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averyadams76-blog · 4 years

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The way to find out Cross Stitch Patterns?

Embroidery, all around the globe is considered as a slice of tradition. This legacy has been with us for many centuries. As an art form is therefore aged that none folks can pin point the accuracy of its ancientness. Since the time of our mothers, grand mothers and their ancestors have adopted this art, inspite of the globe being poles apart.Where we reside will not produce a difference all of us have been introduced into embroidery as cross legged embroidery. That's because it really is so simple to learn. It requires the most common of supplies that are accessible. So just how far ever I go ga ga over celtic cross stitch it'll be little because I love its patterns.Cross stitch is not without its impressions of varied civilizations and tribes and areas. Patterns of cross stitch really are a mixture of a few primitive, ethnic, contemporary day along with modern day variants. Other too have their beliefs, while some regional patterns are evident. Like Victorian cross stitch is admired because of its timeless layouts, African American stitch is famous to their ethnicity and Celtic due to their intricacy.Celtic embroidery is an ancient form of lace. Its archetypal patterns are very well understood the diversity of its own designs are something that we can enjoy. Since Celts have been nomads hence that the impressions of their art realized no more borders. These routines could possibly be seen on probably just about each possession of theirs.On their belongings the design and motifs work had minute details that some work could well be a masterpiece within our contemporary life. Cross stitch patterns used by Celts had beliefs of their life styles. Styles like geometrical shapes, mythological monsters, flowers, alphabets and more. They did not merely stop with creating layouts with embroideries, they were so found of the routines that even their paintings, utensils walls and walls could engraved with this kind of patterns.All of you'd now be asking about the techniques to get them magnificent and exclusive patterns. I wouldn't have been in a position to reply this. But I'm fortunate enough to own enough knowledge concerning this art in order be able to talk about it. Your choices of thread to machine design could be overwhelming, especially for the newcomer quilter. We often embrace the belief that a hundred percent cotton or lace sewing thread may be the only thread. Thread over time, may cut to cotton material, especially at which blocks are combined. For this reason polyester is often threads by quilters' choice. Howeverthere are many other alternatives of ribbon for machine quilting.So most our coasters are sewn to your adventure of learning a new blueprint, looking out our personal layouts or solely for the fun of this. It our goal that these quilts will likely be properly used because of our relaxation or the relaxation of our animals, kids, grandchildren or our buddies. Our goal is usually for the duvet to bring happiness to the human being that is blessed is the fact that receives it all. I don't know about you personally, but I typically stipulate to this recipient to"utilize their new quilt and enjoy it". Doesn't it make you happy to walk right in to a home where a person your pajamas reside and watch it on the couch, or on floor in front of the TV rather than being hidden off in a expectation chest?It wont disturb one to experiment and also require a few hazard with threads used for vine in the event that you can have the mindset that it is irrelevant whether most of your quilts are not going to eventually become heirlooms that needs to continue throughout lifetime. If you are feeling somewhat timid about wanting different threads for your own quilts, '' I expect the subsequent advice will allow you to muster the guts to experiment and have fun using diverse alternatives of threads for system quilting.Threads are numbered according to size. The lightest weight thread has the highest number. The number on a spool that's 50/3 is telling you it really is three-ply 50 weight thread. Even a 50/3 sewing ribbon is finer compared to a 40/3 decorative thread. Generally in the majority of cases, I favor a milder thread as it will show more but that is just an individual preference. You've plumped for when sewing with threads, then you'll need to try out a variety of needles to decide on which one works better for the ribbon and also your fabric. I'll provide you some Needle Size Chart that may lead you using all the size of needle to use for distinct fabrics. Your selections of thread to machine quilting also comprises your bobbin thread. I've used acrylics, rayons, Jean sew and cottons with success. It moves without being said, your choice will be dependent on the appearance you need on the back. As it is considerably thicker, for example, in the event you apply the Jean Stitch, then it will be more decorative as opposed to cotton. A gorgeous way touse the Jean Stitch is always to choose an"all over style and design" to your decorative pattern, like twisting, then twist your quilt"upper side " to quilt and let the bobbin ribbon series onto top.The monofilament, mylar and metallic thread are a little trickier to operate together with at the bobbin. Usually you can see that tiny twist to be adjusted by guidelines . BEWARE. All these are preset in the mill and you face the probability of having trouble once you attempt to put them back to the original setting. There will be A better idea to purchase a bobbin instance and just play with the settings one . I dabbed at a spot of crimson nail polish onto exactly the one I play with so that I would not confuse the two. When using the monofilament thread, I had trouble using this falling off the spool although used to do all the usual"fixes". The answer for me is to put the spool in a small babyfood jar rather than putting it in my spool holder. Monofilaments are cotton or nylon , available in smoke or clear coloring and appear to sew with a 90/14 needle. Sulky and YLI are manufacturers. Monofilaments will definitely give you an antique or appearance. In the event you sew on a dark material, the smoke-color is best to utilize as the clear one is going to look shiny and also be visible.A fantastic 100% cotton ribbon to-use is Mettler 50/3 wt and also YLI 40/3 wt. These makes seem to own much significantly less breakage than others which since you realize, is crucial to machine quilting. Even the Mettler thread is slightly stiffer than the YLI however, also the YLI offers a more decorative appearance. A 80/12 sharp or 90/14 sewing needle functions well in case you should be using a cotton or rayon thread into your bobbin.Rayon threads tend to be favorites touse by quilters because of the brilliant colors available. The result is cosmetic and slick because the rayon grabs the light and really show itself off. A 90/14 needle having a cotton bobbin thread works well. Sulky and Maderia are terrific brands for rayon threads.The metallic threads split very easily. Additionally they purge. The YLI now is easier to use, but that I think you may even like the Sulky and Madeira metallics. Your best needle size to use for the metallics will be described as a 90/14 sewing or 80/12 Metallica. Even the mylar threads are not as likely to crack as the metallics and you'll probably like the appearance that is glistening and moist which the mylars give. Even the threads appear to accomplish better in the bobbin in the event you use the metallics or mylar. To help avoid the breakage, then place the spool in a baby food jar beside your sewing device instead of on your machine if you experience a problem. If you match with all the metallics, be careful not to drop the cuttings only because they make chaos for vacuum cleaner cleaners. To get further details on this please check my review here. YLI may be the sole new I know of that has got the"denims Stitch" 30/3 wt thread. As you may guess by its title, it offers a look that is very significant. I would think hard before buying a mattress quilt as it's much heavier than the cloth and will probably cause the fabric. But , it produces a stunning decorative stitch for wall-hangings. The jeans/denim needle is your one to make utilize of to your denims Stitch because it has a larger eye than the embroidery needle.Our present stitching, embroidery, and serger machines sew at quite high speeds putting an enormous strain on threads. New threads are always being manufactured also it seems that each and every single machine manufacturer, embroidery designer, along with digitizer gets her or his own brand of thread. The majority of those threads work well on the majority of their devices, but since a lot of our devices become automatic as well as the mechanisms that work these are far hidden, it could be frustrating and confusing to troubleshoot if our threads crack , especially when we are trying to squeeze in that last minute present or are sewing the final topstitching details onto a woven wool jacket.Whenever a needle ribbon breaks, first thing to check is that the thread trail. Don't forget to clip up the ribbon from the spool before it passes through the tension discsand pull on the cracked thread throughout the system from your needle end. Do not pull on the thread backward by way of the discs toward the spool, since this can eventually wear out vital components, necessitating a costly repair. Then take the thread from your spool and re-thread the needle according to the follow instructions to your machine.Even in the event the needle into your system is brand new, needles might possibly have small burrs or imperfections which cause threads to crack. Make certain the needle is also the right size and kind to your own ribbon. In the event the needle's eye is small, it might abrade the ribbon more quickly, causing frequent fractures . A smaller needle can make smaller holes from the material, resulting in more friction in between fabric and the thread. Embroidery and metallic crowns are specially created for specialty threads, and will protect them out of the excess pressure. For ordinary breaks, try a new needle, a top-stitching needle having a bigger eye, even a more specialization needle, or perhaps a bigger size needle.Sometimes the ribbon will likely break over the needle, and a long item of thread is going to be pulled into the underside of the crochet. This thread will probably snag and tangle using the stitches, inducing thread breaks. If possible, it is also more advisable to slow the machine down when stitching a spot at which the thread broke over. Check for screw thread bits underneath the stitching on a embroidery or stitching machine. Lowering the tension and slowing the sewing speed may assist, especially with long satin stitches, metallic or monofilament threads, and high density layouts. Sometimes the needle tension may possibly need to get lowered significantly more than once.Changing that the bobbin is not listed in the most popular literature, nonetheless nevertheless, it can prevent perennial needle ribbon fractures. When bobbins get non, especially whenever they are pre-wound bobbinsthey exert a greater tension on the needle ribbon. Even a bobbin might possibly well not be close to the ending, nonetheless it is worth changing out, instead of coping with constant thread breakage. This happens in a few machines than in others. Another problem with bobbins is when they get down to the past couple of foot of bobbin thread, the thread could be wrapped inducing the needle ribbon to crack. If stitching proceeds, this knot may even be sufficient to divide the needle itself.This is especially advantageous for serger difficulties. Make sure the ribbon follows a clean path from your spool, to the tension disks or dials, as well as the needle. The ribbon might have jumped from its own proper course. To blame here is the arm. Re-threading will figure out this problem. There are also. Some threads may fall off the spool and acquire caught around the spool . Whether there are additional threads they can tangle with the thread. Threads may get caught on dials, buttons, clips, needle threaders, or even perhaps the edges of this sewing machine or serger. On sergers, the subsidiary looper can be a standard offender, so inducing upper looper thread rests as well as preserving the top looper stitches from forming correctly.Some threads are better feeding out of the surface of the spool, a number from your side of the spool, and a work better added to a cone shaped holder that a slight distance from the machine. Another tip with threads which spin, especially metallic threads, so is always to conduct them through a Styrofoam peanut between your spool as well as the rest of the thread trail. This helps to straighten the kinks and twists that can get captured, inducing breaks.Adding just a tiny Sewer's Assist about the ribbon will permit it to move across the machine simpler effortlessly. On occasion a small dip could be inserted to the needle. Make certain to preserve this bottle different from some other sheeting or fray prevent solutions, as those could cause serious problems should they have mixed up.Some devices tend to be somewhat more particular about their thread than some the others. Even if working with high quality threads, then some threads may work in 1 machine and also not just another. Get to understand which ribbons operate nicely on the machine and also inventory on them.Although some may recommend throwing the spool away, you will find other options. One suggestion is to put it and set it. The thread could also be employed for less stressful purposes, for example as for example other methods for thread embellishment, hand sewing, tassels, and also strings that were twisted. Another way to save as much thread is to pull the top layer or 2 from your spool and try back again. On occasion the layer or layers may have been dry outside, but there is still very good ribbon underneath so when you get to it, then your stitching will go efficiently.

#Threaded Needle

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forestwater87 · 5 years

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A big box o’Gwenvid AU ideas: A is for "Aww” and “Angst” and “AAAH”

This post is fucking rad as balls, and I started thinking of fun AU ideas . . . until I remembered that I already have approximately 2 billion WIPs already and don’t necessarily know if any of these have legs as actual fics. But it was fun to think about, so here we are! This is the first of . . . presumably 26 of these? Who knows, but this post we have:

Accidental Marriage AU

In which Campbell convinces incredibly wealthy investors known for their focus on “family values” that the Camp is a sweet family business run by a husband-and-wife team of counselors. The problem, of course, is that it isn’t sweet and its head counselors aren’t married. Campbell only has enough booze to fix one of those situations.

He’ll figure the rest out in the morning. He thinks better with a hangover, anyway.

(Yes I think this one would be awesome in Campbell’s POV. You cannot change my mind on this.)

Actor AU

Okay, real talk this would just be @whiskyarts‘s gameshow AU. Because I kinda love the idea of Jerk!David who just pretends to be a sweetheart for the cameras. Except I would cover it with my filthy Gwenvid hands and make it shippy in that antagonistic-hatemance-eventually-turns-into-something-resembling-feelings. There would be lots of angst and snark and sparkly clothes and I would love it and probably no one else would.

Alien AU

An Interplanetary Anthropologist, Gwen, manages to land a position on the Campbell after years of education and networking and plain old hard work. She is an employee of the most impressive warship in the galaxy -- sure, it’s gone to seed a little bit in the last few decades, but it still has its shine if you look at it sideways and squint a little -- and more importantly, it’s work experience! Paid work experience . . . as a janitor.

When the Campbell picks up a POW that the ship’s commander plans to (illegally) sell to the highest bidder, Gwen decides to treat it as an opportunity to build a real-life case study on one of the universe’s rarer life forms while it’s within arm’s reach. But the more she learns about the strange, sunny alien who was his platoon’s only survivor, the more uncomfortable she is with letting him disappear into her captain’s nefarious dealings and --

Oh fuck, this is The Shape of Water, isn’t it? I mean, I’ve never seen The Shape of Water but I’m pretty sure that’s what this is. Fuck. Goddamn it. Fuck.

