Miles Davis 〈〈

Biography

Miles Davis was born Miles Dewey Davis III on May 26, 1926 in the suburban area of St. Louis in Alton, Illinois.  Unlike his peers in the jazz community, Davis was raised up in a middle-class family. His father was a dental surgeon educated at Northwestern University who brought the family to settle in a well-to-do yet heavily white neighborhood in East St. Louis of Illinois. At a child, Davis took up piano lessons through his mother’s encouragement but left the instrument for the trumpet at age 12 on his dad’s suggestion. He perfected his trumpet skills in high school and at age 16, had developed into a professional, playing in a St. Louis group called the Blue Devils. Davis moved to New York City in 1944 to pursue college education at the New York Institute of Musical Art (known as the Julliard School today) but eventually dropped out in his Spring semester of 1945 when his studies lagged (Whitaker 220). In New York, Davis joined renowned saxophonist Charlie Parker, whom he had encountered earlier in East Illinois, in his regular jam sessions at Harlem as a member of Singer Billy Eckstine’s Band, which also included Dizzy Gillespie, providing Davis the opportunity of an apprenticeship. The band played in Clark Monroe’s Uptown House and Minton’s Playhouse. Davis and Parker recorded on several occasions until Parker’s nervous breakdown but in 1947 both were reunited and formed a quintet (Whitaker 221-22). The following year 1948 Davis started his own band. In the ‘50s, Davis’ output slowed due to his heroin addiction. After quitting heroin and giving a superb performance at the second Newport Jazz Festival in 1955, Davis once again regained his status, landing a deal with Columbia Records (Whitaker 222). His publicity continues on until serious ailments and the effects of an automobile accident forced him to retire. Davis died at the age of 65 in September 1991 from pneumonia and respiratory failure.

Notable Works

Davis is known for playing bebop, a “radical departure” from the conventional structured jazz that he played as an adolescent. His 1945 three-hour session with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie produced several great numbers that included “Billie’s Bounce” and  “Thrivin’ on a Riff”. In 1957, Capitol Records released a series of recordings Davis’ own 1948 band played under the album The Birth of the Cool, which was a special hit since the music moved away from the often-harsh bebop style for the late night tunes such as those in “Jeru” and “Venus de Milo”. The Miles Davis Quintet, formed in 1955 recorded their first sessions and produced ‘Round About Midnight which moved away from the vibe of The Birth of Cool, displaying a bluer sound. The album created considerably mixed opinions among musicians. It changed the way a generation of jazz musicians developed the aesthetics of their own genre. However the album is regarded as a masterpiece nevertheless. Jazz-rock is notably derived as a result of Davis’ exceptional ability in bridging the gap that existed between jazz fans and non-jazz fans during the Rock and Roll Era. He produced Kind of Blue (1959) which became a major hit during this era. Kind of Blue became the best-selling album of all time and is considered Davis’ greatest musical accomplishment(Whitaker 220). In 1968 Davis’ Filles de Kilimanjaro was his first album to feature electric instruments which pushed the Quintet towards the direction of jazz-rock (Whitaker 223).

Dizzy Gillespie 〈〈

Biography

Dizzy Gillespie is perhaps one of the most influential figures in the history of Jazz. He was born as John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie on October 21, 1917 in Cheraw, South Carolina. His approach to playing the trumpet was popular during the 1940s and 1950s. His parents had nine children and he was the youngest of all of them. When he was ten years old, his father passed away.  At the age of twelve, Gillespie learned how to play the trombone and trumpet on his own. He went on to attend the Laurinberg Institute of North Carolina. He took over for David Roy Eldridge (another Jazz musician) in a band called ‘Teddy Hill’ Band after Eldridge decided to leave. It was due to his funny, mischievous personality he got the nickname “Dizzy.” His brilliance later on even caught the attention of Mario Bauza who was known as “the Godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz.” Bauza would be known as Gillespie’s “musical father.” He moved to Philadelphia in 1935 and joined a band led by Frankie Fairfax and Charlie Shavers. Gillespie learned the trumpet solos of Eldridge through Shavers. After leaving Philadelphia, he moved to New York to improve his career as a jazz player. His admiring of Eldridge earned him a job with the band that Eldridge had been a trumpet soloist for. Throughout these years he played in various bands including Al Cooper’s Savoy Sultans and the Afro-Cuban band of Alberto Socarras. Then in 1939 he joined the Cab Calloway Orchestra but was fired after an issue with Calloway himself. An influential figure, Gillespie is also seen as one of the founders of the Afro-Cuban and/or Latin Jazz, musical forms created through intermixing different types. Gillespie toured Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America in order to be influenced by the music and musicians. He died on January 6, 1993 in Englewood, NJ due to pancreatic cancer.

