It is said that the only complete esthetic achievements since the great period of Parker and Gillespie belong to Miles Davis.
The quintets that Miles Davis has led are of crucial importance. The first - with John Coltrane (tenor), Paul Chambers (bass), Red Garland (piano), and Philly Joe Jones (drums) - was especially highly lauded. It set standards for all quintets that were to follow - in fact, for modern jazz quintets between 1956 and 1970 in general. There is an astounding list of all the musicians who gained fame after emerging from a Davis quintet.
One of the important factors in Mile's great popularity was his way of playing the muted trumpet - almost as if he were "breathing" into the microphone. The solo he recorded in this manner on Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" was particularly successful; the muted solo on "All of You" has been praised, especially by musicians, as one of the most beautiful jazz solos of the fifties.
No matter how many avenues for new possibilities in jazz Miles may have opened - he very often chose tradition when faced with a choice between it and avant-garde. He once complained that pianist Thelonious Monk was playing "wrong chords," though no doubt Monk's chords were not "wrong," but merely more abstract and modern than was suitable to Mile's conception at the time. Miles complained bitterly to the recording director who had hired Monk for the record date. The results, however - whether Miles liked it or not - were some of the most important and artistically successful recorded works of the fifties (Miles, Monk, and Milt Jackson on Prestige).
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