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Miles Davis Biography Mini-Unit

A Mini-Unit Study by Look! We’re Learning!

©2014 Look! We’re Learning!

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This pack makes use of several online images and includes the
appropriate permissions. Special thanks to the following
authors for their images:

Tom Palumbo via Wikimedia Commons

William P. Gottlieb via Wikimedia Commons; additional image
Kai Kowalewski via Wikimedia Commons
Staszek Szybki Jest via Wikimedia Commons

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Miles Davis Biography

Miles Davis was an American jazz musician who rose
to fame during the 1950s. He was born as Miles Dewey
Davis III in Alton, Illinois, on May 25, 1926, to Miles
Davis II and Cleota Davis. Shortly after Miles was born,
the family relocated to East St. Louis, where Miles’s
father established a successful dentistry practice.
While life for most black people during the 1920s was
difficult, Miles and his siblings lived comfortably. Both
of Miles’s parents were college graduates, which
allowed them to live in an upper-class neighborhood.
Cleota was a musician, so Miles’s interest in music
developed at a young age. When he was 13, he fell in
love with jazz music and began taking trumpet lessons
from a local musician named Elwood Buchanan.
As he entered his teenage years, Miles began to
frequent the jazz clubs of East St. Louis to meet
accomplished jazz artists and learn from them. The
more time Miles spent practicing, the better he became
at playing the trumpet. He also learned how to play the
piano, which would serve him well later in life.
While many artists learned how to play music by ear,
Miles learned the finer points of music theory and
sheet music. His superior understanding of melody and
arrangement allowed him to play just about any song

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with any performer. By the time he was in high school,

he was already sitting in with some of the local jazz
greats during live shows.
Miles got his first paying gig playing with Eddie
Randle’s Blue Devils at age 17. A
year later, he received the chance
of a lifetime when he was selected
to fill in for a sick trumpet player in
Billy Eckstine’s Orchestra. During
the orchestra’s stay, Miles played
with some of the founders of
bebop, including Dizzy Gillespie,
Charlie Parker, and vocalist Sarah
Vaughn. Miles was especially
drawn to Charlie Parker, whose
style of playing included improvisational solos.
While Miles’ father was supportive of his love for jazz,
his mother disapproved. She wanted Miles to pursue
classical music, which she considered a more
respectable career. To please his mother, Miles
auditioned for the Juilliard School of Music in New York
City and was accepted right away.
As soon as he got to New York City, Miles set about
searching for Charlie Parker. It took him several days,
but he finally ran into Parker at a local nightclub. The
two became fast friends, even moving into an

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apartment together. Spending time with Charlie helped

Miles to perfect his playing, and he was chosen to
record a few sessions with Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
After a few months, Miles left Juilliard and moved back
home with his wife and daughter.
It took some time before Miles found a steady paying
gig, but when he did, it proved to be a golden
opportunity. He began playing with the Charlie Parker
Quintet, along jazz greats such as Parker and Max
Roach. In 1947, he got his chance to write original
songs for the group,
recording four tracks that
he composed himself.
One of the hallmarks of
Miles’s jazz was his
constant desire to grow
and try new styles of
music. After playing with
Charlie Parker, Miles
began experimenting with
different melodies and
arrangements. He formed his own group, the Miles
Davis Nonet, in 1948. Over the next year, he and the
group recorded several tracks, which would eventually
be sold as a record called “The Birth of the Cool”.

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Despite Miles’s early success, his career faltered,

especially after he became addicted to drugs. He and
his wife had two more children, but their relationship
became strained and they eventually separated. Miles’s
drug addiction became so severe that his behavior
became erratic and his work suffered. In the mid-
1950s, he went home to his father’s farm and broke
his addiction.
After he stopped using drugs, Miles
began looking for playing gigs. He
was still good friends with Charlie
Parker, so when Parker performed at
the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955, he
invited Miles on stage with him.
Miles’s performance was so good
that Columbia Records offered him a
record deal immediately after the
festival.
Miles put together his own quintet afterward, featuring
gifted musicians such as saxophonist John Coltrane
and drummer Philly Joe Jones. The group recorded
four albums in 1956, including “Cookin’ with the Miles
Davis Quintet” and “Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis
Quintet”. All four albums were commercial and critical
successes. In 1958, Miles put together a slightly

