Miles Dewey Davis was born on 25 May 1926 in Alton, Illinois, growing up in East St Louis, Illinois. While his mother had hoped that he would play classical violin, Davis was given a trumpet by his father for his thirteenth birthday. Early on, he considered his early influences to be Bobby Hackett (loving his lyrical solo on the 1938 recording of “Embraceable You”), Harry James and Clark Terry.

Davis played with his high school band, worked locally with Eddie Randall’s Blue Devils during 1941–43 and had an opportunity to sit in with the Billy Eckstine Orchestra in 1944, a legendary big band that included Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker. Although his own technique was faulty at this point, Davis worked hard to master bebop, trying to pla...