A wealthy teenager in East St. Louis had his knuckles rapped for playing with vibrato, and grew up to become the Prince of Darkness. This deep dive traces Miles Davis through every reinvention: dropping out of Juilliard after three semesters to chase Charlie Parker into Harlem jam sessions, building the nonet that produced Birth of the Cool, and a 1949 Paris trip with Juliette Greco, Sartre, and Picasso that made the return to American racism unbearable.

The episode follows his heroin addiction, a cold-turkey detox locked in a room at his father's house, and the Sugar Ray Robinson ethos that armored his comeback. It explains the stemless Harmon mute, the 1955 Newport solo on Round Midnight that landed him at Columbia, the discipline that led him to fire John Coltrane and Philly Joe Jones, the modal breakthrough of Kind of Blue, the razor-bl ...