The Second Great Quintet

This week, Kate Molleson explores the life and work of a cultural icon: trumpeter, composer and bandleader Miles Davis, who was born 100 years ago this week and remains one of the most innovative and influential figures in 20th-century music. Kate is joined throughout the week by the leading American jazz critic Nate Chinen. Together, they'll survey his vast recorded output, which spans five decades, prioritising his own compositions but also appreciating the art of improvisation as spontaneous composition.

Miles Davis was born in Illinois 26 May 1926 and grew up in East St. Louis. He enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City in 1944 but was quickly drawn to the bebop scene of 52nd Street, playing alongside Charlie Parker, with whom he made some of his first key recordings. From that point on, he was at the heart of almost every new development in jazz, from hard bop to post-bop, third stream, fusion and beyond, hand-picking key collaborators for his ever-changing sound, including composer-arranger Gil Evans, saxophonists John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, keyboardists Herbie Hancock and Joe Zawinul and, in his later years, the bassist and producer Marcus Miller. He made it his mission to be at the vanguard culturally and musically, rejecting convention and tradition in favour of pursuing innovation and the new thing.

Today, Kate Molleson and Nate Chinen focus on one of the most celebrated units in the history of jazz, made up of key players of the time who were all to become future stars in their own right - teenage drum prodigy Tony Williams, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and saxophonist Wayne Shorter, whose own exploratory improvisations and original compositions were to be a defining element in the Miles Davis sound of the 1960s. We hear about the changing landscape for jazz during this decade with the advent of free jazz and the first seeds of fusion on the horizon.

To listen on most smart speakers, just say “Ask BBC Sounds to play Composer of the Week.”

Music featured:

Summertime (from Porgy & Bess)
Autumn Leaves (from Live at Antibes)
Seven Steps to Heaven (from Seven Steps to Heaven)
ESP (from ESP)
Circle (from Miles Smiles)
Dolores (from Miles Smiles)
Agitation (from Live at the Plugged Nickel)
Mademoiselle Mabry (from Filles de Kilimanjaro)

Produced by Felix Carey for BBC Audio Wales and West