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Miles Davis: The Man Behind the Music Miles, know to jazz lovers everywhere as a great pioneer. Miles Dewey Davis was born May 26th, 1926, in Alton, Illinois. Although born in Alton, Illinois, Miles Davis lived in East St Louis. He came from a wealthy middle-class, secure family . His father was a Dentist and a ranch owner. He came from a musical home in which both his mother and his sister played instruments. Some even say that his mother played a fierce blues. Although Miles father was not very musical himself, he saw real talent in his son. According to Quincy Troupe, Miles Davis once said that music was "a curse" for him because he thought of nothing else while he was awake. Music was his life. But it wasn't always the passion of his life. At first, Miles wanted to be a baseball player and than a doctor, like his father, who was a dentist”. For Miles thirteenth birthday, his father bought him his first trumpet. Miles was privileged to come from the family he did, because it meant he was able to have private trumpet lessons. He was trained by a teacher named Elwood Buchanan, before his natural talent and flare for improvisation took over. Miles progressed quickly at the trumpet, and played in a band