History Music / MilesDavis

* * OldShame: Late in his life, Davis largely disregarded his cool jazz period (running roughly from ''Birth of the Cool'' to ''Kind of Blue''). He said this in 1986:

His backing bands have included numerous musicians that would go on to become famous in their own right, such as saxophonists Gerry Mulligan, Music/JohnColtrane, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, George Coleman, [[Music/WeatherReport Wayne Shorter]], and Kenny Garrett; trombonist J. J. Johnson; pianists Music/BillEvans, Music/HerbieHancock, Chick Corea, [[Music/WeatherReport Joe Zawinul]], Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, and Keith Jarrett; guitarists Music/JohnMcLaughlin, John Scofield and Mike Stern; bassists Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Marcus Miller, and Dave Holland; and drummers [[Music/{{Emergency}} Tony Williams]], "Philly Joe" Jones, Billy Cobham, and Jack [=DeJohnette=]. He sometimes collaborated with Big Band-leader Gil Evans, and planned collaborations with Music/JimiHendrix and Music/{{Prince}} were cancelled due to the deaths of Hendrix and of Miles himself.

*** "Calypso Frelimo" (''Get Up with It'') - 32:10
*** "He Loved Him Madly" (''Get Up with It'') - 32:20

** ''Music/InASilentWay'' : In the left channel is [[Music/JohnMcLaughlin McLaughlin]] on guitar, Corea on Wurlitzer and [[Music/WeatherReport Shorter]] on Soprano Saxophone, center has Davis and Holland on bass, and on the right is [[Music/WeatherReport Zawinul]] on Hammond, [[Music/HerbieHancock Hancock]] on Rhodes, and [[Music/{{Emergency}} Williams]] on Drums.
** ''Music/BitchesBrew'' : Each track has two drummers, two pianists (three on "Pharaoh's Dance" and the title track) two bassists, and two percussionists, all mixed to different channels. In addition, [[Music/JohnMcLaughlin McLaughlin's]] guitar is mixed to the right, and on the TitleTrack, Davis's trumpet has an echo effect which switches between left and right.
** ''Big Fun'' has two extreme examples recorded shortly after ''Music/BitchesBrew''-
*** "Great Expectations/Orange Lady" - On left is [[Music/JohnMcLaughlin McLaughlin]] on guitar (though it has a delayed echo effect panned to center) an electric piano, Moreira on percussion, one bassist, Grossman on sax, and Cobham on drums (except his high-hat, which is panned to the right), in the center is Davis (though his trumpet has an echo that switches between all channels) and another electric piano, and on right is Sharma on tambura and tablas, Balakrishna on electric sitar, Maupin on Clarinet, and another bassist.
*** "Go Ahead John" - [=DeJohnette=]'s drums and [[Music/JohnMcLaughlin McLaughlin's]] guitar switch between left and right channel randomly between beats, while everything else is mixed to center (until the bridge, where Davis's trumpet is mixed to center, with reverb mixed to the right and a very delayed echo to the left.) (Notably, this song was used by producer Teo Macero to test out an automatic channel switcher, which would he used increasingly throughout this period)

** ''On The Corner'' - Everything switches channels all the time.
** ''Get Up With It'' on "He Loved Him Madly", Mtume's congas switch channels constantly, as do the three guitar tracks, which change places so frequently its difficult to tell which musician is playing.

** The mixing becomes much less extreme in the 80s (even with Macero producing), though typically percussion tracks will still be split between channels, though come ''Tutu'' and ''Amandla'' (produced by Marcus Miller) there's lots of layered synth patches and percussion programming (and occasionally live instruments) mixed to different channels.
* GriefSong: "He Loved Him Madly" on ''Get Up With It'' is one for Music/DukeEllington, who had recently died. The title comes from Ellington's signature sign-off to his own audiences, "We love you madly."

** An avant-garde mix of free-jazz, Indian instruments, Stockhausen, and funk with ''On The Corner''
** Proto-ambient with ''Get Up With It''

* RatedGForGangsta: Miles made it clear when he released albums like ''On the Corner'', ''You're Under Arrest'' and ''Doo-Bop'' that he was trying to reach the youth audience. Many accused him, especially in the 80s, of PanderingToTheBase instead of putting out "real music"; ''On the Corner'' in particular is now widely regarded as a classic.

* UrExample: No less a source than Music/BrianEno credited him as being a major influence on {{ambient}} music with "He Loved Him Madly", off 1974's ''Get Up With It''.

* GutturalGrowler: His distinctive voice was the result of shouting at a record producer while still recovering from a throat operation.

*** "Pharaoh's Dance" (''Bitches Brew'') - 20:04

* CoolOldGuy: He definitely qualified in his later years with his experiments with hip-hop. One of his favorite albums toward the end of his life was Music/TheBeastieBoys' ''Music/PaulsBoutique''.