Amnesia AU

David takes a rogue bus to the . . . well, everything -- something that’s more or less routine by now -- and hits his head hard enough to knock him out for almost a full day. When he wakes up, he’s the same cheerful David the camp is used to . . . except for three strange new things:

He doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing -- doesn’t, in fact, remember anything after some vague memories of childhood.

He’s completely terrified of the forest, and especially of Spooky Island.

He has no idea who Cameron Campbell is, but he’s quite positive he hates him.

Android AU

Actually @ciphernetics and I put this idea together a little while ago! Basically Camp Campbell has a state-of-the-art off-brand helper android named David, who is a perfect camp counselor, childcare provider, and comes equipped with the finest Forest Survival software Cameron Campbell could find for free online in half an hour.

Gwen, the new (requisite human) hire, hasn’t ever really interacted with androids, and doesn’t especially want to now. David is used to the distrust, even outright hostility -- very few of the campers seem to like him, and he knows that his presence can be unsettling to humans, and look, it isn’t a D:BH AU okay? It just looks like one, and acts like one. And is one.

Angel/Demon AU

Um the perfect Angel/Demon AU literally already exists, but they only wrote one chapter back in 2017 and never updated, and that makes me absurdly sad. Regardless, David being very bad at being a demon and Gwen being very bad at being an angel is the ideal setup for this kind of AU, in my humble opinion.

However, David being an angel trying to reform his fallen ABFEL (angel buddy for eternal life!), who probably became a demon over something stupid and probably horny, also sounds extremely cute. They’re still friends, even though that is against literally all of the rules, and they secretly meet and hang out. David is convinced he can bring her around, and Gwen insists that she hates having him hanging off her nonexistent wings all the time.

Honestly, probably neither of those things are true. Gwen wasn’t cut out for heaven -- and probably, neither is David.

Apocalypse AU

Cameron Campbell was probably doing something dangerously stupid in the hopes it could make him money. That, or the Quartermaster was doing something dangerous for reasons only he could ever understand. Hell, maybe that’s what that weird Daniel guy’s cult was trying to do. Whoever was doing what, they ripped a hole in their dimension at the bottom of Lake Lilac, and all sorts of awful things start creeping through.

There were signs, of course -- that weird fish-monster certainly didn’t come in through customs -- but an inopportune explosion, or wayward firework, or the rumblings of Sleepy Peak Peak, or something ripped a hole in the fabric of reality big enough for Lovecraftian monsters to start crawling through. There’s no stopping it. Really, there’s no chance of even fighting it.

The second the rift opens, the story becomes one of just trying to stay out from under the Elder Gods’ feet.

Arranged Marriage AU

I think the easiest way to make this one work is by making either David or Gwen Campbell’s actual biological child -- maybe an heir, albeit to a highly illegal fortune and a mountain of credit card debt. But Campbell gets in trouble, the kind of trouble where he’s gambled everything and the only collateral he has left is a kid he got saddled with because their mother had better lawyers. A kid he’s been more than happy to put to work for the last 20-something years, who happens to have caught the eye of a ludicrously wealthy magnate -- not for her own sake (though Campbell would’ve been open to that too) -- but for her child, one she loves more than anything and keeps carefully shut away until the Right Person comes along.

His kid isn’t necessarily the right person, but for the first time in his life Cameron Campbell has a genuine treasure on his hands.

And, like all the fake treasures he’s passed off over the years, he just has to find a way to shine them up and make him a fortune.

Artist AU

Gwen is a starving artist living in a rat-infested hovel in the city, scraping by on a series of uninspired landscapes she paints on postcards and the goodwill of friends, family, and significant others. One day, a bright young man bounces up to her “studio” (it’s a cardboard box outside the park) and tells her excitedly that he’s been looking for her for weeks; he thinks her postcards are the most beautiful things he’s ever seen, and he would like to know if she’d be interested in moving down to a cabin by the lake. He runs a summer camp, he explains, and he knows they’d all be honored if she would teach them art lessons -- and of course paint in her spare time! The views are indescribable, and he’s sure she’ll have no shortage of inspiration.

She weighs the cost of what little artistic dignity she has remaining against room, board, and a steady paycheck for three months, and takes the job immediately.

Art Student AU

Put them in an art college -- maybe condense the ages so that the campers are like, younger students? -- and have Gwen as the Serious Art Student who cares a lot about theory and form and doing things right, and she’s constantly irritated by her classmate David, who sits at the same table as her and has declared them art buddies, and is convinced that the point of art is just to have fun and do your best! Maybe force them to do a group project together and really see them clash.

(Alternatively, there is the infinitely more shameless route of one being an art student and the other being a newd model for figure drawing. I am obviously much too classy to ever insinuate such a thing, but if someone was really looking for a way to write smuht . . . it’s sitting right there. On a table. nekkid. I HAVE TO CHANGE THE SPELLING TO MAKE THIS GO IN THE TAGS ARE YOU KIDDING ME)

Athlete AU

There are 4 major ways this one can go, I feel like:

Basically HSM: Gwen is a small part in her school’s musical (techie, maybe, or the orchestra) and lanky jock David -- which is the most hilarious phrase ever but he’s probably a runner or tennis player, something light on muscles and heavy on speed and springiness -- who’s well-mannered and cheerful but not the brightest, is put into the show as an extra-credit way to bump up his GPA so he can keep sporting his sports, and it turns out he’s both very good at and super enthusiastic about it.

A little like HSM, but as grown-ups: Gwen is the head of the drama/art department, which has just faced heavy cuts to support the superstar sports program, and she furiously storms over to the head coach’s office to let him know exactly what she thinks about him and his stupid meathead jocks. Of course, when the man who opens the door is a sweetheart beanpole with big eyes who already knows her name, she finds it hard to keep up her righteous indignation. And when it turns out that he was completely ignorant of the hit her department took from the budget cuts (or maybe not ignorant, just terminally oblivious) and is almost as upset as she is to hear about it, she’s forced to reconsider everything she’d assumed about Coach Greenwood; maybe he’s not the enemy after all, but someone with whom she can formulate a new battle plan.

Reporter/Famous Athlete AU: Either Gwen is a professional sportsball person and David is the shy, bumbling photographer eager to prove himself, or she’s the plucky, intrepid reporter and David is a good-natured professional athlete who she’s determined to interview.

Teammates AU: Professional or amateur sports team, and they’re just trying to scrape their way out of the bottom of the league without killing each other.

Author AU

There are a lot of potential interpretations of this AU, but my personal favorite is Gwen as a novelist with two distinctly differing careers: as G. E. Santos, the high-concept writer whose books are critical darlings in the maybe 3 publications that care about such things but whose sales can’t quite crack the triple digits; and as Annabelle Elizabeth, whose steamy erotica regularly tops the bestseller lists and is reviled by all of G. E.’s colleagues as “populist genre trash.”

The only person alive who knows about her Jekyll-and-Hyde author personas (besides her older sister Audree, who plays the part of charismatic and sensual Annabelle flawlessly) is her editor, David. He’s an odd choice, as her colleagues in both fields have pointed out -- reading her romance novels with his pen in one hand and the other covering his eyes, peeking through his fingers to write tremulous notes in the margins; stumbling through her ponderous literary works with a dictionary in his lap and his tongue between his teeth, poring through them like he’s learning a new language -- but he’s the only person Gwen will allow to touch her writing.

Maybe it’s because he always seems like her biggest fan. Maybe it’s because she’s known him since they were at a summer camp together years ago. Maybe it’s because he believes in her in a way no one else does -- in a way she absolutely doesn’t believe in herself.

David is, for reasons she’s not entirely sure how to explain even to herself, the only person she trusts.

Avian (Bird People) AU

Centuries ago, it was said, avians were a rarity, an aberrant mutation to be locked up and intently studied but never trusted. Some people thought they were antichrists, a sign of the end times, when all normal humans would be destroyed and only the strange bird-people would remain.

In a way, maybe they were. Because when the earth’s crust ripped open and flooded the planet with magma and boiling water miles deep, avians were the only ones who could take to the sky.

Not all of them, certainly. In fact, most were locked up in detention centers and laboratories when the Swamp formed, and were unable to escape in time. Considering the people who could get to high enough elevations to escape the deluge, there were decades afterwards where the decimated human population outnumbered the avian one. Those were periods of tension, outright war and tentative alliances -- even romances, the kinds of great love stories that dragged both avian and human populations a few generations along when one or both of them should’ve died out.

That was over two hundred years ago, however. Now the Swamp is a murky expanse of scalding water and the boiled remains of civilization transformed into unrecognizable muck, with islands of “land” cobbled out of what remains. This is where the avians live, now. And humans don’t live anywhere, not anymore.

At least . . . that was what they thought.

#campcamp #camp camp roosterteeth #cc david #cc gwen #cc campbell #gwenvid #forestwriting #big box o'gwenvid aus #this was absurdly fun #the fun thing about the last one is it could be either avian!Gwen and human!David or vice versa #or avian!Gwenvid and human!insert-camper-of-your-choice (it's max. it's always max)#there are some cool ways to work with it #humans could be the bad guys #there could be no bad guys #i actually really like this au idea even though i doubt i'll write it

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aleteia-ff · 5 years

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How To Train A Jedi | Chapter 1: How To Crash A Jedi

And it’s finally here! I am very excited to publish the first part of this new How To Train Your Dragon fic, set in the Star Wars Universe!

This is mostly Star Wars AU, rather than a Star Wars crossover; the Star Wars characters are there but the main focus of the story will be on HTTYD characters. It takes place during the prequel eras, during the Clone Wars, between Episode II and Episode III and it will be a multi-chapter story!

To make sure it is also readable for non-Star Wars fans, I will put characters or very specific terms I have drawn from Star Wars in the author note at the top every time, so you can look them up if you're confused!

I am posting it on Tumblr now as well but in the future I will probably restrict myself to using AO3 and ff.net.

I hope you guys enjoy! May the Force be with you!

Read on: AO3 | FF.net

Synopsis & Star Wars Background

Cover art featuring all of the characters

Discord for discussions and questions (channel: #aleteias-fics)

Summary: Fighting as a General in the Clone Wars, Jedi Knight Hiccup’s starfighter is destroyed in a space battle with the rival Confederacy of Independent Systems. Before the Jedi can retrieve him and his loyal astromech droid Toothless from the wreckage however, he is found by a crew of bounty hunters, pirates and smugglers, led by Astrid Hofferson. Who intend to sell him to the highest bidder.

Hiccstrid | Rated M

Support me on Ko-Fi | PayPal

Star Wars characters featured in this chapter:

Ahsoka Tano - Padawan to Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker

Barriss Offee - Padawan to Jedi Master Luminara Unduli

Some necessary term clarifications:

(Battle) cruisers/frigates: really big starships, usually manned by hundreds if not more

(Star)fighters/Interceptors: small, one or two-person starships. Vulture droids are about the same size, but they are robots.

Clankers: slang for droids

Hiccup was someone considered to be many things. Jedi Knight of the Jedi Order. General of the Grand Army of the Republic to his troops. Master to those ranked lower than him. But to himself, he was a pilot above anything else. And a really good one, if he were to be that humble.

The Jedi Order knew that as well as he did. The Republic knew it as well. Which is exactly why he was the one to lead this particular mission. The assignment was quite simple, really: break through the Separatist blockade surrounding the planet Umbara. After the untimely death of its senator, the planet had chosen to align themselves with their enemy, the Confederacy of Independent Systems – Separatists. And with the planet forming a necessary link in one of their most vital supply routes, Umbara had to be retaken. No matter the costs.

If he'd been told only a few years ago that he'd be fighting for a cause like that, he wouldn't have believed it. His Master would've scoffed at the mere suggestion, and he would've happily joined in. But this was war. And he didn't concern himself with the politics of it too much. That was for the Republic senate, the Supreme Chancellor and the Jedi Order to decide. He was just one gear in the entire system. And he did as he was told. Hoping it'd bring the Clone Wars to an end as quickly as possible.

And right now, doing as he was told was shooting down the last Separatist battle cruisers that were still barring them access to the planet. He was soaring through the vast emptiness of space, just outside of Umbara's atmosphere, the gloomy planet lurking in the distance, circling back around behind the cover of his allies after he'd helped bring the previous cruiser down. Their own Jedi cruisers were lined up opposite of the Separatists', both fleets firing each other, hoping to break through each other's shields or providing cover fire for the smaller crafts that were making their way across the battlefield.

But to him, those things would always fade out of view. All he'd see was the nose of his starfighter, the displays in front of him and most importantly, his target. The Force told him everything else he needed to know. He could feel his black-and-red ship resonate around him, the stalling engines humming slightly, his favourite astromech droid mounted in the socket just in front of his cockpit.

"Ahsoka, how are we looking?" he asked the Jedi Padawans that was offering him support.

