Jazz
Miles influence on jazz trumpet was immense. His dry, low tone was a deviation from the standard sound of the time.
“[Miles] changed the tone of the trumpet for the first time since Louis Armstrong. Everybody who came between Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis basically came from Louis Armstrong ... that sound and timbre basically hadn't been changed until Miles Davis.” - Gil Evans
Modern trumpeters, like Wallace Roney and Tom Harrell, admit to getting a huge influence from Davis.
“He found a way to bring out individuality, to find special people and draw them out to take them even more deeply into their own identity. That's the greatest attribute of a leader.” - Tom Harrell
John Coltrane took as much from Miles as Miles took from him. After leaving Miles' band Coltrane's music took a decidedly different turn. Since then Coltrane has become an influence in his own right—passing down much of Miles' legacy to his admirers.
“[Coltrane's] 'So What' solo indicates the direction that Coltrane's music was to take during the 1960s, more so than 'Giant Steps.' He became more and more concerned with structural aspects of improvisation...” - Lewis Porter
Cannonball Adderley joined Miles' band sounding very much in the bebop style of Charlie Parker, but he left sounding much more melodic. Modal tunes became a staple of Adderley's post-Miles playing.
“I wrote a lot of modal pieces for Cannonball, usually the up-tempo tunes ... [The song '74 Miles Away'] was a natural groove based on just one chord.” - Josef Zawinul (Pianist for Cannonball)
Miles hated “free jazz,” but his revolutions in modal playing may have helped this new art.
“A lot of free jazz players relished in modal playing, because they couldn't connect the changes like their predecessors.” - Jimmy Heath
Rock 'n' Roll
Jimi Hendrix was a good friend of Miles during the late seventies.
Carlos Santana - “This is why I adore Miles—because he would not tap dance for anybody ... Miles Davis was not an entertainer, he was a seriously brutal artist/musician that would not comply with the plastic system.”
The Doors - “[Drummer] John [Densmore] and I were big Coltrane and Davis fans, and we tried to bring a lot of their modal influence to rock.” - Ray Manzarek (Doors' keyboardist)
Bob Dylan - “Miles Davis is my definition of cool.”
The Allman Brothers' live performances were filled with long improvised solos over a one or two chord vamp. They admit to being very influenced by Miles modal recordings:
“You know, that kind of playing comes from Miles and Coltrane, and particularly Kind of Blue. I've listened to that album so many times that for the past couple of years I haven't hardly listened to anything else.” - Duane Allman
