Miles ahead

The architect of the bestselling jazz album of all time, 1959's Kind of Blue, trumpeter Miles Davis is a towering figure in the history of the genre. With 2026 marking the centenary of Davis's birth, we asked several of his surviving collaborators to select his greatest recordings and discuss his enduring influence

- 

Sonny Rollins: 'He would hear every note you played'

I met Miles as a young man and we soon became very good friends.

He moved to uptown New York, where I was living, and he'd come by my house to talk about music and the state of jazz.

He was very sincere and very serious about the music. When we started playing together, we would practise for hours and hours, and even though everyone in his bands liked and admired him, we knew that when you played with Miles you better not make any mistakes! He would hear every note each person played, and we all took something different away from his wisdom. He didn't want to be like the other guys leading bands and he didn't want to look backwards. He has a character to his music that is the sound of that constant change.

I still hear him in so many young guys today - they play like Miles if they can.

Terence Blanchard: 'He always played the moment'

Miles didn't play the trumpet like a trumpet; he produced a personal sound. He was really into melody and phrasing, rather than playing licks with lots of notes to show off technique, and he always played the moment, since it's what was happening at the time in the music that would dictate what he expressed through his horn. That's ultimately what has kept all of his music fresh.

One of the first jazz records I ever got was the live Miles Davis album Four & More when I was 15. From the very first trilling high note that he plays to the ballads he performs with a straight tone and no vibrato, it was different from anything I'd heard. Rather than play fast or loud, he chose to play soft. He came from the history of the music but didn't bow down to it - he was my first indication that jazz should never stand still, it should always be growing.