"Stan and I are still taking out most of their fighters, Master," the Togruta girl answered, referring to the clone pilot who was leading his clone fighter squadron.

"Good. I'm going to take another shot and taking out their surface turrets. Is Barriss ready with the bombers?"

"Yes, Master," the other Padawan, Barriss Offee, responded.

"Girls, for the last time, just call me Hiccup. I'm not that much older than both of you," he chuckled. Being twenty-one and consistently referred to as something he only associated with people who were quite his senior, like Master Yoda – who had quite an extreme case of seniority going on – just made him feel incredibly old. "Leave the Master-business for Anakin and Master Unduli."

"Anakin isn't very strict with the title either," Ahsoka remarked.

He smirked. "Perhaps that's why we get along quite well." He stabilised his ship, lining himself up with his target. "But I think he'd very much appreciate it if he and Master Kenobi could still land on the planet within the next cycle."

"I'm inclined to agree," Barriss commented, diplomatic as always and effectively putting an end to their playful conversation.

Hiccup smiled, shaking his head as he focused his gaze upon the battlefield once more. He could do this. He had done it many times before. He just needed to find the right opening.

"Alright, Toothless, you know the drill," he told his droid. "Get the engines ready."

He squinted his eyes, looking, following the many tiny ships and fired bolts. It was chaos. But his eyes, his years of experience and the Force gave him everything he needed to know. The focus. The clarity. The vision and precision to grab the opportunity when it presented itself.

And right then, it did.

"Okay buddy, let's go!"

He fired up the engines, launching them forward with an enormous burst of speed. It pushed him back in his seat, knocking the air out of his lungs as the corners of his mouth pulled up in a wide, excited grin. He let out a delighted yelp. And it would only get better from there.

He flew on instinct, swaying and twirling the starfighter around to dodge incoming blasts and stray pieces of debris. Enemy fighters blew past him, registering him too late, because he was quicker, faster, more on point than the enemy droids, blowing some of them to pieces with ease. No matter how often he looped or spun around his axis, he didn't lose his focus. Mastering the beloved lightsaber that was currently strapped to the belt around his waist had always cost him time. But this, navigating a spacecraft through a chaos that was his to command, that's what he was born to do. And he only knew one other pilot that came even close. Not that he would ever admit that to Anakin Skywalker himself.

He flew much faster than most people would deem responsible, but then again, flying with measure wasn't exactly his style. And it was exactly that kind of combination of insane speed, skill and arguably a search for his daily dose of adrenaline that allowed him to close in on his target in a way no one else could. He could see the first of the battle cruiser's surface turrets move as it registered him and he tightened his grip around his controls, destroying the thing before it had properly readjusted its aim.

"Gotcha," he exclaimed as he veered closer to the battle cruiser's armoured hull, watching the grey mass move just barely above him as he stayed close to it, looking for his next target. There were some controlled near-misses as he only barely dodged a few of the antennae and appliances sticking out of the ship. Although he definitely intentionally tipped his left wing so it sliced through a minor communications antennae at exactly the right angle. Not that it would disrupt the ship's overall system too much. At best, the droids aboard, who had no libido to begin with, could no longer watch HoloPorn. But he loved to take the opportunity to pull off precise moves like that when it presented itself.

He soared along the battle cruiser's outer defences, moving in and out of the turrets' firing range and taking them down one by one. He knew it wouldn't be long before the Separatists would send out their own fighters after him; there was only so much time he would have the field to himself. But he had made the most of it, getting the turrets that were placed in the most secluded positions down first. The rest would be easy.

And as if right on cue, the first group of vulture droids blew right past him, making a U-turn as they laid eyes on their target.

"I've got clankers after me," he called out. He did a quick count. "About four vulture droids, at most."

"We've got about ten of them on our squadron as well, General," Stan replied back.

He frowned. That wasn't what he'd wanted to hear. Keeping vulture droids at bay was easy enough when flying with enough cover around. Without it, however, the flying pieces of junk could tear through clone fighters with ease.

"Keep them distracted, Stan," he ordered. "I'll clear things here and come back around to give you back-up. Just focus on keeping the way clear for the bombers to come in. I shouldn't take much longer."

"Yes, General."

Strengthening his grip on his fighter, he looped around the side of the battle cruiser, taking some tighter corners, hoping it would mess up the droids' programming. He spotted one of them indeed smashing against the battle cruiser's exterior, leaving a lovely combination of sparks in its wake.

He continued to snake his way around the vessel, blowing up its turrets while the vulture droids closed in on him, putting him in a tricky position. The last set of turrets were mounted on the cruiser's large top, forcing him to cross quite a sizeable portion of open space. And as good as he was, even he couldn't dodge incoming fire from both in front and behind him.

"Alright Toothless, try to pull as much from the engines as you can," he told his astromech, listening to the slight change in pitch of the engines as his companion instantly responded. Until they were humming just right.

Then, he pulled back on the controls. His body flung forward as his fighter slowed down almost immediately. Checking and sensing behind him, he angled the ship just right. Two of the remaining vulture droids flew right past him. And he only barely avoided the third one as it tried to correct its course, slamming into one of its allies as a result.

Hiccup smiled to himself as he pulled the trigger, blowing up the last remaining ship. Content, he clicked his tongue as he told Toothless to divert some more power back to the engines, launching him forward once again. In the back of his mind, he could hear his former Master scold him for pulling off a move like this. But he'd succeeded. So he didn't see the problem.

Making his way towards the top of the battle cruiser, he agilely danced between the few shots the remaining turrets managed to throw his way, before he finally got to fire himself. And hit his targets right where he wanted to. Leaving the battle cruiser defenceless and open to destruction.

He veered upwards, distancing himself from the battlefield as he called upon the bomber squadron. "Alright Barriss, bring in the bombers. Ship's defences should be down."

"Yes, Master."

He levelled out his fighter, trying to scan the chaos below him. "Stan, Ahsoka, an update on the enemy fighters?"

"Got a couple still on my tail," Ahsoka informed him. "But I don't think they could make it to the bombers in time."

He nodded to himself. They were no stranger to Separatist commanders who sent their droids after Jedi Interceptors specifically, which was questionable at best. Sure, Jedi had a tendency to be extremely effective. But also incredibly hard to catch. Getting a kill on a Jedi was more of a claim to fame than a legit battle-tactic.

"I'm afraid we've only gotten more, General," Stan informed him. "I don't know how much longer we'll be able to hold them off."

"How many fighters did you lose?" He was always afraid to hear the answer.

"Six, sir."

He didn't need to know who they were. He'd personally picked each and every clone pilot under his command. And all of them were talented and good at their job. Or had been. "On my way."

Twirling his fighter around, he dove back towards the rest of his fighter squadron. It didn't take him long to find them amidst the chaos. It only took him a moment to confirm that, indeed, things weren't going too well. He'd been away too long. They were outnumbered and worst of all, in the intended trajectory of Barriss' bomber squad.

Decisively, he destroyed the two vulture droids that were trailing behind. Just then, the droids themselves destroyed their seventh target, making him lose another member of his trusted crew. But the enemy ships didn't relent, still chasing after his troops. And they needed to get back into the cover of their own cruisers as soon as possible if they were to get out of this. Alive, with any luck.

He shot one more vulture droid down as it turned just slightly too slowly. And that did the trick as finally, a few of the droids started to turn on him. Which was exactly what he needed to give his troops the opportunity to escape.

Making a U-turn himself, he checked whether the enemy fighters actually followed him. Once he had the confirmation that they were on his tail – making him outnumbered fifteen to one – he opened up his comms channel. But Stan spoke up before he had a chance to.

"Turning around to provide you with cover, General."

"Fall back to the main cruisers," he countered.

"All of us?" He could hear the confusion in the clone's voice.

"Yes, all of you," he ordered as he only barely dodged one blast coming his way.

"But sir, then we won't be able to back you up."

"Which is my intention. You won't survive out there, nor will the bombers if I don't manage to drag these clankers away from you," he told him resolutely, the enemy's fleet coming back into sight. Which he was heading straight for.

"General, that's a suicide mission," Stan argued.

He rolled his eyes. Stubborn clone. Not surprising, given that they had a tendency to pick up the character traits of the people who led them. "You know me, Stan. All I'm doing is getting these pieces of scrap metal back to where they came from."

"We are meant to be disposable, sir," Stan responded, seemingly unconvinced.

"Not to me." How some Jedi could look at the clones as units rather than what they actually were, was beyond him. Genetically engineered and with accelerated growth or not, they were people. Soldiers. Just like him.

"General –"

"Stan, fall back and cover the bombers," he insisted. "That's an order."

There was a very brief silence on the other side of the comms system. "Alright, General. Falling back."

Looking behind him, he could see his troops retreat into the relative safety of their cruisers' range. Leaving him alone, with about fifteen – no, make that fourteen, given that he just made a sharp turn around a piece of debris that one of the pursuing droids couldn't quite copy – enemy fighters on his tail. He had been in less-than-comfortable situations before. But even he had to admit that things were currently looking kind of bad for him.

Seeing nowhere else to go but forward, as he'd lead the droids back to the Republic's own vulnerable targets otherwise, he flew straight back into enemy territory. Trying not to get too close to their cruisers – they could blast him if he didn't pay enough attention – he veered into the debris field that the battle had left in its wake. It was the area that asked the most of the droids' piloting skills. And his own. But he was confident he could beat them – just not for how long.

"Alright, buddy, it's going to get tough," he told Toothless as he yanked on the controls, only just dodging a nasty barrage of incoming fire. "Do whatever you can to improve our manoeuvrability. Keep the speed up as much as you can." The droid beeped in response, its tones sounding slightly concerned. "Let's show them once again why we're the best at this."

And so their dance began; one lone Jedi Knight and his trusted droid versus a continuously dwindling amount of vulture droids. He didn't really know how to dance, but he imagined it would look something like this.

He led them through the debris field, dodging loose pieces of junk and navigating through the larger ships they'd destroyed earlier. Occasionally, one of the droids missed a vital turn. In other moments, he managed to find a way to loop around and catch the stragglers at the end of the formation.

But overall, they kept closing in on him and he couldn't go anywhere else than deeper into enemy territory, hoping the droids were too occupied with trying to take him down to notice what he was trying to pull off.

His heart jumped when he only narrowly dodged the exploding wreckage of a droid he'd just blown up himself. Seeing no other option, he pulled all power from the engines, making the fighter turn just sharply enough. His fighter stuttered as he brought them back to life, Toothless' alarmed beeps telling him what he already knew; his equipment wasn't exactly enjoying the prolonged period of demanding activity he was putting it through.

The amount of vulture droids chasing him reduced to seven, he continued to fly, using all of his most important senses to do so; sound, sight and whatever the Force told him. He used them in combination, instinctively rather than consciously, but overall he couldn't shake the fact that he was starting to get a very bad feeling about it all. But he had saved his troops. And surely, he'd find a way out of… whatever this was.

"Hiccup," he heard through his comms as he twirled around his axis. "Master Hiccup, can you hear me?"

"What is it, Ahsoka?" he answered, trying to control his breathing as well as he could. She didn't need to hear he was actually panting.

"The bombers have reached their target. The cruiser's down. You can come back around," the Padawan informed him.

He bit his lower lip as he narrowly soared through the carcass of one of the battle cruisers they'd destroyed earlier. "Don't think that's going to happen anytime soon."

"Hiccup –"

"Ahsoka, you and Barriss need to sign in the others and escort the gunships down to the planet surface."

"But –"

He inhaled sharply as he put himself through another near-miss. "Don't be stupid. I will find my way back. Whatever ships they still have should retreat or move to the planet itself soon anyhow. That'll be my window."

"I'm sorry," was all Ahsoka responded with.

"Just make sure you retake that damn planet," was the last thing he told her.

"Yes, Master."

Trying to think to the extent that he could while not losing an ounce of fatal focus he needed to keep flying, he considered his options. He could try to make it back to their own cruisers, but with the amount of distance he had to cross and the seven – no, six – droids still on his tail, he had no idea if he could even make it there. The alternative was to navigate through the debris field, to the other side, into open space. Which was closer, but if the droids followed him all the way there, they could fire straight at him once he made it out.

One way or another, he had to take his pursuers down. And he shouldn't wait much longer. He had to pull off something crazy. And arguably, quite stupid.

Settling into his seat more confidently, he flipped a few switches. The engines protested loudly as he disabled some of the safety measures on the starfighter. He needed everything his ship could give him. Even if that meant overloading its systems. He'd done it successfully before, in a training drill. Surely, he could do it again.

"Okay, Toothless, give me everything we've got!" he yelled at the tiny droid.

It was hard not to feel excited when the fighter shot forward, revitalized with the extra amount of energy its engines now had access to. It meant some of his targeting systems no longer functioned properly, but he didn't need those to begin with. He was a good shot. And he had the Force to guide him. The fighter's targeting equipment just allowed him to lay back a little more. Which he could no longer allow himself to do.

