AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Miles Davis

Artist:Miles Davis

Song:Walkin'

Album:The Classic Albums Collection

This is another in my Jazz for Beginners series complete with a performance video and an affordable album appropriate for beginners. In the case of trumpeter Miles Davis, I'm going to cover his 50s recordings on Prestige now and cover his Columbia recordings later. Davis was born May 26, 1926 in Alton, IL. which is north of St. Louis. His father was a dentist and his mother was a music teacher. He grew up in East St. Louis, IL He spent summers with his grandparents in Arkansas. In 1935, a friend of his father gave Davis a trumpet and he took lessons. As a teen, he played local clubs and in the high school marching band. After finishing high school, Davis joined Billy Eckstine's band. Many bebop musicians started out there. Davis attended Juilliard but he spent most of his time looking for Charlie Parker in New York clubs. His first record contract was with Capitol Records in 1948 and that's when he recorded Birth of the Cool. Capitol didn't seem to know what to do with Davis. They released a bunch of singles and when Davis became famous later, they put them on a 1957 album. By 1950, Davis was a heroin addict and seemed to lack direction. Things improved when he signed with Prestige Records in 1951. He remained with Prestige until he left for Columbia in 1958. He spent most of his time at Prestige arguing with Prestige owner Bob Weinstock. For example, he had an operation in Oct. 1955 to remove polyps from his larynx. Doctors told him to remain silent. Instead he got into an argument with Weinstock that left Davis with a permanently raspy voice. After Davis signed with Columbia in 1958, Davis still owed several albums to Prestige. Also, jazz labels like Prestige were known for stockpiling albums. For example, Walkin' was recorded in 1954 on two 10" LPs and combined in 1957. The song Walkin' is a jazz standard mainly because of Davis. Supposedly, a guy named Richard Carpenter stole the riff from another song and that's what Davis recorded. Musicians on the album were Lucky Thompson on tenor sax, J.J. Johnson on trombone, Horace Silver on piano, Percy Heath on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. The album was credited to Miles Davis All Stars. The best way to get this album is on the 4CD classic albums box set available at a reasonable price. It's a mix of Prestige and Columbia albums. Of course things picked up when Davis moved to Columbia and I will look at that at a later time. Here's Miles Davis performing Walkin'. It says 1957 but it looks like it was recorded in Europe in the early 60s.