Miles Dewey Davis III

 Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991).

Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, together with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion. In 2006, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,[which recognized him as "one of the key figures in the history of jazz". In 2008, his 1959 album Kind of Blue received its fourth platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of at least four million copies in the United States. He led more traditional jazz quintets through the 1950's, but would reach an epiphany leading a sextet of renowned musicians in 1958 and 1959. With John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Julian "Cannonball" Adderly on alto sax, Bill Evans on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums, the group explored "modal" pieces, replacing the traditional ideas of chord progression with patterns based on scales. Their 1959 album, "Kind of Blue", is widely regarded as the greatest jazz album of all time. Miles Davis would lead similar groups through the 1960s, including such luminaries as Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea, Joe Zalwinul, Wayne Shorter, and John McLaughlin. In the late 1960s, his style radically changed, embracing the influences of Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone to create the embryonic style of jazz-rock, also known as fusion, as exemplified on his albums "In a Silent Way" (1969) and "Bitches Brew" (1970). He would continue in this style until a self-imposed retirement in 1976.

Miles Davis returned to recording in 1982 with "The Man With the Horn," this time playing in a more commercial jazz-pop idiom. He would continue with such lighter fare until his death from pneumonia in 1991 at age 65. Miles Davis is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, NY.