He proceeded to use the debris field as cover, looping and twirling around the larger parts to throw the droids off-course. The key to outmanoeuvring them was to be unpredictable and to show up in places where the clankers' systems didn't expect him to. Which meant pulling off moves that most pilots wouldn't even dare to in the first place.

Continuing whatever crazy, out-of-sync dance it was he was doing with the droids, he slowly started to take them out, one by one. His fighter sputtered with every too-sudden move he pulled off. Piloting a fighter was usually an art, something that required a degree of fluency and sensitivity. But he was currently absolutely abusing the poor thing.

As time passed on, a certain degree of exhaustion and strain on both the fighter and his senses started to kick in. But somehow, he managed to get the number of pursuers down to two.

Just a little while more. He was almost out of the debris field. And after he'd gotten rid of his pursuers, he could fly out of there, with his body still intact – or well, as intact as it had still been at the start of the battle.

But that one moment of inner monologue and distraction had made him miss something. And he only realized it when he blew up what he thought was the last vulture droid.

He'd lost one. And it appeared right in front of him at that very moment, its target locked.

Given the minimal distance between his enemy and him, there was no way he could still dodge whatever it shot at him. He was going down. But he could take his enemy down with him.

He yanked the controls towards himself, sending him straight at the droid. His left wing slammed right into it, his whole body thrown forward as it ripped off.

It sent both him and the vulture droid spinning, his wing lodged into the droid's controls systems. He only just saw how it crashed into a piece of stray debris. Desperate, he tried to correct his course as his fighter continued the twirl uncontrollably.

But the controls were unresponsive. No matter how hard he pulled or twisted, there was nothing he could do.

The last thing he saw was another piece of space junk as the nose of his fighter slammed into the particular large slab of stray metal. It threw him forward with enormous force, his head painfully hitting the front of his cockpit. And then everything turned black.

"Just don't go too fast. We don't want to be noticed by any sensors. Make it look like we're just floating debris as well."

Nervously, Astrid Hofferson tapped her fingers on the top of the pilot's chair as she peered into the space in front of them. It was filled with litter, some parts of it more useful than other. Mostly pieces of debris, junk, parts of spaceships that were neither useful or valuable. Or not valuable enough.

"Calm down, Astrid, this is not the first time I'm doing this, remember," Snotlout shot back from the pilot's seat in front of her, his gaze focused on the field in front of them as they slowly navigated through it.

"We just really need something good today," she murmured, trying to shake off her uneasiness. As confident as she was in her abilities and those of her crew, going into the debris field of a space battle after it had only just happened remained risky.

"I'm sure we'll find something," Snotlout tried to reassure her, but she could see how he was holding the controls just a little too tightly, the letters covering the heart-shaped tattoo on his bare biceps that spelled out Me, My Ship, I scrunching as a result.

Before she could shoot back that she wasn't very reassured, she heard the sound of the door to the cockpit open behind her. "How are we looking, Az?"

"Don't know," she told Heather. The Togruta woman frowned, sitting down in the seat next to her. She tucked her sniper between her legs – she never went anywhere without the thing – and leant forward, her black-and-white lekku, which she kept tied in some sort of braid for convenience, falling over her left shoulder as she leant forward, her green eyes joining them in peering into the darkness above the planet Umbara.

"Do you think we'll be noticed?" Astrid asked.

Heather shook her head. "No, I highly doubt it. The Republic's clean-up crew shouldn't come in for a while longer, nor should any other scavengers. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't hurry and get out of here as soon as we can."

She nodded, silence surrounding the three of them as they continued their trek.

"Wait, I think I see something!" Snotlout suddenly shouted.

"What is it?" Heather asked, her voice on high-alert while she only moved slightly in her seat.

"I'd recognize a beauty like that anywhere," their pilot continued, his eyes focusing on something in the distance. "That's a Jedi Starfighter."

Astrid almost jumped to the front of the cockpit. "Where!?"

Snotlout pointed into the space in front of them and when she followed his finger, she finally saw it too. A black fighter with red accents, badly damaged and floating around aimlessly. Its left wing had been ripped off and its nose looked almost split in two, but the cockpit and a lot of other parts remained intact.

Given how rare these fighters were, this was exactly the kind of find they needed.

"Bring us in closer," she told Snotlout before sprinting out of the cockpit, through their main corridors to alert Fishlegs and the twins they'd found something.

Together, they made their way towards the cargo hold, where they paused to put on their space suits. As usual, Tuffnut struggled to fit his entangled lekku into the helmet – why the Twi'lek guy didn't just untie his green, spotted appendages instead of wearing them as a beard was beyond her, but at least Ruffnut and Fishlegs knew the drill by now.

Impatient, she tapped her foot on the floor of their ship as she waited for the go-ahead from Snotlout. "Are we there yet?" she asked the communications device incorporated in her helmet. They didn't have time to lose.

"Closing in on it now. Are you ready?" Snotlout asked.

She shot a look at the twins before responding. "Yes. Open the door."

Right after she issued the command, the large door to their ship's cargo hold opened, its flap coming down and allowing them to walk – or float, rather – out. The sudden shock of weightlessness and the sheer cold of space hit her instantly; but she was used to it by now, their space suits giving them protection and long lines keeping them attached to the ship.

Checking whether her vibro-ax was securely strapped to her back, she made her way out, the Jedi fighter not too far away from them. Wading through space, she eventually managed to grab a hold of its large black-and-red right wing, allowing her to control her movement better.

The first thing she saw when she investigated the fighter was how different it was. Not that she had seen many of them before, but all of those had been pretty standard. This one however was clearly painted by whoever owned the thing, its remaining wing embellished with a myriad of patterns and figures. An artistic pilot. How cute.

Something else caught her eye when her gaze wandered, and she instantly signalled to Fishlegs. Mounted in the socket of the spaceship, was a black-and-green astro droid. It looked like most other droids she'd seen in the R2-series, but the interesting thing about his particular one was that it seemed to be intact. And still functioning, she realized as its upper part turned, its single eye settling on her.

"Disable it as quickly as you can," she told Fishlegs as he reached her, pointing at the droid. She could see his eyes go wide, his long, blonde moustache moving up in surprise along with the rest of his face. "Don't need it causing trouble."

Providing Fishlegs with the support he needed to get to the droid, she crawled along the fighters surface to investigate the cockpit. The puzzling thing about it was that it was still closed. And as soon as she reached it, her eyes peering into the small space, she could see why.

Behind the glass, she found a young man. He was lying slumped in his seat, either dead or unconscious, his eyes closed as his head hung awkwardly to the side. His pale face was that of a man who'd gone through puberty not too long ago, his frame slender, his nose slightly oversized; she figured he was about the same age she was. Although the way in which his mouth hung open, revealing the gap between his front teeth, made him look slightly younger in this moment.

A small stream of blood crept out from beneath his messy auburn hair, trailing down along his defined cheekbones, which were dusted with freckles. The droplets eventually reached his jaw, where she found thin stubble covering a small scar on his chin, before those same droplets trickled down onto the white robes he was wearing.

If the way he was dressed didn't already tell her enough – a classic structure of layered robes of various shades of white and light brown – the item strapped to right side of his belt most certainly did. A lightsaber. Which meant that the arguably quite handsome stranger was a Jedi.

She watched him for a while, a smile spreading across her face as she noticed how his chest was heaving only so slightly. He was alive.

"Astrid, I've got the droid, what are you –" Fishlegs started, coming up next to her before his breath audibly caught in his throat. "Oh my. Is that?"

She nodded. "Yup."

"A Jedi…" he murmured.

"I'm sorry, Fishface, what did you just say?" Snotlout butted in across their comms.

"There's a Jedi still in the fighter, Snot. And he's alive," she clarified, her smile only widening.

"WHAT!? Are you serious!?" was the last coherent thing Snotlout managed to yell before he let out a loud scream of excitement.

Trying to shut him out, she beckoned Ruffnut and Tuffnut over, who were already making their way over, eyeing the cockpit curiously. "Get whatever explosives you can find. Fish, let's get the droid first, before we try to get him out alive."

"What?" Tuffnut asked. "You want us to blow up the ship?"

"Yes. We want whoever will undoubtedly come for him to think he's dead." She took a look at the unconscious stranger, who had just made her happier than he could possibly imagine. "Mister Jedi here is all the merchandise we need."

"We are going to be so fucking RICH!"

And for once, she couldn't tell Snotlout he was wrong. Because he was absolutely, gloriously right.

#how to train a jedi #hiccup #astrid #hiccstrid #httyd #star wars #star wars au #may the fourth #snotlout #ruffnut #tuffnut #fishlegs #heather #httyd fanfiction #fanfiction #httyd fanfic #how to train your dragon

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beinscorpio · 5 years

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Hey honey cakes! What's up? How are you doing? Can I interest you in an idea where Sirius and Remus both have a crush on the same girl, a shy Ravenclaw muggleborn. They're trying to impress her, Sirius actually studying and tricking their professor to assign him as her potions partner while Remus becomes her study buddy. It's all fun and games until she discovers their secrets and shows her animagus form and patronus too and it's a (white) wolf meaning she's in love with Remus.

The Wolf

Y\n is a beautiful shy girl, but most importantly, she’s smart, too smart for her own good according to the people she is friends with so none of them was surprised when in her first day at Hogwarts the hat sorted her in Ravenclaw, and it wasn’t a surprise that Remus and Sirius both had a crush on her as well, normally when two friends have a crush on the same girl it ends up with a huge fight sometimes it might even affect their friendship beyond repair, but that’s not the case with Sirius and Remus they both decided to respect each other and her, of course, so it was only appropriate to make the choice hers, that’s if she even wanted to be with one of them in the first place.

The plan that Sirius had in mind was to use intelligence, so he studied extra hard in the class she has the highest grades in, potions, at first he wasn’t sure it was going to work at all, but it all changed in one day during potion class.

“ you’re really doing good so far Mr black, continue like this and you might actually achieve outstanding, ” said Professor Slughorn, and after that Sirius catches her staring at him, which made him consider the first part of his plan a success, so it was time to move to the second one, sitting next to her and become her potion class partner.

As for Remus, things were going well with him without even trying. He was at the library looking for a book that he can use for an essay he was supposed to write when he heard her talk to one of her friends.

“ this defense against the dark arts class is going to kill me” y\n complained, but what her friend suggested next is what really caught his attention, “ you can ask Remus to help you he has very high grades in this class ”

“ you know what I might actually have” y\n said to her friend, that’s when he noticed their voice getting closer, so he decided to look for the book in a place far from y\n and her friend and just when he thought he succeeded in avoiding her, she appeared next to him and picked a book, and from the title of it, he knew that she wanted it for defense against the dark arts class, he has no idea where he got the courage from but he picked a book, went to her and said " you might actually find more information in this book “

To her, it was as if God answered her prayer and it was definitely happiness that made her ask him ” hey can you help me in this class? I know you’ve been getting good grades and I’m struggling here “

” Yeah, sure “ he answered her, and she could already tell that the class will become much more fun.

The second part of the plan Sirius succeeded days later after making the perfect luck potion, but his real reward was when y\n told him that he did a good job at doing the potion and that’s when their friendship started. Y\n became really good friends with both Sirius and Remus with her doing a lot of potions with Sirius and Remus helping her with defense against the dark arts, thanks to Remus , she stopped thinking that the class is complicated in facts she now thinks it’s interesting, she waited for him and expected him to show up mid the defense against the dark arts class, but he never showed up which she found strange until she heard the whispers on her way to the Ravenclaw common room about the student that Madam Pomfrey is trying to heal, she immediately knew it was him and before she knew it she going to Madam Pomfrey to see him, she saw James as he was about to go to class after he made sure Remus was ok.

” Hey, how is he? “ she asked James, and he could tell from her voice that she was worried so he was glad that what he was about to tell her is good news.

” Yeah, he’s fine just a lot of scratches you know how clumsy he is" James tried to explain.

“ James I already know ” y\n immediately said, but honestly James wasn’t surprised after all she is a really smart girl.

“ How? ” he asked her because he wasn’t surprised, but he was still curious.

“ He disappears only when the moon is full and appears days later with scratches, and the way he reacts when he hears werewolf with all your werewolf puns come on, it doesn’t require a genius to figure it out, ” she told James which made him laugh.

“ I have a class now, but he’s awake inside you can talk to him, ” James said and started to walk towards the class while y\n went inside and there he was, he looked way worse than fine to her.

“ This full moon was definitely way too rough on you, ” she told him, but he still continued to stare at the ceiling not asking her how she found out or saying anything, “ what’s on your mind? talk to me ”

“I hate this it makes me feel so abnormal ” he finally said, and it broke y\n’s heart that he felt this way but if there’s anyone that can make people feel better about themselves it’s her.

“ Fuck normal, you become a wolf scratch the hell out of yourself just to not hurt anyone and still manage to be fine and go to classes with a smile on your face the next day and get good grades in every single one and no one even knows about it, who wants to be normal when they can do all that ” y\n told him and when she’s done, she noticed that he was staring at her, her words were definitely enough to make him feel better, so they talk to each other until y\n had to go to potion class.

