Birth of the Cool

This week Kate Molleson explores the life and work of a cultural icon: trumpeter, composer and bandleader Miles Davis, who was born 100 years ago this week and remains one of the most innovative and influential figures in 20th-century music. Kate is joined throughout the week by the leading American jazz critic Nate Chinen. Together, they'll survey his vast recorded output, which spans five decades, prioritising his own compositions but also appreciating the art of improvisation as spontaneous composition.

Miles Davis was born in Illinois in May 1926 and grew up in East St. Louis. He enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City in 1944 but was quickly drawn to the bebop scene of 52nd Street, playing alongside Charlie Parker, with whom he made some of his first key recordings. From that point on, he was at the heart of almost every new development in jazz, from hard bop to post-bop, third stream, fusion and beyond, hand-picking key collaborators for his ever-changing sound, including composer-arranger Gil Evans, saxophonists John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Herbie Hancock and, in his later years, the bassist and producer Marcus Miller. He made it his mission to be at the vanguard culturally and musically, rejecting convention and tradition in favour of pursuing innovation and the new thing.

Today, Kate Molleson and Nate Chinen explore Miles Davis's early life, his role in New York's bebop scene of the 1940s and the making of Birth of Cool, the first project to involve his lifelong collaborator Gil Evans. We also hear about his struggles with addiction in the early 1950s but how he came through to record landmark hard bop sessions with the likes of Horace Silver and Art Blakey.

To listen on most smart speakers, just say “Ask BBC Sounds to play Composer of the Week.”

Music featured:
Joshua (from Seven Steps to Heaven)
Now's the Time; Donna Lee; Milestones (Savoy sessions)
Boplicity; Budo (from Birth of the Cool)
Lazy Susan; The Leap (from Volume 2)
Round Midnight (from Round About Midnight)

Produced by Felix Carey for BBC Audio Wales and West