The Cool Lives On: Miles Davis and the Survival of Jazz

Jazz music is an ambiguous term, yet everyone knows Jazz music when they hear it. The problem is that the term “Jazz” describes many distinctly different sub genres of music with a few unifying features. Had Jazz not diversified into these different schools of Jazz, it would not have survived. Jazz would have been popular music that showed up in the early 20th century and was quickly forgotten about. Miles Davis, a Jazz trumpet player, was the driving force behind many new schools of Jazz. He was at the center of Bebop, Hard Bop, Cool Jazz, Modal Jazz, and Fusion. He reinvented himself each time to create new styles that allowed both his career and Jazz music in general to survive. Jazz music required this diversification, and Miles Davis was the catalyst to make it happen.