Miles Dewey Davis III was born in Alton, Illinois on May 26, 1926.He was the middle of three children, with an older sister and a younger brother.His father was a successful and rather prosperous dentist who was active in professional and social organizations, like the Freemasons and the NAACP.His mother was a music teacher.They were both from Arkansas.In her wonderful history of the Great Migration entitled The Warmth of Other Sons, Isabel Wilkerson places Miles Davis alongside people like Thelonious Monk, James Baldwin, Michelle Obama, John Coltrane, Toni Morrison, and Denzel Washington as “children whose life chances were altered because a parent or grandparent had made the hard decision to leave” the South.
In 1935 when Miles was about nine, a friend of his father gave him a trumpet.One of his father’s dental patients gave him lessons.Looking back, he said that by the age of 12, music had become the most important thing in his life.As a prominent dentist his father was well-connected and soon Miles was taking lessons from the principal trumpet player in the St Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Miles went to East St. Louis’s Lincoln High School where he played in the marching band and tried to learn even more about the intricacies of music. I went and got every book I could to learn about theory, he remembered from his high school years.
In large part because his dad was also the State Educational Director of the Elks, Miles got a regular paying gig at the local Elks Club.With the money he made he helped pay for his sister’s tuition at Fisk University.
In July 1944 just after Miles graduated high school, the famous jazz singer Billy Eckstine brought his band through St. Louis for an engagement.The group featured up and coming players like drummer Art Blakey, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and an alto sax player named Charlie Parker.While the band was in town, one of the trumpet players fell sick and Miles ended up sitting in for two weeks.
What can we learn from this?One thing is surely that children who show an interest in the arts can go a long way with a little support. Like Picasso said, every child is an artist.The trick is to continue to be one as we grow up.Let’s talk more about Miles next week.
