What was Miles Davis’s personality like?

Jazz great Miles Davis was known for being aloof onstage, especially in his later years, when he would often turn his back to the audience or leave the stage while other musicians were performing their solos. Earlier in his career, when he was playing with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in the 1940s, he began cultivating this cool, tough, even antagonistic persona. Gillespie, however, dismissed Davis’s aloofness and toughness as a mask for shyness.

Davis was extremely individualistic as an artist, having been advised by his father to develop his own sound and style and not become an imitation of others. Davis once stated of his craft, “I pay no attention to what the critics say about me. The toughest critic I got, and the only one I worry about, is myself. The music has to get past me.”