On the Corner

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 26 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, keyboardists Herbie Hancock and Joe Zawinul 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.

Kate Molleson and Nate Chinen explore a tumultuous and pivotal period in the story of Miles Davis moving from the end of the 1960s into the 70s with a series of astonishing albums which threatened to send the world of jazz into two irrevocably different directions. Miles Davis was embracing technology, electric pianos and guitars, non-Western instruments and exploring new forms and ways of playing, first with the proto-ambient In a Silent Way and then Bitches Brew - recorded immediately after Woodstock and the Summer of Love, and connecting with fans of Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. The purists were not impressed, and Miles continued to have an antagonistic relationship with both the industry and establishment.

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

Music featured:

Great Expectations (from Big Fun)
Tout de Suite (from Filles de Kilimanjaro)
Shhh/Peaceful (from m In a Silent Way (1969)
Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (from Bitches Brew)
Little Church (from Live-Evil)
Black Satin (from On the Corner)
Right Off (from Tribute to Jack Johnson)

Produced by Felix Carey for BBC Audio Wales and West