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Miles Davis · S1 E3
Clark Terry
A young trumpeter from St. Louis who befriends the teenage Miles. Terry plays in Count Basie's band and shows Miles what a professional musician's life looks like. Their friendship will last decades
Pennsylvania Station, Manhattan, September 1944. An eighteen-year-old from East St. Louis steps off the train with a trumpet case and one mission: find Charlie Parker.
Miles Davis, All Blues, from Kind of Blue (1959). A 6/8 modal blues that carries every influence from Miles's youth: Buchanan's clean tone, Terry's warmth, the swing he learned in East St. Louis dance halls. The ease you hear took a lifetime to build.
All Blues -- Miles Davis (1959)
From Kind of Blue, recorded fifteen years after Miles leaves home. All Blues floats on a gentle 6/8 groove while the horns trade a simple riff underneath each soloist. The piece proves that the blues can be elegant without losing its grit. Listen for how Miles builds his solo from just a few notes, adding tension slowly before releasing it.
The Decision
Miles's parents are split on what comes next. His mother Cleota wants him at Fisk University in Nashville, a historically Black college with a safe, structured path. His father writes the check for Juilliard, understanding that his son is not going to New York for classical training.
TAP TO REVEAL: What was the first thing Miles did when he arrived in New York?
52nd Street, Manhattan
Between Fifth and Seventh Avenue: three blocks of basement clubs where every major jazz musician in the world plays every night. This is the real school Miles came to New York for, not Juilliard's practice rooms uptown.
Walkin' -- Miles Davis
From a 1954 Prestige session, a mid-tempo blues that swings with the confidence of a man who grew up on the Mississippi. The warm, grounded sound Clark Terry planted in Miles's ear comes through in every phrase.
Where did Miles Davis officially enroll when he moved to New York in 1944?
Miles finds Charlie Parker in a cramped hotel room, broke and brilliant. Within weeks he is sitting in with Bird's quintet on 52nd Street, and the most important musical apprenticeship of the century is about to begin.
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