Notable Works

In 1945, Gillespie created his own band. During this period, the band tried to combine Afro-Cuban rhythms with Afro-American jazz. Gillespie added Chano Pozo (an Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist) to the rhythm section, and the two men collaborated to create Cubana Bel/Cubana Bop and Manteca (by Gillespie and Pozo). Due to financial troubles, Gillespie ended the band in 1950. In 1951, Gillespie founded his own record company called Dee Gee and unfortunately it did not succeed due to financial restrictions. Over the years, Gillespie has created many influential works of music. The most remarkably unique feature about Gillespie and his music is his style of combining various cultural influences on jazz. He traveled all over the world for the sake of music. To many, his Jazz was no ordinary jazz. It was the music that fused together Afro-Cuban, Latin, and many other forms together and he even brought it to New York City and spread it through his band. He was arguably known as one of the greatest trumpet virtuosos of all time. Gillespie helped in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He played in famous jazz clubs in New York like Minton’s Playhouse and Monroe’s Uptown House. Some of his famous compositions include “Groovin’ High”, “Woody ‘n’ You” and “Salt Peanuts.” Gillespie also worked with Mario Bauza in many New York jazz clubs and dance clubs including Palladium and the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Ella Fitzgerald 〈〈

Biography

Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, a shipbuilding center to freight operator of Newport News’ rail yards William Fitzgerald and laundry worker Temperance Williams. While not much of her childhood life is unknown, Fitzgerald grew up from humble upbringings. Her father left the family before her second birthday. Her mother soon got into a relationship with Portuguese immigrant Joseph DaSilva and together the new family relocated to the industrial north in Yonkers, New York during the Great Migration in 1921 to seek out employment like many other African Americans at the time. Fitzgerald welcomed her half-sister, Frances in 1923, which brought on more toil to the family’s economic condition. Ella spent the rest of her childhood in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, Bronx. It was there that she pursued singing, a skill she slowly developed with the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church. Her love for singing also stemmed from listening to the radio, to songs sung by the Boswell Sisters and Louis Armstrong (Whitaker 303). In 1932, Temperance’s death instigated Ella to leave home, skip school, and partake in organized crime such as numbers-runner. She was placed in reform school but soon escaped and became homeless for more than a year. In 1934, her appearance in the Apollo Theatre’s Wednesday evening “Amateur Nights” made her the first of a genealogy of overnight successes with her renditions of “Judy” and “The Object of My Affection”, of which she learned simply from listening to the Boswell Sisters. The event won her 25 dollars and provided her the opportunity to perform with Tiny Bradshaw’s Orchestra for a week in January of 1935 at the Harlem Opera House. The one-week performance elevated Ella’s popularity all the more while attracting attention from drummer Chick Webb. Webb included Fitzgerald into his orchestra and placed her in the mentorship of the orchestra’s lead vocalist Charles Linton on how to handle an audience and maintain her voice. The band performed gigs at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem (Whitaker 303). Ella was romantically involved with Italian-born saxophonist Vido Musso when performing with Benny Goodman’s orchestra. The relationship ended with Ella’s pregnancy, which led to a botched abortion leaving Ella unable to produce children from then on (Whitaker 304). In 1941, two years after Webb’s premature death, Ella broke from the group to pursue a solo career guided by Webb’s manager Mole Gale. Under Gale’s persuasion, she annulled her first marriage with Benny Kornegay to prevent his drug-dealing past from tainting her fame. She later married bassist Ray Brown, 10 years her junior, and adopted her half-sister’s son. The marriage however ended in divorce (Whitaker 304-05). In 1993, she retired from live performing due to her health problems. Due to diabetes, Ella had her legs amputated and went blind afterwards. She died at the age of 79 in her Beverly Hills home on June 15, 1996 (Ella Fitzgerald: Something to Live For).

