Timeline | Miles Davis Official Site

Within four years, Miles was an up-and-coming member of the St. Louis music community. He recalled an early onstage conversation that motivated him to teach himself chromatic scales and expand his repertoire. “When I was about fifteen, a drummer I was playing a number with at the Castle Ballroom in St. Louis—we had a ten-piece band, three trumpets, you know. He asked me, ‘Little Davis, why don’t you play what you did last night?’ I said, ‘What—what do you mean?’ He said, ‘You don’t know what it is?’ I said, ‘No, what is it?’ ‘You were playing something coming out of the middle of the tune, and play it again.’ I said, ‘I don’t know what I played.’ He said, ‘If you don’t know what you’re playing, then you ain’t doing nothing.’ Well, that hit me, like BAM! So I went and got everything, every book I could get to learn about theory.”

While still in high school, Miles was accomplished enough to join trumpeter Eddie Randle’s Rhumboogie Orchestra—also known as the Blue Devils—which he called “one of the most important steps in my career.” Playing regular gigs with one of St. Louis’ most established bands in one of the city’s leading dancehalls exposed the young trumpeter to the company of professional musicians and he eventually became Randle’s musical director, setting up rehearsals and recruiting musicians, gaining the respect of many on the local scene, and national as well.