Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants Monk and I were, first, very close, and second, he was too big and strong for me to even be thinking about fighting [...] All I did was tell him to lay out when I was playing. My asking him to lay out had something to do with music, not friendship. He used to tell cats to lay out himself." Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (PRLP 7150) is an album by Miles Davis, released on Prestige Records in 1959. Most of the material comes from a session on December 24, 1954,
Miles Davis tried to persuade him to join the Tiny Bradshaw band, which was passing through town, but his mother insisted he finish high school before going on tour. He said later, "I didn't talk to her for two weeks. And I didn't go with the band either." In January 1944, Davis finished high school and graduated in absentia in June. During the next month, his girlfriend gave birth to a daughter, Cheryl. In July 1944, Billy Eckstine visited St. Louis with a band that included Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker. Trumpeter Buddy Anderson was too sick to perform, so