Influences of Miles Davis and Conflicts

Introduction
Miles Davis’s musical legacy is one of the canonical figures in jazz because of his vital development of innovation and style in Jazz after the Second World War. Davis was one of the most outstanding musicians due to his uniqueness and quality of his music pieces, as well as his great potential in improvisation. Davis’s erratic approach to improve the jazz by constant exploration for new musical expression has then placed him at the forefront of music styles like bebop, cool, modal, hard bop, and fusion. Furthermore, his music sounds went on influencing many other genre of music which includes pop, soul, R&B, funk, and rap (Kirker, 2005). Davis was unfortunately one of the last great trumpet players in the world, which employs a lyrical, melodic style which was known for its simplicity and introspection. One of his other talents assembling great up-and-coming musicians   and it all became important contributors to jazz as a result of Davis’s touch. Both the man and his music have symbolized everything that jazz represents which are innovative, cool, complex, and unpredictable (ed. Kirchner 2000).

Miles Davis- Development of Jazz and His Influences

Cool jazz was a convergence of several approaches in performing jazz. Although it was usually a small-group style, its first appearance was attributed to Davis’s nine-piece project (nonet) - Birth of the Cool (1949-50), in which he first started developing the ‘cool’ sound of jazz. ‘Boplicity’ from the album was a represented transition of Davis from bop to cool. As Kingman (1990, p. 388) mentioned that while the tempo has been slowed down, but otherwise many bop characteristics remain: the light style of drumming, the important role of the bass in keeping the beat; and the vital trademark of bop – the unison playing at the beginning of the piece.

The 1940s were decisive towards the road to modal jazz because the bases of modern jazz were by innovative musicians like Parker, Gillespie, and Monk,...