kind of Blue. He called back Bill Evans, months away from forming what would become his own seminal trio, for the album sessions, as the music had been planned around Evans' piano style.^[25] Both Davis and Evans were personally acquainted with the ideas of pianist George Russell regarding modal jazz, Davis from discussions with Russell and others before the Birth of the Cool sessions, and Evans from study with Russell in 1956.^[26] Davis, however, had neglected to inform current pianist Kelly of Evans' role in the recordings; Kelly subsequently played only on the track "Freddie Freeloader" and was not present at the April dates for the album.^[27] "So What" and "All Blues" had been played by the sextet at performances prior to the recording sessions, but for the other three compositions, Davis and Evans prepared skeletal harmonic frameworks that the other musicians saw for the first time on the day of recording, to allow a fresher approach to their improvisations. The resulting album has proven to be both highly popular and enormously influential. According to the RIAA, Kind of Blue is the best-selling jazz album of all time, having been certified as quadruple platinum (4 million copies sold). .^[28]In December 2009, the US House of Representatives voted 409–0 to pass a resolution honoring the album as a national treasure.^[29][30]

The trumpet Davis used on the recording is currently displayed in the music building on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. It was donated to the school by Arthur "Buddy" Gist, who met Davis in 1949 and became a close friend. The gift was the reason why the jazz program at UNCG is named the "Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program."^[31]

In 1959, the Miles Davis Quintet was appearing at the famous Birdland nightclub in New York City. After finishing a 27 minute recording for the armed services, Davis took a break outside the club. As he was escorting an attractive blonde woman across the sidewalk to a taxi, Davis was told by Patrolman Gerald Kilduff to "move on."^[32] Davis explained that he worked at the nightclub and refused to move.^[33] The officer said that he would arrest Davis and grabbed him as Davis protected himself.^[32] Witnesses said that Kilduff punched Davis in the stomach with his nightstick without provocation.^[32] Two nearby detectives held the crowd back as a third detective, Don Rolker, approached Davis from behind and beat him about the head. Davis was then arrested and taken to jail where he was charged with feloniously assaulting an officer. He was then taken to St. Clary Hospital where he received five stitches for a wound on his head.^[32] Davis attempted to pursue the case in the courts, before eventually dropping the proceedings in a plea bargain in order to recover his suspended Cabaret Card, enabling him to return to work in New York clubs.

Davis persuaded Coltrane to play with the group on one final European tour in the spring of 1960. Coltrane then departed to form his classic quartet, although he returned for some of the tracks on Davis' 1961 album Someday My Prince Will Come. After Coltrane, Davis tried various saxophonists, including Jimmy Heath, Sonny Stitt, and Hank Mobley. The quintet with Hank Mobley was recorded in the studio and on several live engagements at Carnegie Hall and the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco. Stitt's playing with the group is found on a recording made in Olympia, Paris (where Davis and Coltrane had played a few months before) and the Live in Stockholm album.

In 1963, Davis' longtime rhythm section of Kelly, Chambers, and Cobb departed. He quickly got to work putting together a new group, including tenor saxophonist George Coleman and bassist Ron Carter. Davis, Coleman, Carter and a few other musicians recorded half the tracks for an album in the spring of 1963. A few weeks later, seventeen-year-old drummer Tony Williams and pianist Herbie Hancock joined the group, and soon afterward Davis, Coleman, and the new rhythm section recorded the rest of Seven Steps to Heaven.

The rhythm players melded together quickly as a section and with the horns. The group's rapid evolution can be traced through the Seven Steps to Heaven album, In Europe (July 1963), My Funny Valentine (February 1964), and Four and More (also February 1964). The quintet played essentially the same repertoire of bebop tunes and standards that earlier Davis bands had played, but they tackled them with increasing structural and rhythmic freedom and, in the case of the up-tempo material, breakneck speed.

Coleman left in the spring of 1964, to be replaced by avant-garde saxophonist Sam Rivers, on the suggestion of Tony Williams. Rivers remained in the group only briefly, but was recorded live with the quintet in Japan; this configuration can be heard on Miles in Tokyo! (July 1964).

