Tony L
Administrator
Miles Davis is not in the same league as Ellington or Armstrong as much as I rate him. I would put Monk above him also & probably Mingus.
I don’t agree at all. Miles produced a staggering body of work, one that I keep returning to more than any other musician. Like many great musicians he understood perfectly when not to play, when to allow others space etc. I’m not saying the others weren’t amazing, but Monk had said all he really had to say within the first handful of albums and just re-said it for the rest of his career. Mingus had a run of absolutely stunning and totally groundbreaking albums between 1959 and 63, but really that’s it. He was done. Davis just kept on going, kept on innovating and remained at the absolute forefront of music until the very last phase of his life. Even then Tutu and Amandla still stand up. There is no other jazz musician like him as the few that had the potential died too soon (e.g. Coltrane, Dolphy etc). You could make a case for Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett too, but none got even close the diversity and off the wall innovation of the work Miles left. Ellington and Armstrong were clearly geniuses, but neither stepped as far outside of their safe-zone as Miles. Neither reinvented themselves so many times.