The Miles Davis Experience: 1949-1959 | Press Releases

8 p.m. on Friday, November 11, 2011
Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts

Image: J Palmer Miles Davis. The name alone has become synonymous with jazz music and its place in popular culture, notably the prolific years of 1949-1959, starting with Birth of the Cool. To commemorate these momentous years in jazz and the career of the iconic jazz trumpeter, composer, and band leader, Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts presents The Miles Davis Experience: 1949-1959 at 8 p.m. on Friday, November 11, 2011, an innovative musical and historical experience being produced in conjunction with CAMI Music, Miles Davis Properties, LLC, and Blue Note Records. Tickets: $40, $35, and $30.

Through the lens of jazz music and one of its most prolific innovators, The Miles Davis Experience: 1949-1959 will recapture this critical period of American history through a historical and cultural context. Led by contemporary jazz trumpeter Jason Palmer, this immersive presentation will follow Miles' musical development in a linear chronology, telling of the challenges and optimism in post-war America, civil rights struggle, historical milestones and the creative cauldron of new music that Miles pioneered and nurtured.

More than just a musical performance, The Miles Davis Experience: 1949-1959 features images from the era brought together by beat poet-style narrator and actor, Donald Lacy. Joining Lacy and trumpeter Jason Palmer will be Walter Smith III on tenor sax, Sam Harris on piano, Harish Raghavan on bass, and Justin Brown on drums. The performance will reintroduce Miles to fans and give a new generation of music lovers a more complete understanding of jazz and Miles' influence on today's popular music.

Miles Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, a year that marked the 80th anniversary of his birth on May 26, 1926, and the 15th anniversary of his passing on September 28, 1991. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll notes that "Miles Davis played a crucial and inevitably controversial role in every major development in jazz since the mid-'40s, and no other jazz musician has had so profound an effect on rock. Miles Davis was the most widely recognized jazz musician of his era, an outspoken social critic and an arbiter of style - in attitude and fashion - as well as music."

From Birth of the Cool to 1959's enormously influential masterpiece Kind of Blue , Miles Davis secured his legendary status in music history. Kind of Blue stands as the best selling jazz album of all time with over 4 million copies sold, and in December 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives recognized Miles' musical influence, passing a resolution honoring the album as a national treasure.

Tickets are available through the Quick Center Box Office: (203) 254-4010, or toll-free 1-877-ARTS-396 (1-877-278-7396). Tickets can also be purchased online at fairfield.edu/quick .

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Fairfield University at 1073 North Benson Road in Fairfield, Connecticut. Entrance to the Quick Center is through the Barlow Road gate at 200 Barlow Road. Free, secure parking is available. Access for people with disabilities is available throughout the Quick Center for audience members and performers. Hearing amplification devices are available upon request at the Box Office. Fairfield University is located off exit 22 of Interstate-95. For further information and directions, call (203) 254-4010 or 1-877-278-7396, or visit fairfield.edu/quick .