By the end of the summer, Davis had persuaded Wayne Shorter to leave Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and join the quintet. Shorter became the group's principal composer, and some of his compositions of this era (including "Footprints" and "Nefertiti") have become standards. While on tour in Europe, the group quickly made their first official recording, Miles in Berlin (September 1964). On returning to the United States later that year, ever the musical entrepreneur, Davis (at Jackie DeShannon's urging) was instrumental in getting The Byrds signed to Columbia Records.^{[citation needed]}

Second great quintet (1964–68)[link]

"Petits Machins (Little Stuff)" noicon Issued on his 1968 album Filles de Kilimanjaro, the composition exemplfies Davis's transition from the post-bop style to fusion sounds and textures.[34] Problems listening to this file? See media help.

By the time of E.S.P. (1965), Davis's lineup consisted of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums). The last of his acoustic bands, this group is often referred to as the second great quintet.

A two-night Chicago performance in late 1965 is captured on The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965, released in 1995. Unlike their studio albums, the live engagement shows the group still playing primarily standards and bebop tunes. It is reasonable to point out, though, that while some of the titles remain the same as the tunes employed by the 1950s quintet, the speed and distance of departure from the framework of the standards bears no comparison. It could even be said that the listening experience to these standards as live performances is as much of a radical take on the jazz of the time as the new compositions of the studio albums listed below.

The recording of Live at the Plugged Nickel was not issued anywhere in the 1960s, first appearing as a Japan-only partial issue in the late 1970s, then as a double-LP in the USA and Europe in 1982. It was followed by a series of studio recordings: Miles Smiles (1966), Sorcerer (1967), Nefertiti (1967), Miles in the Sky (1968), and Filles de Kilimanjaro (1968). The quintet's approach to improvisation came to be known as "time no changes" or "freebop," because they abandoned the more conventional chord-change-based approach of bebop for a modal approach. Through Nefertiti, the studio recordings consisted primarily of originals composed by Shorter, with occasional compositions by the other sidemen. In 1967, the group began to play their live concerts in continuous sets, each tune flowing into the next, with only the melody indicating any sort of demarcation. Davis's bands would continue to perform in this way until his retirement in 1975.

Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro, on which electric bass, electric piano, and electric guitar were tentatively introduced on some tracks, pointed the way to the subsequent fusion phase of Davis's career. Davis also began experimenting with more rock-oriented rhythms on these records. By the time the second half of Filles de Kilimanjaro had been recorded, bassist Dave Holland and pianist Chick Corea had replaced Carter and Hancock in the working band, though both Carter and Hancock would occasionally contribute to future recording sessions. Davis soon began to take over the compositional duties of his sidemen.

Electric Miles (1968–75)[link]

Davis's influences included 1960s acid rock and funk artists such as Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, and Jimi Hendrix,^[36] many of whom he met through Betty Mabry (later Betty Davis), a young model and songwriter Davis married in September 1968 and divorced a year later. The musical transition required that Davis and his band adapt to electric instruments in both live performances and the studio. By the time In a Silent Way had been recorded in February 1969, Davis had augmented his quintet with additional players. At various times Hancock or Joe Zawinul was brought in to join Corea on electric keyboards, and guitarist John McLaughlin made the first of his many appearances with Davis. By this point, Shorter was also doubling on soprano saxophone. After recording this album, Williams left to form his group Lifetime and was replaced by Jack DeJohnette.

Six months later an even larger group of musicians, including Jack DeJohnette, Airto Moreira, and Bennie Maupin, recorded the double LP Bitches Brew, which became a huge seller, reaching gold status by 1976. This album and In a Silent Way were among the first fusions of jazz and rock that were commercially successful, building on the groundwork laid by Charles Lloyd, Larry Coryell, and others who pioneered a genre that would become known as jazz-rock fusion. During this period, Davis toured with Shorter, Corea, Holland, and DeJohnette. The group's repertoire included material from Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way, and the 1960s quintet albums, along with an occasional standard.^{[citation needed]}

