(04-08-2022, 01:41 PM)NewJagsCity Wrote:

(04-08-2022, 01:32 PM)NYC4jags Wrote: Miles gets the acclaim he does because he radically changed the direction of jazz and improvisational music stylistically.

His trumpet abilities are not unmatched, but his ability to play lyrically with artistic subtlety has yet to be equaled. 
 His innovative and hyper-stylized approach that turned the be-bop world toward cool jazz, and then finally paved a new road of modal jazz composition and improvisation is the reason he is so acclaimed. 

To analyze what jazz music was in 1945 and compare it to what it had become in 1959 when Miles released "Kind of Blue" is actually pretty astounding. There were other innovators and various branches of style growing on the "jazz tree" but none were more profound than the giant canopy Miles Davis grew. 

The music itself isn't for everyone's palate.

Thanks for the thoughtful and insightful analysis.  I'll have to revisit/rethink some of his stuff.

I'm a jazz nerd. Rarely have the opportunity to expound on it. 

A really good chronological encapsulation of Miles' lyricism over the stages of his career could be heard by listening to these tracks:

Bye, Bye Blackbird - from the Round About Midnight album - 1957
Generique - from the soundtrack album Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud - 1958
So What - from the album Kind of Blue - 1959
Gone, Gone, Gone - from the album Porgy and Bess - 1959
Circle - from the album Miles Smiles - 1967
Sweet Pea - from the album Water Babies - 1968
Guinnevere - from the album [BLEEP] Brew - 1969

Even just a minute of each should give a listener some perspective on what makes him different than much of the popular jazz prior to his output and what was being done at the time. 
The final three listed there illustrate his inclusion of more modern and unconventional harmonies as well as introduction of non-traditional instrumentation.

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