She was late, but Sirius was still in his regular place next to where she’s supposed to be, and it was a good thing for her that they still didn’t start doing any potions yet. Professor Slughorn was talking about a potion that every two students sitting next to each other have to do alongside an essay about the potion itself which was due two weeks after this class, but Sirus could tell that y\n’s distracted and her mind is somewhere else.

“ you’re ok? ” he asked her.

“ Yeah just thinking about stuff sorry, ” he told him, but he was sure that she won’t be able to concentrate during the class.

“ I’ll do the today’s potion you can go to your room and rest if you want” Sirius offered.

“ No, I’ll stay with you and do whatever I could to help, thank you so much for the offer though, ” she said, and they both started to work and Sirius did most of the work, of course, they still meet many times after that class for the potion and its essay that they had to do together till all that was left was for y\n to add lavender to the potion. She went to the Gryffindor common room to give Sirius the potion after adding it, but what she heard was something she definitely did not expect.

“ come on you like y\n! ” screamed Sirius.

“ You like her too! ” Remus screamed back, and that was enough for y\n to decide to wait for Sirius before class and give him the potion instead of interrupting, besides it’ll give her time to think about the perfect way to the thing she was about to do. Both Sirius and y\n sat in their usual places after she gave him the potion before class and they both got the grade outstanding.

“ Hey, can I talk to you in my room for a second, ” y\n said to Sirius after class, he followed her to her room and started talking, “I heard you and Remus talking this morning when I was supposed to give you the potion ”

“ Oh, ” said Sirius, his eyes really showed how nervous he was.

“ You’re a really good man Sirius, and the girl you’ll end up with is a very lucky girl I’m sure you’ll make her so happy, but that girl is not me ” y\n told him, and his reply to her really confirmed what she just said, he really is a good man.

“ Listen all I want is for you to be happy with me or without me and if it’s Remus just tell him because he really likes you. He became much happier after he met you, you two would be amazing together, and I’ll move on I promise” Sirius assured her. She hugged him and thanked him, now it was time for her to do the right thing and tell Remus, and she knows exactly how she’ll do it.

It was the last time that Remus will help her with the defense against the dark arts class.

“ So I want to tell and show you something and before I start just remember I talked to Sirius about this ” y\n spoke, “ remember how the first thing you taught me was the Patronus charm and mine was a raven, then you told me that a Patronus could change when a person falls in love, well I was practicing the spell three days ago and this happened”

y\n cast the spell, but this time instead raven a white wolf appeared and suddenly there was a huge smile on Remus’s face, he was so sure that this is going to be the start of something very beautiful, all his insecurity and his condition he’s going to have someone that loves his despite that, someone who will be with him through the good and the bad.

#marauders era #the marauders #Marauders #Remus Lupin #remus x reader #Sirius Black #James Potter #ravenclaw #slytherin #Gryffindor #Harry Potter

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nathanielmortloc-blog · 5 years

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The Definitive Information To Hipster Music Genres

Music profession info and an entire checklist of music colleges. The International Songwriting Competitors takes place yearly and is open to both amateur and professional musicians. The competition allows musicians to have their songs heard by trade leaders and (hopefully) opens doors for them in the industry. Earlier winners of this competition include Gotye, Bastille, The Band Perry, and many other properly-recognized musicians. What separates the ISC from different competitions is it features a vast multitude of various style classes. Supplies an analysis of the variations between art music, folks music, and fashionable music and provides the reason why fashionable music is mostly inferior to music in the other categories.

The music of the 2000's showcased quite a lot of genres and it reflected an excessive amount of the pop music that came from the nineties, with lots of the similar artists and bands remaining popular between the twenty years. For a decade filled with a lot suffering in terms of the September eleventh attacks, two wars within the Middle East, and www.audio-transcoder.com an economic downturn, loads of the music needed to strike a positive steadiness between upbeat and optimistic whereas nonetheless reflecting the pain that many skilled. Some of the more in style genres of the decade included Dance-Pop, Indie Rock, and Emo. It grew up with Guitars. Any Rock group would encompass Electrical Guitars, Bass and Drums. Rock locations the next diploma of emphasis on musicianship, stay performance, and an ideology of authenticity than pop music. Rock emphasizes on heavy beats and in contrast to pop, may give attention to things aside from romance. Most of the well-known rock songs are built on philosophical themes. This genre slowly mixed with other genres to provide new types. A few of them will probably be mentioned quickly.

A style is a category of an art type, and the phrase is used of subsets of literature, movies, television shows, and music that fit sure standards. Typically, a work will match into one style, however it is possible for a piece to have multiple genres. The time period music genre is used to check with a variety of aspects of music, including the interval during which a musical composition was written, its fashion, its instrumentation and treatment of these instruments, its kind and performance, its technique of transmission, its means of dissemination, and the situation of its geographical origins sometimes crossed with the cultural or ethnic background of the composer. There isn't a agreement or a single comprehensive system to speak about music genres nowadays. Lying within the sunshine and sharing a pair of earbuds with a buddy. Mixtapes coated in sharpied-on band names. Laser-beams chopping via dust clouds and subwoofers that blow your hair again. We love that shit. The Electronic Present is a family of music lovers based out of NYC with hubs in LA, SF, popular music genres an introduction pdf and DC. We strive to deliver you your next favourite song and simultaneously assist young producers discover their audience. These genres, reflective of the traditional populations of Colombia's Andean highland area, have sturdy Spanish influences combined with the region's indigenous roots. What distinguishes these sounds and scenes from long-standing genres like techno or drum & bass is they no longer maintain to the notion of middle and periphery. They are not formed from the highest down by a handful of wealthy, influential cities who transmit the tradition while everyone else is relegated to receiving it. If something, similar membership scenes in places like London and Berlin need to their Latin American counterparts for inspiration. From this new ecosystem, an independent community of artists has begun to take form, and while London and Berlin are welcome to join the dialogue, they're certainly not dominating the conversation. The 2 albums generally credited with laying down the style's sonic and conceptual framework have been Chuck Individual's 2010 LP Eccojams Vol. 1 (a Daniel Lopatin , aka Oneohtrix Point By no means, aspect undertaking) and Far Side Digital (2011) by James Ferraro. While Lopatin sampled from Nineteen Eighties pop songs and fused them with the 1992 online game Ecco the Dolphin, Ferraro aimed for ringtone music" by sampling issues like the Skype log-in sound and being inspired by Brian Eno-composed Home windows ninety five tone, although his music often might sound like Philip Glass and even the experimental electronic music of Laurie Anderson. Whereas its day has come and gone, these two Vaporwave artists and others like Vektroid—whose album Flortal Shoppe underneath the Macintosh Plus moniker is maybe the genre's defining document—are still making and releasing new music.

Featuring bands like The Pastels, The Store Assistants, and Primal Scream, C86 grew to become a huge hit, then a buzz-phrase, then a catch-all. Someday thereafter, indie meant being synonymous with this particular model, this explicit cassette. Stylistically, this meant a retro-phonic, largely sexless type of music with jangly guitars and the imprecise taint of nostalgia. Indie now not referred to the factual realities of report distribution. Indie was someplace between a way of thinking and a singular guitar tone.Musical experts have often described it as the British counterpart to Sixties American garage rock. As acknowledged before, there are those who use style classifications as a type of elitism, claiming that one style of music is inherently superior to another. Although everyone has personal tastes and preferences, no argument ought to ever be made that one fashion of music is basically extra invaluable than another. The individuals who use style terms in this manner are misguidedly abusing the taxonomic system and don't symbolize the process or intent of music classification.This site is less useful as a result of it does not clarify something and the design is reasonably cluttered but you'll be able to click on a style and it'll play an instance. It does have far more genres though which is nice and for most people music genres are easily recognized and inconceivable to explain as a result of to elucidate them in precisely requires pretty in depth information of time signatures, chord recognition, and rhythm patterns. munimal music - Afrouedean pop is well-liked music from Itala. Ituland dance nouse.

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novantinuum · 5 years

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A Link Beyond Memory (ch 2/4)

AO3

Fandom: Trollhunters, 3Below

Rating: T (for minor language in future chapters)

Words: 600~

Pairings: Jim/Claire, but not focus

Summary: Shortly after the events of the Eternal Night, memories of a day that never happened somehow resurface in Jim’s mind in his sleep- and upon recalling the friendship he and Aja formed, he decides to pursue that connection again. Slice of life, and kinda a slow burn friendship reunion. A hybrid of prose and chat fic (to be seen in later chapters.)

Previous chapter

Next chapter

Note: Unfortunately, fic circulation online is getting harder and harder as the months pass. Please, if you read to the end and enjoy, consider helping me out by reblogging this post, or even commenting/giving kudos over on AO3. Thanks! :D

Chapter 2: Transit

Transit- The instant when a celestial object crosses the meridian, thus reaching the highest point in the sky.

T: hhhh miss ya already. tbh i dont know what im supposed to do this summer now ahah

T: i was all looking forward to hangin with you and claire and everyone else in trollmarket and now…

T: i mean i still have aaarrrgghh. and darci and eli too i guess but

T: really starting to wish i came along.

T: i know you said to watch over the town while youre gone and i know thats a good point but honestly i just wanna be with you

T: jim?

T: yoooo ? did u die

T: god i hope not after all the end of the world chaos thatd be really anticlimactic

J: Sorry no I lost signal for a bit!! Miss you too gahhh.

T: pls know if you so much as say the word ill crawl on the first airplane i can find and launch myself directly at your face

T: jim liSTEN jim im not even kidding

T: screw arcadia

T: if you need me im there

J: Omg I’ll defo keep that in mind

T: ..jk dont screw arcadia tho i love this place. also its already screwed enough at this point so

T: hey but you think merlin could make me another warhammer for my growing arsenal?

J: Yeah I think he could be easily convinced.

J: He’s kinda sucking up to me now hahah

J: He already made Claire a sorta necklace amulet to store her armor so a magic hammer should be no problem

T: awesomesauceee

J: Any particular reason lol?

T: i dunno i just think itd look wicked cool to double wield, like general orzan from gun robot three. also lets be real after all the crap he put us through we deserve S W A G

J: I’ll ask tomorrow. Hey quick Q for you though

J: Well okay not exactly quick

J: It’s actually a long story but-

T: ye?

J: Do you happen to have Aja’s number or anything?

J: We took her and her bro down to the Janus Order, lightning in a bottle, remember her?

T: ye i know- lively! and uhhh don’t think i do? havent really talked to them since why

J: I get the strangest sense we’re supposed to know them more than we do. Had a really weird dream but it felt more like a lost memory. Think it’s an amulet thing, like that alternate timeline it made me live through once?

T: huh funky

J: Also supposedly according to the dream/memory both Aja and Krel are… not from Earth?

T: dude no offense but are you sure it wasnt just a normal dream

J: Seriously.?

J: Merlin turned me into a fucking TROLL and aliens are where you decide to draw the line

T: okay yknow thats fair

T: i take that back

T: okay so,, aja and krel are MAYBE aliens. got that. go onnn

J: What I saw honestly felt so real, I swear. It was two weeks ago, at the science fair. We were fighting a troll in the planetarium with them, and the troll kept combining magic with some alien tech, which kept reversing everyone back to the beginning of the day, like a time loop or something. But I could remember everything bc of the amulet. Aja remembered bc of some energy shield she had. We lived through the same day almost a dozen times.

T: whoa…

J: And get this- in some of those loops we even went to their house and got to look around inside their spaceship! But none of us are supposed to recall any of it bc technically the entire day never happened? It’s how we defeated the troll, that bit’s a little fuzzy. A lot of technobabble sorry.

T: goddd out of all the days to forget huh

J: Right??

J: I guess… if she remembered all of this before I’m kinda curious if she still remembers now too. If it really happened. We were friends in that memory. It’d be nice to maybe get to know her again, y’know?

T: okay you’re prob gonna hate me for suggesting this but i THINK steve has her number

T: bc i was talking to darci and she said that mary told her that aja and steve are like, a thing now

T: a Thing thing

T: i believe her exact words were ‘staja’ ?

J: Oh my god how’d that happen is he even capable of proper flirting

T: well if shes an alien like you think then maybe she doesn’t know what human flirting looks like

J: Haha maybe indeed. I’ll go talk to him thanks

J: G’night Tobes love ya

T: night buddy <3

(my notes from ao3:)

Admission, I had far too much fun with the text format. I've never attempted anything like it, but I especially wanted to create unique "character voices" that extended into the way they each type- which was a cool challenge.

I imagined Toby as the sort of person who types out his thoughts far too quickly to care about punctuation, and IMO if Trollhunters was set just a year later (I generally just imagine it all set in 2016) he'd be keymashing. Jim is more of a full sentence type of guy who never turned off auto capitalization.

