Miles Davis At 100: A Global Perspective
At the invitation of All About Jazz and its senior editor, Ian Patterson, João Barradas contributed a short piece to the website's tribute article to Miles Davis, in honor of his 100th birthday in May 2026. Some of the other musicians who also contributed include Ron Carter, John McLaughlin, Richard Bona, Terri Lyne Carrington, Mike Stern, Bill Frisell, Andrea Keller, Emil Viklicky, Rain Sultanov, Ellen Cranitch, Arturo Sandoval, Laura Jurd, Miguel Zenon, Dianne Reeves, Arturo O'Farrill, among others.
"Miles Davis is synonymous with expression, precision, rhythmic prowess, and bandleading at the highest level. His influence is inseparable from the very history of jazz. It is nearly impossible to imagine contemporary music without his discography. As through these recordings, Davis shaped not only the course of modern jazz—consider the interplay within standard forms of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, where fixed chord changes become springboards for virtuosity and innovation; from advanced comping impositions to metric modulation and the reshaping of formal quadrature—but also left a profound imprint on other musical traditions, from classical to pop music. A cultural icon. " - João Barradas