In 1972, Davis was introduced to the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen by Paul Buckmaster, leading to a period of new creative exploration. Biographer J. K. Chambers wrote that "the effect of Davis' study of Stockhausen could not be repressed for long... Davis' own 'space music' shows Stockhausen's influence compositionally."^[37] His recordings and performances during this period were described as "space music" by fans, by music critic Leonard Feather, and by Buckmaster, who described it as "a lot of mood changes—heavy, dark, intense—definitely space music."^[38][39] Both Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way feature "extended" (more than 20 minutes each) compositions that were never actually "played straight through" by the musicians in the studio.^{[citation needed]} Instead, Davis and producer Teo Macero selected musical motifs of various lengths from recorded extended improvisations and edited them together into a musical whole that exists only in the recorded version. Bitches Brew made use of such electronic effects as multi-tracking, tape loops, and other editing techniques.^[40] Both records, especially Bitches Brew, proved to be big sellers. Starting with Bitches Brew, Davis's albums began to often feature cover art much more in line with psychedelic art or black power movements than that of his earlier albums. He took significant cuts in his usual performing fees in order to open for rock groups like the Steve Miller Band, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, and Santana^{[citation needed]}. Several live albums were recorded during the early 1970s at these performances: Live at the Fillmore East, March 7, 1970: It's About That Time (March 1970), Black Beauty (April 1970), and Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East (June 1970).^[36]

By the time of Live-Evil in December 1970, Davis's ensemble had transformed into a much more funk-oriented group. Davis began experimenting with wah-wah effects on his horn. The ensemble with Gary Bartz, Keith Jarrett, and Michael Henderson, often referred to as the "Cellar Door band" (the live portions of Live-Evil were recorded at a Washington, DC, club by that name), never recorded in the studio, but is documented in the six-CD box set The Cellar Door Sessions, which was recorded over four nights in December 1970.^{[citation needed]} In 1970, Davis contributed extensively to the soundtrack of a documentary about the African-American boxer heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. Himself a devotee of boxing, Davis drew parallels between Johnson, whose career had been defined by the fruitless search for a Great White Hope to dethrone him, and Davis's own career, in which he felt the musical establishment of the time had prevented him from receiving the acclaim and rewards that were due him.^{[citation needed]} The resulting album, 1971's A Tribute to Jack Johnson, contained two long pieces that featured musicians (some of whom were not credited on the record) including guitarists John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock, Herbie Hancock on a Farfisa organ, and drummer Billy Cobham. McLaughlin and Cobham went on to become founding members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971.

As Davis stated in his autobiography, he wanted to make music for the young African-American audience. On the Corner (1972) blended funk elements with the traditional jazz styles he had played his entire career. The album was highlighted by the appearance of saxophonist Carlos Garnett. Critics were not kind to the album; in his autobiography, Davis stated that critics could not figure out how to categorize it, and he complained that the album was not promoted by the "traditional" jazz radio stations.^{[citation needed]} After recording On the Corner, Davis put together a new group, with only Michael Henderson, Carlos Garnett, and percussionist Mtume returning from the previous band. It included guitarist Reggie Lucas, tabla player Badal Roy, sitarist Khalil Balakrishna, and drummer Al Foster. It was unusual in that none of the sidemen were major jazz instrumentalists; as a result, the music emphasized rhythmic density and shifting textures instead of individual solos. This group, which recorded in Philharmonic Hall for the album In Concert (1972), was unsatisfactory to Davis. Through the first half of 1973, he dropped the tabla and sitar, took over keyboard duties, and added guitarist Pete Cosey. The Davis/Cosey/Lucas/Henderson/Mtume/Foster ensemble would remain virtually intact over the next two years. Initially, Dave Liebman played saxophones and flute with the band; in 1974, he was replaced by Sonny Fortune.

