The following biography is one in a series of "My Hero Essays" written by students at Miami Lakes Middle School. Special thanks to teacher and web mentor Lottie Simms, Mrs. Ball, band director, and Mrs. Mayland, computer education teacher.

by Bryan L.

Miles Davis was an American trumpeter and composer. He is renowned for changing the sound, color, and overall approach to contemporary jazz. He was born on May 25, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. In the mid 1940s he played with the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and the saxophonists Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins. At age 18, he went to New York to study at the Julliard School of Music. In 1948, he formed a nine-piece band. With Gill Evans as arranger, this band introduced cool jazz. The Evans-Davis collaboration produced immensely popular albums, such as Sketches of Spain and Miles Ahead. In 1954, while he was the talk of jazz, Davis himself went into something of a decline, plagued by problems associated with drug addiction. In the 1960s after getting off the drug addiction Davis got back on his feet and formed a new quintet. Davis stopped playing in 1975 partially due to illness. On September 28, 1991 in Santa Monica, California Miles Davis died. If Davis had not existed, jazz history would be much different.