Audio: “Boplicity” by Miles Davis

No single figure has influenced the evolution of American jazz more than trumpeter Miles Davis. A member of the music scene of his native St. Louis from the young age of 16, Davis was quick to find his way to New York City and to begin making his mark on the bebop movement, alongside such legends as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Despite being more than able to hold his own among such luminaries, Davis quickly grew tired of the virtuosic nature of bebop and sought to find ways to revolutionize the music. It is this fact of Davis’s character — his willingness to push the boundaries of existing musical trends — that put him at the forefront of several of the most dramatic shifts in the genre throughout his life. “Bloplicity” — first recorded in 1949 — signals Davis’s segue from bebop into a new genre called cool jazz.