Notable Works

Critics and fans considered Fitzgerald as one of the greatest jazz vocalists and one of the premier interpreters of American songs due to her wide vocal range that enables Fitzgerald to create tunes expected only from musical instruments. Fitzgerald is also affectionately referred to as “First Lady of Song.” In 1937, Ella’s presence with Webb’s orchestra on NBC’s broadcast of “Good Time Society” drew enthusiasm from the crowd. She was honored with the key to the city by the City of Yonkers. That same year, Ella was ranked as the top female vocalist by Melody Maker. The next year, she recorded two of her biggest hits with the Chick Webb Orchestra: “A-Tisket-A-Tasket” which developed into her signature song and “Undecided”. For a time in the late 1940s, Ella performed with Dizzy Gillespie at Carnegie Hall featuring three famous songs that are still chart-toppers today: “Lady Be Good”, “How High the Moon”, and “Flying Home”. Fitzgerald’s rendition of “Mack the Knife” in 1960 became one of her most memorable performances of her career (Whitaker 304-05). Her recording of “But Not For Me” won her two Grammys. Fitzgerald was awarded with many other notable awards throughout her life as a musician.

Billie Holiday 〈

Biography

Billie Holiday was born as Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father was Clarence Holiday and her mother was Sadie Fagan. Much information on her childhood and early life is rather unclear. Many details are given by Holiday herself and many believe some of the things she says are untrue. Her father is said to have abandoned her and her mother at a young age to improve his music career. She barely went to school and moved to New York in 1928. During the 1930s, she began singing in a club in Brooklyn, and after a year went on to Pods’ and Jerry’s, a Harlem club. In 1933, she was working in a Harlem club called Monette’s and it was there she caught the attention of the producer John Hammond. He then set up recording sessions for her with Benny Goodman. The recordings he created with her form a major body of jazz music. Holiday started her work with Lester Young in 1936. He even gave her the famous nickname “Lady Day.” In 1937, she joined Count Basie and Artie Shaw a year later and through that she was known as the first black woman to collaborate with a white orchestra. One day she came across a poem called “Strange Fruit” that talks of the hanging of a black man. She was not permitted to record the piece because of the sensitivity of the matter. She recorded the song under the label Commodore and it became another hit. She continued her career till July 17, 1959 when she died due to complications related to liver sclerosis.

Notable Works

In collaboration with Hammond, Holiday sang the songs “Your Mother’s Son-In-Law” and “Riffin’ the Scotch.” The second one became a great hit of the time. This gave her a recording contract,and she continued to record numerous songs that would influence her career as a jazz musician and influence the history of jazz as a whole. She recorded around 100 recordings over the course of about eight years.  She is viewed as one of the most influential female singers in the history of jazz. Her most important work is what she created in the group recordings for Hammond between the years 1936 and 1944. She created many popular love songs that many fans of jazz remember to this day. One of the most incredible things about her, many say, is her lack of formal education and training. Despite her struggling background, she was able to achieve and influence greatly. Another one of her famous works was Did I Remember? (1936). She credited Louis Armstrong and his unique style of singing and reaching out to the listeners for her achievement in this piece. It is known that many listeners and musicians alike admired Holiday. “Strange Fruit” was one of the major turning points in her life and career. She went beyond her boundaries to sing about a sensitive topic. She also became the first black woman to sing in a white orchestra. Her influence had touched racial issues of society back then.

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