Miles Davis › Similar Artists

John Coltrane - 84% match to Miles Davis

John William Coltrane, 23 September 1926, Hamlet, North Carolina, USA, d. 17 July 1967, New York, USA. Coltrane grew up in the house of his maternal grandfather, Rev. William Blair (who gave him his middle name), a preacher and community spokesman. While he was taking clarinet lessons at school, his school band leader suggested his mother buy him an alto saxophone. In 1939 h Read more

Thelonious Monk - 43% match to Miles Davis

Thelonious Sphere Monk, 11 October 1917, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA, d. 17 February 1982, Weehawken, New Jersey, USA. Monk’s family moved to New York when he was five years old. He started playing piano a year later, receiving formal tuition from the age of 11 onwards. At Stuyvesant High School he excelled at physics and maths, and also found time to play organ in Read more

Charles Mingus - 40% match to Miles Davis

Charlie Parker - 39% match to Miles Davis

Charles Christopher Parker, 29 August 1920, Kansas City, Kansas, USA, d. 12 March 1955, New York City, New York, USA. Although he was born on the Kansas side of the state line, Parker was actually raised across the Kaw River in Kansas City, Missouri. His nickname was originally ‘Yardbird’ due to his propensity for eating fried chicken - later this was shortened to Read more

Wayne Shorter - 38% match to Miles Davis

25 August 1933, Newark, New Jersey, USA. Shorter first played clarinet, taking up the tenor saxophone during his late teens. He studied music at New York University during the mid-50s before serving in the US army for two years. During his student days he had played with various bands, including that led by Horace Silver, and on his discharge encountered John Coltrane, with Read more

Cannonball Adderley - 36% match to Miles Davis

Julian Edwin Adderley, 15 September 1928, Tampa, Florida, USA, d. 8 August 1975, Gary, Indiana, USA. Cannonball Adderley was one of the great saxophonists of his generation. His fiery, blues-soaked interpretations of Charlie Parker’s alto legacy brought jazz to many people hitherto untouched by it. In the 60s he launched a new genre, soul jazz, whose popularity has surv Read more

Sonny Rollins - 35% match to Miles Davis

Theodore Walter Rollins, 7 September 1929, New York City, New York, USA. Although an older brother played violin and, at the age of nine, he took piano lessons, Rollins was destined for the saxophone. In 1944 he played alto saxophone in high school and when he left in 1947 he began gigging round New York on tenor. His first inspiration was Coleman Hawkins, but he was well aw Read more

Herbie Hancock - 33% match to Miles Davis

Herbert Jeffrey Hancock, 12 April 1940, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Growing up in a musical household, Hancock studied piano from the age of seven and gave his first public performance just two years later. Although he played classical music at his debut Hancock’s interest lay mostly in jazz. During high school and college he played in semi-professional bands and on occasio Read more

Freddie Hubbard - 32% match to Miles Davis

Frederick Dewayne Hubbard, 7 April 1938, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Hubbard began playing trumpet as a child, and in his teens worked locally with Wes Montgomery and Monk Montgomery. When he was 20 he moved to New York, immediately falling in with the best of contemporary jazzmen. Amongst the musicians with whom he worked in the late 50s were Eric Dolphy (his room-mate for Read more

Bill Evans - 31% match to Miles Davis

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - 28% match to Miles Davis

Weather Report - 27% match to Miles Davis

Founded by Joe Zawinul (Josef Erich Zawinul, 7 July 1932, Landstraße, Vienna, Austria, d. 11 September 2007, Vienna, Austria; keyboards) and Wayne Shorter (b. 25 August 1933, Newark, New Jersey, USA; reeds). The highly accomplished Weather Report was one of the groups credited with inventing jazz rock fusion music in the early 70s. The two founders had worked together Read more

Duke Ellington - 26% match to Miles Davis

Edward Kennedy Ellington, 29 April 1899, Washington, DC, USA, d. 24 May 1974, New York City, New York, USA. Ellington began playing piano as a child but, despite some local success, took up a career as a sign-painter. In his teens he continued to play piano, studied harmony, composed his first tunes and was generally active in music in Washington. Among his childhood friends Read more

Eric Dolphy - 26% match to Miles Davis

20 June 1928, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 29 June 1964, Berlin, Germany. A fluent performer on several reed instruments, Dolphy began to play clarinet while still at school. On the west coast of America in the second half of the 40s he worked with Roy Porter’s band, before spending a couple of years in the US army. After his discharge, he played with several leadin Read more

Lee Morgan - 26% match to Miles Davis

10 July 1938, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 19 February 1972, New York City, New York, USA. Prodigiously talented, Morgan played trumpet professionally at the age of 15 and three years later joined Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. During this same period he recorded with John Coltrane, Hank Mobley and others. In 1958 the Gillespie band folded and Morgan joined Art Blak Read more