"Go Ahead John" noicon Pieced together in post-production for Big Fun from individual takes, the recording has a strong groove with blues and funk guitar by John McLaughlin.[41][42] Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Big Fun (1974) was a double album containing four long improvisations, recorded between 1969 and 1972. Similarly, Get Up With It (1974) collected recordings from the previous five years. Get Up With It included "He Loved Him Madly", a tribute to Duke Ellington, as well as one of Davis's most lauded pieces from this era, "Calypso Frelimo". It was his last studio album of the 1970s. In 1974 and 1975, Columbia recorded three double-LP live Davis albums: Dark Magus, Agharta, and Pangaea. Dark Magus captures a 1974 New York concert; the latter two are recordings of consecutive concerts from the same February 1975 day in Osaka. At the time, only Agharta was available in the US; Pangaea and Dark Magus were initially released only by CBS/Sony Japan. All three feature at least two electric guitarists (Reggie Lucas and Pete Cosey, deploying an array of Hendrix-inspired electronic distortion devices; Dominique Gaumont is a third guitarist on Dark Magus), electric bass, drums, reeds, and Davis on electric trumpet and organ. These albums were the last he was to record for five years. Davis was troubled by osteoarthritis (which led to a hip replacement operation in 1976, the first of several), sickle-cell anemia, depression, bursitis, ulcers, and a renewed dependence on alcohol and drugs (primarily cocaine), and his performances were routinely panned by critics throughout late 1974 and early 1975. By the time the group reached Japan in February 1975, Davis was nearing a physical breakdown and required copious amounts of alcohol and narcotics to make it through his engagements. Nonetheless, as noted by Richard Cook and Brian Morton, during these concerts his trumpet playing "is of the highest and most adventurous order."^{[citation needed]}

After a Newport Jazz Festival performance at Avery Fisher Hall in New York on July 1, 1975, Davis withdrew almost completely from the public eye for six years. As Gil Evans said, "His organism is tired. And after all the music he's contributed for 35 years, he needs a rest."^{[citation needed]} In his memoirs, Davis is characteristically candid about his wayward mental state during this period, describing himself as a hermit, his house as a wreck, and detailing his drug and sex addictions.^[4] In 1976, Rolling Stone reported rumors of his imminent demise. Although he stopped practicing trumpet on a regular basis, Davis continued to compose intermittently and made three attempts at recording during his exile from performing; these sessions (one with the assistance of Paul Buckmaster and Gil Evans, who left after not receiving promised compensation) bore little fruit and remain unreleased. In 1979, he placed in the yearly top-ten trumpeter poll of Down Beat. Columbia continued to issue compilation albums and records of unreleased vault material to fulfill contractual obligations. During his period of inactivity, Davis saw the fusion music that he had spearheaded over the past decade enter into the mainstream. When he emerged from retirement, Davis's musical descendants would be in the realm of New Wave rock, and in particular the styling of Prince.

Last decade (1981–91)[link]

Miles Davis at the Nice Jazz Festival in July 1989

By 1979, Davis had rekindled his relationship with actress Cicely Tyson. With Tyson, Davis would overcome his cocaine addiction and regain his enthusiasm for music. As he had not played trumpet for the better part of three years, regaining his famed embouchure proved to be particularly arduous. While recording The Man with the Horn (sessions were spread sporadically over 1979–1981), Davis played mostly wahwah with a younger, larger band.

The initial large band was eventually abandoned in favor of a smaller combo featuring saxophonist Bill Evans and bass player Marcus Miller, both of whom would be among Davis's most regular collaborators throughout the decade. He married Tyson in 1981; they would divorce in 1988. The Man with the Horn was finally released in 1981 and received a poor critical reception despite selling fairly well. In May, the new band played two dates as part of the Newport Jazz Festival. The concerts, as well as the live recording We Want Miles from the ensuing tour, received positive reviews.

Miles Davis at North Sea Jazz Festival in 1987

By late 1982, Davis's band included French percussionist Mino Cinelu and guitarist John Scofield, with whom he worked closely on the album Star People. In mid-1983, while working on the tracks for Decoy, an album mixing soul music and electronica that was released in 1984, Davis brought in producer, composer and keyboardist Robert Irving III, who had earlier collaborated with him on The Man with the Horn. With a seven-piece band, including Scofield, Evans, keyboardist and music director Irving, drummer Al Foster and bassist Darryl Jones (later of The Rolling Stones), Davis played a series of European gigs to positive receptions. While in Europe, he took part in the recording of Aura, an orchestral tribute to Davis composed by Danish trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg.

