Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a roughly five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz.
Davis in his New York City home, c. 1955–1956; photograph by Tom Palumbo
The house at 1701 Kansas Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois, where Davis lived from 1939 to 1944
Tommy Potter, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Miles Davis, Duke Jordan in August 1947
Davis on piano with Howard McGhee (trumpet), Joe Albany (pianist, standing) and Brick Fleagle (guitarist, smoking), September 1947
Alton is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about 18 miles (29 km) north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. It is famous for its limestone bluffs along the river north of the city, as the former location of the state penitentiary, and for its role preceding and during the American Civil War. It was the site of the last Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate in October 1858. The former state penitentiary in Alton was used during the Civil War to hold up to 12,000 Confederate prisoners of war. Also, the tallest man in history, Robert Wadlow, was born and raised in Alton.
The Clark Bridge, connecting Alton to West Alton, Missouri
Historic Alton home
Alton flood, 1993
The Great River Road in Illinois north of Alton, looking south