ALSO, a note on the contact photos- (Jim's which I directly took from a screenshot from Claire's phone, and Toby's which I edited from some 2D concept art)- That's the photo Jim uses for Toby's contact, and I imagine there's probably some inside joke where Jim took a really derpy photo of him at one point and they laughed so hard about it that he immortalized it as his contact. Jim's personal contact photo is... well, as this all takes place post s3 of course, a rather sad reminder of his loss of humanity. He can't bother himself to change it currently.

Future chapters will likely be a mix of text AND prose, instead of one or the other. Hope you enjoyed!

#trollhunters #jim lake jr #toby domzalski #trollhunters fanfiction #my writing stuff

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blackkudos · 6 years

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Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in his five-decade career which kept him at the forefront of a number of major stylistic developments in jazz.

Born and raised in Illinois, Davis left his studies at The Juilliard School in New York City and made his professional debut as a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker's bebop quintet from 1944 to 1948. Shortly after, he recorded the Birth of the Cool sessions for Capitol Records, which were instrumental to the development of cool jazz. In the early 1950s, Davis recorded some of the earliest hard bop music while on Prestige Records but did so haphazardly due to a heroin addiction. After a widely acclaimed comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955, he signed a long-term contract with Columbia Records and recorded the 1957 album 'Round About Midnight. It was his first work with saxophonist John Coltrane and bassist Paul Chambers, key members of the sextet he led into the early 1960s. During this period, he alternated between orchestral jazz collaborations with arranger Gil Evans, such as the Spanish music-influenced Sketches of Spain (1960), and band recordings, such as Milestones (1958) and Kind of Blue (1959). The latter recording remains one of the most popular jazz albums of all time, having sold over four million copies in the U.S.

Davis made several line-up changes while recording Someday My Prince Will Come (1961), his 1961 Blackhawk concerts, and Seven Steps to Heaven (1963), another mainstream success that introduced bassist Ron Carter, pianist Herbie Hancock, and drummer Tony Williams. After adding saxophonist Wayne Shorter to his new quintet in 1964, Davis led them on a series of more abstract recordings often composed by the band members, helping pioneer the post-bop genre with albums such as E.S.P (1965) and Miles Smiles (1967), before transitioning into his electric period. During the 1970s, he radically experimented with rock, funk, African rhythms, emerging electronic music technology, and an ever-changing line-up of musicians, including keyboardist Joe Zawinul, drummer Al Foster, and guitarist John McLaughlin. This period, beginning with Davis' 1969 studio album In a Silent Way and concluding with the 1975 concert recording Agharta, was the most controversial in his career, alienating and challenging many in jazz. His million-selling 1970 record Bitches Brew helped spark a resurgence in the genre's commercial popularity with jazz fusion as the decade progressed.

After a five-year retirement due to poor health, Davis resumed his career in the 1980s, employing younger musicians and pop music sounds on albums such as The Man with the Horn (1981) and Tutu (1986). Critics were generally unreceptive but the decade garnered the trumpeter his highest level of commercial recognition. He performed sold-out concerts worldwide while branching out into visual arts, film, and television work, before his death in 1991 from the combined effects of a stroke, pneumonia and respiratory failure. In 2006, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which recognized him as "one of the key figures in the history of jazz". Rolling Stone described him as "the most revered jazz trumpeter of all time, not to mention one of the most important musicians of the 20th century," while Gerald Early called him inarguably one of the most influential and innovative musicians of that period.

Early life

Miles Dewey Davis III was born on May 26, 1926 into an affluent middle class African-American family in Alton, Illinois, fifteen miles north of St. Louis. He had an older sister, Dorothy Mae (b. 1925), and a younger brother, Vernon (b. 1929). His father, Miles Dewey Davis II of Arkansas, was a successful dental surgeon who earned three college degrees, and his mother Cleota Mae Davis (née Henry), also of Arkansas, was a music teacher and violinist. They owned a 200-acre estate near Pine Bluff, Arkansas that housed a profitable pig farm where Davis and his siblings would ride horses, fish, and hunt. In 1927, the family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois, living on the second floor of a commercial building in a predominantly white neighborhood behind a dental office. By 1941, his parents divorced. From 1932 to 1934, Davis attended John Robinson Elementary School, an all-black institution, followed by Crispus Attucks School where he performed well in mathematics, music, and sports. As a youngster Davis developed his earliest appreciation for music, citing the the blues, big bands, and gospel music.

In 1935, Davis received his first trumpet as a gift from John Eubanks, a friend of his father, and later took weekly lessons with his father's patient, teacher and musician Elwood Buchanan. His mother objected the choice of instrument as she preferred her son took up the violin. Against the fashion of the time, Buchanan stressed the importance of playing without vibrato and encouraged him to adopt a more clear, mid-range tone; Davis claimed he would slap his knuckles every time he started using heavy vibrato. Davis would carry his clear signature tone throughout his career. He once remarked on its importance to him, saying, "I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a round voice with not too much tremolo and not too much bass. Just right in the middle. If I can't get that sound I can't play anything." In 1939, the family moved to 1701 Kansas Avenue in East St. Louis. For his thirteenth birthday held that year, Davis' father bought his son a new trumpet, and Davis began to play in local bands, earning as much as $85 a week. Around this time, Davis took additional trumpet lessons from Joseph Gustat, principal trumpeter of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

In 1941, the 15-year-old Davis began at East St. Louis Lincoln High School where he joined the school's marching band directed by Buchanan and entered music competitions. Davis claimed the contests he did not win was largely down to prejudice over his race, but cited such experiences to become a better musician. Davis proceeded to improve his understanding of music after a drummer he played with around this time suggested Davis play a passage from the previous night, yet Davis was unable to comprehend what he meant. "That hit me ... I went and got everything, every book I could get to learn about theory". It was at Lincoln High where Davis met his first girlfriend, Irene Birth (later Cawthon). Davis had formed his own group by this time, performing in various local venues such as Elks Club and Huff's Beer Garden with hits such as "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller. A portion of his earnings went towards his sister's education at Fisk University. Davis also befriended trumpeter Clark Terry, who also suggested he play without vibrato and performed together in various capacities for several years.

In 1943, at Buchanan's recommendation and Cawthon's persuasion, Davis filled a vacant spot in Eddie Randle's Rhumboogie Orchestra, also known as the Blue Devils, and eventually became its musical director which involved the scheduling of rehearsals and hiring newcomers. Davis later acknowledged his tenure as one of the most important of his career. During this time, Sonny Stitt tried to persuade him to join the Tiny Bradshaw band, then passing through town, but Davis' mother insisted that he finish his final year of high school before he could tour. He said, "I didn't talk to her for two weeks. And I didn't go with the band either". In January 1944, Davis finished his studies at East St. Louis Lincoln High School and graduated in absentia in June. The following month, Cawthon gave birth to a daughter, Cheryl.

In July 1944, Billy Eckstine and his big band, which featured Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Art Blakey, visited St. Louis for a series of performances. They needed a stand-in after third trumpeter Buddy Anderson was too ill to attend. They invited Davis, who accepted and played with the group for two weeks at Club Riviera. The experience was a profound one on Davis, after which he "had to be in New York, where the action was". However, his mother wished for him to continue with his education and study the piano or violin at Fisk University with his sister, which Davis declined.

Career

1944–1948: New York City and the bebop years

In September 1944, Davis accepted his father's idea of studying at the Institute of Musical Arts, later known as the Juilliard School, in New York City. Davis passed his audition and attended classes in music theory, piano and dictation, but soon lost focus and spent much of his time in the club scene and locating Parker, despite being advised against doing so by several people he met in his search, including Coleman Hawkins. After finally locating his idol, Davis became one of the cadre of musicians who held nightly jam sessions at two Harlem nightclubs, Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's. The group included many of the future leaders of the bebop revolution such as Fats Navarro, Freddie Webster, and J. J. Johnson. Established musicians including Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke were also regular participants. In December 1944, Davis reunited with Cawthon and their daughter when they relocated to New York City, the three living in the same building as Parker who eventually became a room mate.

In mid-1945, Davis failed to register for the year's autumn term of study at Juilliard and dropped out after three semesters as he wished to commit to jazz performance full time. His father advised his son to avoid sounding like everyone else and find his own style yet remained supportive and continued to send over money until Davis could earn enough on his own. Davis later criticized the school's classes for centering too much on the classical European and "white" repertoire, but credited the institution for his education in music theory and improving his trumpet playing technique. Davis began playing professionally, performing in several 52nd Street clubs with Hawkins and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and, on 24 April 1945, recorded his first sessions in a recording studio as part of Herbie Fields's group with Henry "Rubberlegs" Williams, his first of many as a sideman. Davis' first recording as leader came in 1946 with an occasional group named the Miles Davis Sextet plus Earl Coleman and Ann Hathaway—one of the rare occasions when Davis is heard accompanying singers. Davis would not record another session as leader until 1947.

After Gillespie split from Parker's quintet in 1945, Davis took his place in October and the group performed a residency at various clubs on 52nd Street. On November 26, Davis took part several recording sessions as part of Parker's group Reboppers that also involved Gillespie and Roach, displaying hints of the style he would become known for. During a take of Parker's signature song "Now's the Time", Davis takes a melodic solo, whose unbop-like quality anticipates the cool jazz period that followed. In 1946, Davis played in a big and small band led by Benny Carter in St. Louis and travels with the group for performances in California. During his time on the west coast, Davis performed with Parker who had also travelled there with Gillespie. During a stop in Los Angeles, Parker suffered from a nervous breakdown that landed him in hospital for several months, leaving Davis stranded. Davis secured a spot on Eckstine's California tour which eventually brought him back to New York City in late 1946. In March 1946, Davis played in studio sessions with Parker and began a collaboration with bassist Charles Mingus that summer, during which Cawthon gives birth to Davis' second child, Gregory, in East St. Louis before reuniting with Davis in New York City the following year. Davis noted that by this time "I was still so much into the music that I was even ignoring Irene", and was drinking and doing cocaine.

Following the break-up of Eckstine's band in early 1947, Davis secured work by playing in a big band led by Gillespie and Illinois Jacquet, and joining a new quintet led by Parker in April that also included Roach. Together they performed live with Duke Jordan and Tommy Potter for much of the year, including several studio sessions. In one session that May, Davis penned the tune "Cheryl", named after his daughter. Davis' first session as a leader followed in August 1947, playing as the Miles Davis All Stars that included Parker, pianist John Lewis, and bassist Nelson Boyd; together they recorded "Milestones", "Half Nelson", and "Sippin' at Bells". After touring Chicago and Detroit with Parker's quintet, Davis returned to New York City in March 1948 and joined the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour which included a stop in St. Louis on April 30.

1948–1950: Miles Davis Nonet and birth of the cool

In August 1948, Davis declined an offer to join Duke Ellington's orchestra as he had entered rehearsals with a new, nine-piece band with pianist and arranger Gil Evans and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, taking an active role that soon became his own project. Evans' Manhattan apartment had become the meeting place for several young musicians and composers such as Davis, Roach, Lewis, and Mulligan who were unhappy with the increasingly virtuoso instrumental techniques that dominated the bebop scene. This led to the formation of The Miles Davis Nonet which featured a more unusual line-up with a French horn and tuba. The objective was to achieve a sound similar to the human voice, through carefully arranged compositions and by emphasizing a relaxed, melodic approach to the improvisations. In September, the band completed their sole engagement as the openers for Count Basie at the Royal Roost for two weeks. Davis had to persuade the venue's manager to word the advertising sign as "Miles Davis Nonet. Arrangements by Gil Evans, John Lewis and Gerry Mulligan". He prevailed only with the help of Monte Kay, the club's artistic director. Davis rejoined Parker's quintet soon after, but relationships within the quintet were growing tense mainly due to Parker's erratic behavior caused by his drug addiction. Early into his tenure with Parker, Davis had adopted a lifestyle of drug abstinence, a vegetarian diet, and spoke of the benefits of water and juice. Matters worsened when Davis and Roach objected to the addition of pianist Duke Jordan and preferred to hire Bud Powell. The situation culminated in December 1948 when Davis quit, claiming he was not being paid.

Davis' split from Parker marked the beginning of a period when he worked mainly as a freelancer and sideman in some of the most important combos in the New York City jazz scene. His nonet remained active until the end of 1949; after landing a recording deal with Capitol Records they recorded sessions in January and April 1949, including the singles "Move" and "Boplicity" which sold little but became influential pieces of music on the "cool" or "west coast" style of jazz. The line-up changed throughout the year and included the additions of tuba player Bill Barber, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, who had been preferred to Sonny Stitt as his style was considered too bop-oriented, pianist Al Haig, trombone players Mike Zwerin with Kai Winding, French horn players Junior Collins with Sandy Siegelstein and Gunther Schuller, and bassists Al McKibbon and Joe Shulman. One track featured singer Kenny Hagood. The presence of white musicians in the group angered some black players, many of whom were unemployed at the time, yet Davis rebuffed their criticisms. Recording sessions with the nonet for Capital Records continued until April 1950; much of it remained unreleased until the issue of Birth of the Cool (1957), its name given to the cool jazz movement that had developed and the musical direction the group had taken.