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different group with a sixth member, and the sextet

recorded the album “Milestones”.
Miles’s greatest recording effort would come in 1959,
when the group completed the record “Kind of Blue”.
Featuring classical pianist Bill Evans, “Kind of Blue”
had a completely different sound featuring a new,
experimental type of jazz called modal jazz. The album
would go on to be, not only Miles’s best-selling
record, but the best-selling jazz
record of all time. Since its
release, nearly four million
copies of “Kind of Blue” have
been sold.
Later in his career, Miles would
work with other jazz virtuosos,
including Herbie Hancock,
pianist Chick Corea, composer
Quincy Jones, and bassist
Marcus Miller. In the 1980s, Miles reemerged with yet
another sound, featuring synthesizers and song
samples. His album “Tutu” won a Grammy Award in
1987, his fourth at the time.
Miles died in September of 1991. 15 years later, he
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In
2009, the U.S. Congress unanimously recognized
“Kind of Blue” as an American treasure.

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Questions for Review:

1. What were the names of Miles’s parents?

___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

2. What did Miles’s father do for a living?

___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

3. How old was Miles when he began playing

trumpet?
___________________________________________________________

4. How did Miles end up playing in Billy Eckstine’s

orchestra?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

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5. What exclusive music school did Miles audition

for? Was he accepted?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

6. How did Miles meet up with Charlie Parker in

New York City?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

7. In what year did Miles form his own group? What

album did the group record?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

8. Why did Miles’s career suffer in the early 1950s?

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9. What happened when Miles performed at the

Newport Jazz Festival in 1955?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

10. Name two of the musicians in the Miles Davis

Quintet.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

11. How many copies of “Kind of Blue” have been

sold?
___________________________________________________________

12. What recognition did “Kind of Blue” receive in

2009?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

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Miles Davis Crossword

Across
4. Classical pianist who played with Miles
6. Location of the jazz festival Miles played
7. Last name of Chick, a pianist Miles played with
9. Last name of Miles's good friend Charlie
10. Record company Miles signed with in 1955
11. Town where Miles was born
12. Name of album Miles made in 1958
13. Last name of orchestra leader Miles played for

Down
1. Miles's best-selling album
2. Music school Miles briefly attended
3. Style of jazz Miles played during the late 1950s
4. First band Miles played with as a teen
5. Saxophonist in Miles's quintet
8. Award Miles won for Tutu

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Miles Davis Copywork

“If you can hear a note,

you can play it. The
note I hit that sounds
high, that’s the only…
note I can think of to
play that would fit.”
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

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“You don’t learn to play

the blues. You just play.
I don’t even think about
harmony. It just comes.”

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
- Interview with Miles Davis in Downbeat
Magazine: March 6, 1958

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Questions for Review Answer Key:

1. Miles Dewey Davis II and Cleota Davis

2. He was a dentist.
3. 13
4. He filled in for a sick trumpet player.
5. He auditioned for the Juilliard School of Music. He
was accepted right away.
6. He ran into him at a nightclub.
7. The Miles Davis Nonet formed in 1948. They
recorded the album “The Birth of the Cool”.
8. He was addicted to drugs.
9. His performance was so good he received a record
deal from Columbia Records.
10. John Coltrane and Philly Joe Jones
11. Over four million
12. The U.S. Congress recognized it as a national
treasure.

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Crossword Puzzle Answer Key:

ACROSS
4. BILLEVANS
6. NEWPORT
7. COREA
9. PARKER
10. COLUMBIA
11. ALTON
12. MILESTONES
13. ECKSTINE

DOWN
1. KINDOFBLUE
2. JUILLIARD
3. MODAL
4. BLUEDEVILS
5. COLTRANE
8. GRAMMY

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Bibliography:

*A note to parents – The following books and websites were used in

the research for this mini-unit study. However, some of the books
listed below are NOT children’s books and they feature themes about
racism, drug use, language, and music that children may not be
equipped to handle. Parents are advised to read the books themselves
and then choose how to share the information with their children.*

Alkyer, Frank; The Miles Davis Reader: Interviews and Features from
Downbeat Magazine; 2007; Hal Leonard Books
Frankl, Ron; Black Americans of Achievement: Miles Davis; 1996;
Chelsea House Publishers

Burleigh, Robert; Looking for Bird in the Big City; 2001; Harcourt

Wikipedia: Miles Davis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_davis

PBS Jazz: Miles Davis

http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_davis_miles.htm

MilesDavis.com: Biography

http://www.milesdavis.com/us/biography

New York Times: Miles Davis Obituary

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/09/nyregion/knight-jazz-enters-its-
royal-cemetery-sir-miles-joins-duke-king-patriarch.html

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