Obituary- This link opens in a new window
Newsweek, October 14 1991, Vol. 118, p 77.
Trumpeter Miles Davis, who died recently at age 65, made a number of contributions to the jazz world. During the late 1940s, he and his nine-piece band did Birth of the Cool. In the mid 1950s, he participated in a landmark quintet with John Coltrane, with whom he recorded Kind of Blue. That recording turned the jazz world on its ear by using scales and modes instead of chords. Miles Ahead and Sketches of Spain, his records with Gil Evans, took a new approach to integrating an orchestra with a soloist. In the 1960s, Davis made a fresh start, delving into the avant-garde on E.S.P. During his electric phase, he recorded two of his greatest contributions: Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way.