In May 1949, Davis performed with the Tadd Dameron Quintet with Kenny Clarke and James Moody at the Paris International Jazz Festival, his first trip abroad. Davis took a strong liking for Paris and its cultural environment, where black jazz musicians, and African Americans in general, were better respected than America. The trip, he described, "changed the way I looked at things forever". During his time there Davis began a love affair with singer and actress Juliette Gréco which lasted for several years.

1949–1955: Hard bop and the "Blue Period"

The early 1950s was a period of great difficulty for Davis. Upon his return from Paris in mid-1949, he became depressed and could only secure little amounts of work which included a short engagement with Powell in October, and guest spots in New York City, Chicago, and Detroit until January 1950. To make matters worse, Davis was falling behind in hotel rent and numerous attempts were made to repossess his car. His heroin use became an expensive addition, and Davis, yet to reach 24 years old, "lost my sense of discipline, lost my sense of control over my life, and started to drift". In August 1950, during a family trip to East St. Louis and Chicago in an attempt to improve their fortunes, Cawthon gave birth to Davis' second son, Miles IV, in Chicago. The latter was where Davis befriended boxer Johnny Bratton and began his strong interest in the sport. Soon after, Davis left Cawthon and his three children in New York City in the hands of his friend and jazz singer Betty Carter who allowed his family to move in with her and looked after the children. Davis remained thankful to Carter for the rest of his life. Davis then toured with Eckstine and Billie Holiday in their backing bands, during which he was arrested for heroin possession in Los Angeles. The story was reported in Down Beat magazine, which caused a further reduction of work for Davis, though he was acquitted weeks later.

In January 1951, Davis' fortunes improved when he secured a one-year recording contract with Prestige Records, an independent jazz label, after owner Bob Weinstock became a fan of Davis' nonet. Davis chose Lewis, trombone player Bennie Green, bassist Percy Heath, saxophonist Sonny Rollins, and drummer Roy Hanes; together they recorded what became a portion of Miles Davis and Horns (1956). Davis secured further studio dates for other artists in March, June, and September 1951, and had started taking up work transcribing scores for record labels to fund his heroin addiction. The following month, Davis recorded his second session for Prestige as band leader, the material of which was later released on The New Sounds (1951), Dig (1956), and Conception (1956).

During his heroin addiction, Davis supported his habit partly with his music and partly by living the life of a hustler, exploiting prostitutes and receiving money from friends. By 1953, his addiction began to impair his playing ability and his drug habit became public in a Down Beat interview with Cab Calloway, who Davis never forgave as it brought him "all pain and suffering". After learning of his father's support, Davis returned to St. Louis and stayed with him for several months to aid his recovery. Though he continued to score heroin out of boredom, Davis caught up with Roach and Mingus in September 1953 who were on their way to Los Angeles for performances. Davis joined them, but the trip caused numerous arguments and problems. Davis returned to his father's home, "determined to kick my habit ... that was the only thing on my mind". He locked himself inside the guest house and stayed inside "for about seven or eight days" until he had gone through the painful and illness-inducing withdrawals. After the ordeal, Davis "sat down and started thinking about how I was going to get my life back together".

After kicking his heroin addiction Davis stayed in Detroit for around six months, avoiding New York City where it was easy to score drugs. Though he did take heroin during his stay, he was healthy enough to resume live performances in local venues, playing with drummer Elvin Jones and pianist Tommy Flanagan as part of Billy Mitchell's house band at the Blue Bird club. He was also "pimping a little" at this time. A widely related story, attributed to Richard "Prophet" Jennings, was that Davis stumbled into Baker's Keyboard Lounge out of the rain, carrying his trumpet in a paper bag under his coat, walked to the bandstand and interrupted Roach and Clifford Brown in the midst of performing "Sweet Georgia Brown" and played "My Funny Valentine" before leaving. Davis was supposedly embarrassed into getting clean by this incident. Davis later disputed this account, stating that Roach had invited him to play and that his decision to finally quit heroin was unrelated to the incident, citing his idol boxer Sugar Ray Robinson as an inspiration to get clean and resume his career.

In February 1954 a clean Davis returned to New York City, feeling good "for the first time in a long time" and mentally and physically stronger, and joined a gym. He informed Weinstock and management at Blue Note Records that he was ready to record music with a quintet, which he was granted and set the task of recording more music than before to make up for lost time. Davis considered two albums with sessions recorded from this time, Miles Davis Quartet (1954) for Prestige and Miles Davis Volume 2 (1956) for Blue Note, as "very important" to him as he felt his performances were particularly strong. Davis was paid roughly $750 for each album and denied to give away all his publishing rights. By now he had abandoned the bebop style and got to know the music of pianist Ahmad Jamal, whose approach and use of space greatly influenced Davis. When Davis returned to the studio in June 1955 to record Miles Davis Quartet and sought a new pianist, he wished for someone who played like Jamal and picked Red Garland.

Between 1951 and 1954, Davis released many records on Prestige with varied line-ups, many with Rollins and Blakey. Such albums include Blue Haze (1956), Bags' Groove (1957), Walkin' (1957), and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (1959), recorded after Davis' recovery from heroin addiction. They document the evolution of Davis' style and sound, including the fixture of the Harmon mute, also known as a wah-wah mute, onto his trumpet and placed close to the microphone which became his signature sound, and more spacious, melodic, and relaxed phrasing. Davis assumed a central position in what is known as hard bop, a contrast to bebop as hard bop included slower tempos and a less radical approach to harmony and melody, often adopting popular tunes and American standards as starting points for improvisation. Hard bop also distanced itself from cool jazz with its harder beat and blues-inspired music. A few critics have named Walkin' (1957) the album that created the hard bop genre.

In this period, Davis gained a reputation for being distant, cold, and withdrawn, and for having a quick temper. Davis later wrote that in 1954, Leonard "was the most important thing in my life besides music" and even took on his "arrogant attitude". Factors that contributed to this reputation included his contempt for the critics and specialized press, and some well-publicized confrontations with the public and with fellow musicians. A near fight with Thelonious Monk during the recording of Bags' Groove received wide exposure in the specialized press. In mid-1954, Davis reunited with Gréco for the first time since 1949 after she arrived in New York City for film prospects; the two had been in occasional contact since Davis left Paris. Though Davis was too busy to move to Spain with Gréco, the two "remained lovers for many years".

Davis had an operation to remove polyps from his larynx in October 1955. Even though he was not supposed to speak at all, he had an argument with somebody and raised his voice. This outburst damaged his vocal cords forever, giving him the characteristic raspy voice that came to be associated with him. "[It was] in February or March 1956 that I had my first throat operation and had to disband the group while recovering. During the course of the conversation I raised my voice to make a point and fucked up my voice. I wasn't even supposed to talk for at least ten days, and here I was not only talking, but talking loudly. After that incident my voice had this whisper that has been with me ever since." The "nocturnal" quality of Davis' playing and his somber reputation, along with his whispering voice, earned him the lasting moniker of "prince of darkness", adding a patina of mystery to his public persona.

1955–1959: First great quintet, modal jazz, and sextet

In July 1955, Davis landed a last-minute booking to perform with his quintet at the second annual Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island on July 17. With a line-up of Monk, Heath, drummer Connie Kay, and horn players Zoot Sims and Gerry Mulligan, the performance was well received and marked a turn in fortune for Davis in the eyes of critics. In the 1955 Down Beat reader's poll, Davis tied first place with Gillespie in the trumpet category. Following the success at Newport, Davis wrote "things began to happen to me". He recorded a session for Mingus for his Debut label and performed a gig at Café Bohemia, New York City which included himself, Rollins, Garland, Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. This was followed by another session for Prestige in August. Davis' final albums for the label followed: Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (1957), Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (1958), Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (1959), and Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (1961), each being instrumental in establishing Davis' quintet as one of the best on the scene.

In mid-1955, Davis recruited players for what became known as his "first great quintet" of Garland, Chambers, Jones, and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, who was chosen after the unsuccessful attempt to recruit Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. Neither of Davis' picks were widely known at the time, nor had they received a great deal of exposure. The line-up complete, Davis secured a deal with Columbia Records after he met producer George Avakian following his Newport performance. After Avakin learned of Davis' existing contract with Prestige, he entered negotiations with Weinstock to buy him out of his deal that involved "a whole lot of money ... It was a good position, people talking good about you all over the place instead of bad-mouthing you". The five debuted on record with the widely received 'Round About Midnight (1957). Their live repertoire included a mix of bebop mainstays, jazz standards from the Great American Songbook and pre-bop eras, and traditional tunes. The prevailing style of the group was a development of the Davis experience in the previous years—Davis playing long, legato, and essentially melodic lines, while Coltrane, who during these years emerged as a leading figure on the musical scene, contrasted by playing high-energy solos.

Davis' quintet disbanded for the first time in 1957 following a series of personal problems that Davis blamed on Jones' and Coltrane's drug addictions. After a series of gigs at Cafe Bohemia with a modified line-up that included Rollins and drummer Art Taylor, Davis travelled to France where he recorded the score to Louis Malle's film Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958). With the aid of French session musicians Barney Wilen, Pierre Michelot, and René Urtreger, and American drummer Kenny Clarke, the group recorded the soundtrack without relying on written material, instead the group improvised as they watched the film on a screen in the studio. In 1958, a performance of Les Ballets Africains from Guinea sparked Davis' interest in modal jazz, then new concept that called for a slower, deliberate pace of music and allowed the creation of solos out of harmony rather than chords. Such music from the ballet featured the kalimba played for long periods of time on a single chord, weaving in and out of consonance and dissonance.

Upon his return to New York City in early 1958, Davis revived his quintet after Jones and Coltrane had kicked their drug habits, and successfully recruited Adderley in the process. Now a sextet, the group recorded material released on Milestones (1958), an album anticipating the new modal directions Davis gave his music. Following Milestones, Davis fired Garland and, shortly afterwards, Jones, again over behavioral issues and replaced them with pianist Bill Evans, a young white musician with a classical background, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. With this revamped formation, Davis had the group tour extensively which was followed by an album, 1958 Miles, also known as 58 Sessions. Evans had a unique, impressionistic approach to the piano, and his musical ideas had a strong influence on Davis. After eight months of touring, however, Evans was burned out and left. He was replaced by Wynton Kelly who brought a swinging, bluesy approach that contrasted with Evans' more delicate playing.

1957–1963: Recordings with Gil Evans and Kind of Blue

From 1957 to 1962, Davis recorded a series of albums with arranger and composer Gil Evans, often playing the flugelhorn in addition to his trumpet. Miles Ahead (1957) showcased his playing with a big band and a horn section and included and "The Maids of Cadiz" by Léo Delibes, the first piece of European classical music that Davis recorded. Evans devised orchestral passages as transitions between each track were joined together with with studio editing, turning each side of the album into a seamless piece of music. Porgy and Bess (1959) features arrangements of pieces from George Gershwin's opera of the same name which included Chambers, Jones, and Adderley. Sketches of Spain (1960) explored Spanish music with tracks by contemporary composers Joaquín Rodrigo and Manuel de Falla with originals from Evans. Recording was met with difficulties as the classical players were unable to improvise to what Evans wished for and the jazz musicians found the arrangements too difficult. "Solea" features a 10-minute trumpet solo by Davis. The album was a critical success, and sold over 120,000 copies in the US. Davis performed with an orchestra conducted by Evans at Carnegie Hall in May 1961 to raise money for charity. The pair's final album was Quiet Nights (1962), a collection of bossa novas released against their wishes; Evans stated it was only half an album and blamed the record company; Davis blamed producer Teo Macero, to whom he did not speak for more than two years. Davis noted later that "my best friend is Gil Evans"; their work was featured in the box set Miles Davis & Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings (1996) which won a Grammy Award for Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes in 1997.

In March and April 1959, Davis recorded his what many critics consider his greatest album, Kind of Blue (1959). Davis named the album that described its overall mood. He called back Bill Evans, months away from forming what would become his own seminal trio, for the album sessions, as the music had been planned around Evans' piano style. Both Davis and Evans were acquainted with the ideas of pianist George Russell regarding modal jazz; Davis from discussions with Russell and others before the Birth of the Cool sessions, and Evans from study with Russell in 1956. Davis, however, had neglected to inform current pianist Wynton Kelly of Evans' role in the recordings; Kelly subsequently played only on the track "Freddie Freeloader" and was not present at the April dates for the album. "So What" and "All Blues" had been played by the sextet at performances prior to the recording sessions, but for the other three compositions, Davis and Evans prepared skeletal harmonic frameworks that the other musicians saw for the first time on the day of recording, to allow a fresher approach to their improvisations. The resulting album has proven both highly popular and enormously influential. Released in August 1959, Kind of Blue was an instant success, with widespread radio airplay and rave reviews from critics. It remains the best selling jazz album of all time; in October 2008, the album reached 4× platinum from the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over four million copies in the US alone. In 2009, the US House of Representatives voted 409–0 to pass a resolution that honored it as a national treasure.

