Q 01/05

Miles Davis was born in 1926 in Alton, Illinois, and raised in which nearby city?

A) East St. Louis

B) Chicago

C) Springfield

D) Kansas City

Answer · why

A) East St. Louis

His father was a dentist and his mother a violinist and music teacher; the family also owned a 200-acre Arkansas farm.

Q 02/05

Davis's boyhood teacher Elwood Buchanan slapped his knuckles whenever he played with what?

A) a mute

B) heavy vibrato

C) his eyes closed

D) too much volume

Answer · why

B) heavy vibrato

The lesson stuck: Davis prized 'a round sound with no attitude in it' for the rest of his career.

Q 03/05

Davis moved to New York in 1944 to study at which institution, dropping out after three semesters?

A) Berklee

B) the Manhattan School of Music

C) Juilliard

D) Columbia University

Answer · why

C) Juilliard

He spent most of his time in Harlem clubs hunting for his idol Charlie Parker, who became his roommate.

Q 04/05

Whom did Davis replace in Charlie Parker's quintet in 1945?

A) Fats Navarro

B) Clark Terry

C) Freddie Webster

D) Dizzy Gillespie

Answer · why

D) Dizzy Gillespie

His solo on Parker's 'Now's the Time' that November already hinted at cool jazz.

Q 05/05

Which unusual instruments for modern jazz did the Miles Davis Nonet use on Birth of the Cool?

A) French horn and tuba

B) harp and oboe

C) banjo and accordion

D) sitar and tabla

Answer · why

A) French horn and tuba

The arrangements by Gil Evans, John Lewis and Gerry Mulligan aimed at a thick, almost orchestral sound imitating the human voice.