You're Under Arrest, Davis's next album, was released in 1985 and included another brief stylistic detour. Included on the album were his interpretations of Cyndi Lauper's ballad "Time After Time", and "Human Nature" from Michael Jackson. Davis considered releasing an entire album of pop songs and recorded dozens of them, but the idea was scrapped. Davis noted that many of today's accepted jazz standards were in fact pop songs from Broadway theater, and that he was simply updating the "standards" repertoire with new material. 1985 also saw Davis guest-star on the TV show Miami Vice as pimp and minor criminal Ivory Jones in the episode titled "Junk Love" (first aired November 8, 1985).^[43]

Davis in New York, 1985.

You're Under Arrest also proved to be Davis's final album for Columbia. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis publicly dismissed Davis's more recent fusion recordings as not being "'true' jazz", comments Davis initially shrugged off, calling Marsalis "a nice young man, only confused". This changed after Marsalis appeared, unannounced, onstage in the midst of Davis's performance at the inaugural Vancouver International Jazz Festival in 1986. Marsalis whispered into Davis's ear that "someone" had told him to do so; Davis responded by ordering him off the stage.^[44]

Davis grew irritated at Columbia's delay releasing Aura. The breaking point in the label-artist relationship appears to have come when a Columbia jazz producer requested Davis place a goodwill birthday call to Marsalis. Davis signed with Warner Bros. Records shortly thereafter.

Davis collaborated with a number of figures from the British new wave movement during this period, including Scritti Politti.^[45] At the invitation of producer Bill Laswell, Davis recorded some trumpet parts during sessions for Public Image Ltd.'s Album, according to Public Image's John Lydon in the liner notes of their Plastic Box box set. In Lydon's words, however, "strangely enough, we didn't use (his contributions)." (Also according to Lydon in the Plastic Box notes, Davis favorably compared Lydon's singing voice to his trumpet sound.)^[46]

Having first taken part in the Artists United Against Apartheid recording, Davis signed with Warner Brothers records and reunited with Marcus Miller. The resulting record, Tutu (1986), would be his first to use modern studio tools—programmed synthesizers, samples and drum loops—to create an entirely new setting for his playing. Ecstatically reviewed on its release, the album would frequently be described as the modern counterpart of Sketches of Spain and won a Grammy in 1987.

The grave of Miles Davis in Woodlawn Cemetery

He followed Tutu with Amandla, another collaboration with Miller and George Duke, plus the soundtracks to four movies: Street Smart, Siesta, The Hot Spot (with bluesman John Lee Hooker), and Dingo. He continued to tour with a band of constantly rotating personnel and a critical stock at a level higher than it had been for 15 years. His last recordings, both released posthumously, were the hip hop-influenced studio album Doo-Bop and Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux, a collaboration with Quincy Jones for the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival in which Davis performed the repertoire from his 1940s and 1950s recordings for the first time in decades.

In 1988 he had a small part as a street musician in the film Scrooged, starring Bill Murray. In 1989, Davis was interviewed on 60 Minutes by Harry Reasoner. Davis received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.

In early 1991, he appeared in the Rolf de Heer film Dingo as a jazz musician. In the film's opening sequence, Davis and his band unexpectedly land on a remote airstrip in the Australian outback and proceed to perform for the stunned locals. The performance was one of Davis's last on film.

Miles Davis died on September 28, 1991 from the combined effects of a stroke, pneumonia and respiratory failure in Santa Monica, California at the age of 65.^[36] He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.^[47]

Legacy and influence[link]

