Multiple Grammy-Award winner Miles Davis revolutionized jazz many times throughout his lengthy career.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of his passing.
From his origins in “Be-Bop,” Davis pioneered fresh new sounds with the creation of “cool jazz,” “fusion jazz,” and his genre-defining “modern jazz” album “Kind of Blue.” Davis was heavily influenced by his mentor Elwood Buchanan, and he further blossomed into his own while playing with saxophonist Charlie Parker. Davis would come to pay it forward, inspiring countless musicians of many genres.
Here are five artists influenced by the late jazz legend.
John McLaughlin, Guitarist of The Mahavishnu Orchestra
McLaughlin was a key player in Davis’s “fusion jazz” era. McLaughlin’s guitar can be heard in the Davis albums “In a Silent Way,” “Bitches Brew,” and “A Tribute to Jack Johnson.”
Davis urged McLaughlin to create his own music group, which became The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Their second album “Birds of Fire” contains a tribute to Davis.
“I put Miles way up there as a guru, along with Coltrane. Like a Picasso for painters,” said McLaughlin in an interview for Newsweek. “Miles was not just an extraordinary musician but extraordinary man.”
Reggie Lucas, Producer of Madonna’s Debut Album
Guitarist and producer Reggie Lucas auditioned for Davis at the age of 18 and promptly joined him on his next world tour. With no setlist and a heavy emphasis on improvisation, two performances were never the same.
“Miles never created music to attract the audience. It was the other way around,” said Lucas in an interview with The Fader. “We would have a melody, a head and some harmonic progressions that were sketched out. They were a template to be improvised on.”
John Scofield, “Swallow Tales” Guitarist
Scofield received a call from Davis to fly to Cleveland to join his band as the second guitarist, in the early 1980s. Scofield first appeared on Davis’s 1983 album “Star People,” and his career took off.
“It was fantastic getting to be around Miles Davis because he is and was my idol and getting to know him personally some was a trip, you know?” said Scofield in an interview for Jazz Guitar Today. “Because Miles was a real star in like the truest sense of the word. Beyond music.”
M1, “Dead Prez” Rapper
Mutulu Olugbala, known as M1, is one-half of the political hip-hop duo Dead Prez. The rapper considers Davis a “visionary.”
“Miles was a bad, bad, bad, bad dude; an international figure with a reputation for making cutting-edge music and having the most eccentric ways,” said M1 in a 2005 The Fader article. “But he still had a connection to the people — and he represented and championed the community.”
Herbie Hancock, “Head Hunters” Musician
Hancock’s induction into Davis’s band was unconventional.
Hancock visited Davis’s house for what was presumably an audition. After playing the trumpet for a minute, Davis abruptly threw the instrument onto his couch and ran upstairs. The bandmembers, Hancock included, were baffled but preceded to play.
“This was like 20 or 25 years later, I found out that Miles went upstairs to his bedroom, and he was listening to us over the intercom,” said Hancock in a 2014 interview with SiriusXM. “He knew that we were going to be nervous with him around, so he wanted to hear us unencumbered by that kind of fear.”
It was the beginning of an incredibly successful era, with albums including 1965’s “E.S.P.”
