NEW YORK CITY LANDMARKS PRESERVATION CENTER HONORING MILES DAVIS AT MEDALLION CEREMONY AT DAVIS’ UPPER WEST SIDE BROWNSTONE
LEGACY RECORDINGS ALSO CELEBRATES MILES DAVIS AS “ARTIST OF THE MONTH” FOR MAY 2013
Live In Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 2 Hits #3 on Billboard Jazz Charts
WHO: Vince Wilburn, Jr. (Miles Davis Properties, LLC; Mileslike, Inc.); Wallace Roney (jazz trumpeter; Miles alumni); George Coleman (Saxophonist, Miles Great Quintet), George Coleman, Jr.
WHAT: New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission will honor Miles Davis at an official Medallion Ceremony.
WHERE: 312 West 77th Street
The brownstone townhouse, purchased by Davis in 1958, that served as both home and working environment for the artist for 25 years.
WHEN: THURSDAY, MAY 16 FROM 3 P.M. – 4 P.M.
COMMENTS: Born Miles Dewey Davis III on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois, Miles grew up in East St. Louis, first learning trumpet at age 13. Graduating high school, he moved to New York in 1944 to study at the Juilliard School of Music, developing chops in technique and music theory before leaving to become a full-time player on the New York jazz circuit, cutting his first records in 1945.
One of the most revolutionary and influential musicians and recording artists of the 20th century, Miles Davis was in the vanguard of virtually every phase of the evolution of post-WWII American jazz, from be-bop to cool jazz to hard-bop to modal jazz to the rock-jazz-funk-fusion that got him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Miles Davis died on September 28, 1991, leaving an extensive catalog of unprecedented music that remains both timeless and groundbreaking.
Trumpeter, bandleader and composer, Miles Davis fronted some of the most formidable and adroit ensembles in jazz history. Miles was that rarest of artists: an uncompromising avant-garde visionary who achieved both critical and commercial success. In 2008, Davis’s 1959 masterpiece, Kind of Blue, was certified 4x platinum, solidifying its stature as the top-selling jazz album of all-time. In December 2009, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution on Kind of Blue‘s 50th anniversary “honoring the masterpiece and reaffirming jazz as a national treasure.”
Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, celebrates the genius of Miles Davis, honoring the 20th century jazz avatar as the label’s Artist of the Month for May 2013.