Statue in Kielce, Poland

Miles Davis is regarded as one of the most innovative, influential and respected figures in the history of music. He has been described as “one of the great innovators in jazz”.^[48] The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll noted "Miles Davis played a crucial and inevitably controversial role in every major development in jazz since the mid-'40s, and no other jazz musician has had so profound an effect on rock. Miles Davis was the most widely recognized jazz musician of his era, an outspoken social critic and an arbiter of style—in attitude and fashion—as well as music".^[49] His album Kind of Blue is the best-selling album in the history of jazz music. On November 5, 2009, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan sponsored a measure in the United States House of Representatives to recognize and commemorate the album on its 50th anniversary. The measure also affirms jazz as a national treasure and "encourages the United States government to preserve and advance the art form of jazz music."^[50] It passed, unanimously, with a vote of 409–0 on December 15, 2009.^[51]

Many well-known musicians rose to prominence as members of Davis's ensembles, including saxophonists Gerry Mulligan, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, George Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Dave Liebman, Branford Marsalis and Kenny Garrett; trombonist J. J. Johnson; pianists Horace Silver, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Kei Akagi; guitarists John McLaughlin, Pete Cosey, John Scofield and Mike Stern; bassists Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Marcus Miller and Darryl Jones; and drummers Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, and Al Foster.^{[citation needed]}

As an innovative bandleader and composer, Miles Davis has influenced many notable musicians and bands from diverse genres. These include Wayne Shorter,^[52] Cannonball Adderley,^[53] Herbie Hancock,^[54] Cassandra Wilson,^[55] Lalo Schifrin,^[56] Tangerine Dream,^[57] Brand X, Mtume, Benny Bailey, Joe Bonner, Don Cherry, Urszula Dudziak, Sugizo, Bill Evans, Bill Hardman, The Lounge Lizards, Hugh Masekela, John McLaughlin, King Crimson, Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, Nile Rodgers, Duane Allman, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Radiohead, The Flaming Lips, Lydia Lunch, Talk Talk, Michael Franks, Sting,^[58] Lonnie Liston Smith, Jiří Stivín, Tim Hagans, Julie Christensen, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Vassar Clements, Snooky Young, Prince, and Christian Scott.

Miles' influence on the people who played with him has been described by music writer and author Christopher Smith as follows:

Miles Davis' artistic interest was in the creation and manipulation of ritual space, in which gestures could be endowed with symbolic power sufficient to form a functional communicative, and hence musical, vocabulary. [...] Miles' performance tradition emphasized orality and the transmission of information and artistic insight from individual to individual. His position in that tradition, and his personality, talents, and artistic interests, impelled him to pursue a uniquely individual solution to the problems and the experiential possibilities of improvised performance.

His approach, owing largely to the African American performance tradition that focused on individual expression, emphatic interaction, and creative response to shifting contents, had a profound impact on generations of jazz musicians.^[59]

In 1986, the New England Conservatory awarded Miles Davis an Honorary Doctorate for his extraordinary contributions to music.^[60] Since 1960 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) has honored him with eight Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and three Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. In 2010, Moldejazz premiered a play called Driving Miles, which focused on a landmark concert Davis performed in Molde, Norway, in 1984.

Awards[link]

• Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll Best Trumpet Player 1955
• Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll Best Trumpet Player 1957
• Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll Best Trumpet Player 1961
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Composition Of More Than Five Minutes Duration for Sketches of Spain (1960)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group for Bitches Brew (1970)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for We Want Miles (1982)
• Sonning Award for Lifetime Achievement In Music (1984; Copenhagen, Denmark)
• Doctor of Music, honoris causa (1986; New England Conservatory)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for Tutu (1986)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for Aura (1989)
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band for Aura (1989)
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1990)
• Australian Film Institute Award for Best Original Music Score for Dingo, shared with Michel Legrand (1991)
• Knighted into the Legion of Honor (July 16, 1991; Paris)
• Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance for Doo-Bop (1992)
• Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance for Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux (1993)
• Hollywood Walk of Fame Star (February 19, 1998)
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction (March 13, 2006)
• Hollywood's Rockwalk Induction (September 28, 2006)
• RIAA Quadruple Platinum for Kind of Blue
• St. Louis Walk of Fame

Discography[link]

Miles Davis portal

Filmography[link]

^a Only one song is composed by Miles Davis in cooperation with Marcus Miller ("Theme For Augustine").
^b Soundtrack is composed by Miles Davis in cooperation with Michel Legrand.

References[link]