Among the success of Kind of Blue, Davis found himself involved with the law. On August 25, 1959, during a recording session at the Birdland nightclub in New York City for the US armed services, Davis took a break outside the club. As he was escorting a blonde woman across the sidewalk to a taxi, Davis was told by patrolman Gerald Kilduff to "move on". Davis explained that he was working at the club and refused to move, yet Kilduff proceeded to arrest Davis and grabbed him as Davis tried to protect himself. Witnesses said the patrolman punched Davis in the stomach with his nightstick without provocation. Two detectives held the crowd back, while a third approached Davis from behind and beat him in the head. Davis was arrested and taken to jail where he was charged for assaulting an officer before he was taken to hospital where he received five stitches. Davis was released on a $525 bail. By January 1960, Davis was acquitted of disorderly conduct and third-degree assault. He tried to pursue the case by bringing a suit against the New York City Police Department, but eventually dropped the proceedings in a plea bargain so he could recover his suspended cabaret card, then a required document for performers in order to work at New York City nightclubs. Davis later stated the incident "changed my whole life and whole attitude again, made me feel bitter and cynical again when I was starting to feel good about the things that had changed in this country".

Davis supported Kind of Blue with an extended tour with his sextet. He persuaded Coltrane to play with the group on one final European tour in the spring of 1960. Coltrane then departed to form his classic quartet, although he returned for some of the tracks on Davis' album Someday My Prince Will Come (1961). Its front cover features a photograph of Taylor, after Davis demanded to Columbia that his future album covers depict black women. By 1961, Ebony magazine estimated Davis was earning as much as $150,000 a year. After Coltrane, Davis tried various saxophonists, including Jimmy Heath, Sonny Stitt, and Hank Mobley. The quintet with Hank Mobley was recorded in the studio and on several live engagements at Carnegie Hall and the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco. Stitt's playing with the group is found on a recording made in Olympia, Paris (where Davis and Coltrane had played a few months before) and the Live in Stockholm album.

On December 21, 1960, Davis married Frances Taylor, who left the Broadway production of West Side Story for him. The relationship involved numerous incidents of Davis' domestic violence towards Taylor. Davis later wrote, "Every time I hit her, I felt bad because a lot of it really wasn't her fault but had to do with me being temperamental and jealous". One reason for his behavior was that by early 1963, Davis had increased his abuse of alcohol and cocaine abuse in an attempt to reduce the pain from his hip and joint pain and discomfort caused from his recent diagnosis of sickle cell anemia. Davis also had hallucinations, "looking for this imaginery person" in his home to the point of searching the house wielding a kitchen knife. About a week after the photograph for Davis' album E.S.P. (1965) was taken, Taylor left Davis for the last time. They remained separated until they officially divorced in February 1968.

1963–1968: Second "great quintet"

After a performance in Chicago in December 1962, Davis and his line-up of Kelly, Chambers, Cobb and Rollins played together for the last time after the first three wished to leave and play as a trio. In early 1963, Rollins left to join them, leaving Davis to pay over $25,000 to cancel each upcoming gig and quickly assemble a new group. After numerous try outs with different musicians, Davis found his new group in tenor saxophonist George Coleman, bassist Ron Carter, pianist Victor Feldman, and drummer Frank Butler, and the five proceeded to record in the studio. By May 1963, Feldman and Butler were replaced by pianist Herbie Hancock and the 17-year-old drummer Tony Williams who made Davis "excited all over again". With the new line-up, Davis finished recording the rest of what became Seven Steps to Heaven (1963) and recorded the live albums Miles Davis in Europe (1964), My Funny Valentine (1965), and Four & More (1966). The quintet played essentially the same repertoire of bebop tunes and standards that earlier Davis bands had played, but tackled them with increasing structural and rhythmic freedom and, in the case of the up-tempo material, breakneck speed.

In mid-1964, Coleman left and was replaced by saxophonist Sam Rivers on the suggestion of Williams. Rivers' tenure was brief, but was recorded live with the quintet on Miles in Tokyo (1969), recorded in July 1964. Soon after, Davis persuaded saxophonist Wayne Shorter to end his tenure with Art Blakey and join his quintet, thus becoming what is known as Davis' second "great quintet", lasting through 1968. Shorter became the group's principal composer and Davis' album E.S.P. (1965) was named after his composition recorded for it. While on tour in Europe, the group quickly made their first official recording, Miles in Berlin (1965). On returning to the US in late 1964 Davis, at Jackie DeShannon urging, was instrumental in getting the rock band The Byrds signed to Columbia.

By 1965, Davis was in need of medical attention as the pain in his hip had worsened since his Japanese tour the previous year. He underwent hip replacement surgery in April 1965 with bone taken from his shin, but it failed and after his third month in hospital, Davis discharged himself and went home due to boredom. He returned to hospital in August however, after he fell down in his home that required a plastic hip joint inserted in a second operation. Davis had recovered enough to return to live performance with his quintet in November 1965 which included gigs at the Plugged Nickel in Chicago which marked the return of Macero as Davis' engineer and producer after their rift was healed. Unlike their studio albums, the quintet still played primarily jazz standards and bebop tunes, although some of the titles remain the same as the tunes played by Davis' first quintet, the quick tempos and musical departure from the framework of the tune are dramatic.

Davis sought medical attention in January 1966 when he contracted a liver infection which required a three-month break in activity. He recovered and resumed touring, playing more dates in colleges as he had got tired of performing in more typical jazz venues. Columbia president Clive Davis noted that in 1966, his sales had declined to around 40,000–50,000 per album compared to as many as 100,000 per release a few years before. Matters were not helped by the press reporting Davis' apparent financial troubles and imminent demise. After his appearance at the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival, Davis returned to the studio with his quintet in October 1966 which marked the first of a series of productive sessions that lasted until September 1968. During this time, Davis had entered a relationship with actress Cicely Tyson who became a positive influence on his life and mental well-being and helped the trumpeter reduce his alcohol consumption.

Material from the 1966–1968 sessions were released on Miles Smiles (1966), Sorcerer (1967), Nefertiti (1967), Miles in the Sky (1968), and Filles de Kilimanjaro (1968). The quintet's approach to the new music became known as "time no changes", which referred to Davis' choice to depart from chordal sequences and adopt a more open approach with the rhythm section responding to the soloists' melodies. Through Nefertiti the studio recordings consisted primarily of originals composed by Shorter, with occasional compositions by the other sidemen. In 1967, the group began to play their live concerts in continuous sets, each tune flowing into the next, with only the melody indicating any sort of demarcation. Davis' bands would continue to perform in this way until his hiatus in 1975.

Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro—which tentatively introduced electric bass, electric piano, and electric guitar on some tracks—pointed the way to the subsequent fusion phase of Davis' career. Davis also began experimenting with more rock-oriented rhythms on these records. By the time the second half of Filles de Kilimanjaro was recorded, bassist Dave Holland and pianist Chick Corea had replaced Carter and Hancock in the working band, though both Carter and Hancock occasionally contributed to future recording sessions. Davis soon began to take over the compositional duties of his sidemen.

1968–1975: The electric period

In September 1968, Davis married 23-year-old model and songwriter Betty Mabry. The marriage ended in divorce the following year, yet Mabry, a familiar face in the New York City scene and aware of the emerging counterculture audience, helped introduce Davis to popular rock, soul and funk artists and trending fashions of the day. Jazz critic Leonard Feather recalled visiting Davis' apartment during this time and was shocked to see the trumpeter listen to albums by The Byrds, Aretha Franklin, and Dionne Warwick. Davis also took a liking to James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Sly and the Family Stone. The musical transition required that Davis adapt to electric instruments in both live performances and in the studio and make music that would appeal to the younger audience.

Davis' first step in his electric period began with In a Silent Way (1969), recorded in a single studio session on February 18, 1969 with Shorter, Hancock, Holland, and Williams alongside keyboardists Chick Corea and Josef Zawinul, and guitarist John McLaughlin. The album features two side long tracks that Macero pieced together from different takes recorded at the session resembling elements of a classical sonata form. Released in July 1969, the album received a divided critical reception among jazz purists who accused Davis of "selling out" to the rock audience. Nevertheless, it reached number 134 on the US Billboard Top LPs chart, Davis's first album since My Funny Valentine to reach the chart. It marked the start of Davis' entry into jazz fusion.

In August 1969, Davis gathered an even larger group of musicians, this time with new drummer Jack DeJohnette with Airto Moreira and Bennie Maupin, to record his follow up, the double album Bitches Brew (1970). The album features extended compositions, some over 20 minutes in length, that, like In a Silent Way, were never played straight through in the studio but rather formed from several takes by Macero and Davis. Bitches Brew made greater use of studio recording techniques including splicing, multitrack recording, and tape loops; the opening track, "Pharaoh's Dance", contains 19 edits. Upon its release in March 1970, Bitches Brew peaked at number 35 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and, in 1976, reached gold certification by the RIAA in for 500,000 copies sold in the US. In 2003, it had sold one million copies.

In March 1970, Davis began to perform as the opening act for various rock acts, allowing Columbia to market Bitches Brew to counterculture audiences. His touring band of 1969 included Shorter, Corea, Holland, and DeJohnette; the group never completed a studio recording which became subsequently known as the "lost quintet". According to biographer Paul Tingen, "Miles's newcomer status in this environment" led to "mixed audience reactions, often having to play for dramatically reduced fees, and enduring the 'sell-out' accusations from the jazz world", as well as being "attacked by sections of the black press for supposedly genuflecting to white culture". The 1970 tours included a spot at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival which saw Davis perform to an estimated 350,000 people. Plans to have Davis record with Hendrix ended following the guitarist's death soon after; his funeral was the last that Davis attended. Several live albums with a transitional sextet/septet including Corea, DeJohnette, Holland, Moreira, saxophonist Steve Grossman, and keyboardist Keith Jarrett were recorded for Live at the Fillmore East (1970) and Black Beauty (1973).

By 1971, Davis had signed a new contract with Columbia that paid him $100,000 a year for three years including royalties. He had recorded the soundtrack for the 1970 documentary film on heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson, containing two long pieces of 25 and 26 minutes in length that features Hancock, McLaughlin, Sonny Sharrock, and drummer Billy Cobham. The music, released on Jack Johnson (1971), gained critical acclaim. During this period, Davis was committed to making music for the young African-American audience drawn to the more commercial, groove-oriented style of popular music of the time; by November 1971, DeJohnette and Moreira had been replaced in the touring ensemble by drummer Leon "Ndugu" Chancler and percussionists James Mtume and Don Alias. The studio and live album Live-Evil (1971) was released in the same month and Davis' ensemble—though retaining the exploratory imperative of Bitches Brew—had transformed into a much more funk-oriented group.

In 1972, composer Paul Buckmaster introduced Davis to the music of German avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen which led to a period of new creative exploration. Biographer J. K. Chambers wrote, "The effect of Davis' study of Stockhausen could not be repressed for long ... Davis' own 'space music' shows Stockhausen's influence compositionally." His recordings and performances during this period were described as "space music" by fans, Feather, and Buckmaster, who described it as "a lot of mood changes—heavy, dark, intense—definitely space music." These influences were incorporated on the studio album On the Corner (1972), blending Stockhausen and Buckmaster with funk elements which had Davis invite Buckmaster to New York City to oversee the writing and recording. Davis stated that critics incorrectly labelled the album and complained that Colbumia had failed to promote it to the right crowd, instead to jazz traditionalists who could not understand it. In October 1972, Davis broke his ankles after in a car crash, for which he took painkillers and cocaine to numb the pain.

After recording On the Corner, Davis put together a new group in 1972 with Henderson, Mtume, Carlos Garnett, guitarist Reggie Lucas, organist Lonnie Liston Smith, tabla player Badal Roy, sitarist Khalil Balakrishna, and drummer Al Foster. It was unusual in that only Smith was a major jazz instrumentalist; as a result, the music emphasized rhythmic density and shifting textures instead of individual solos. This group was recorded live for In Concert (1973), but Davis found it unsatisfactory, leading him to drop the tabla and sitar, take over keyboard duties, and added guitarist Pete Cosey. The compilation studio album Big Fun (1974) contains four long improvisations recorded between 1969 and 1972, including He Loved Him Madly", a tribute to Duke Ellington, as well as one of his most lauded pieces from this era, "Calypso Frelimo".

Davis' studio activity in the 1970s culminated in sessions throughout 1974 for the compilation album Get Up with It (1974). He then concentrated on live performance with a series of concerts that Columbia released on the double live albums Agharta (1975), Pangaea (1976), and Dark Magus (1977). The first two are recordings of two sets from February 1, 1975 in Osaka, by which time Davis was troubled with pneumonia, osteoarthritis, sickle-cell anemia, depression, bursitis, and stomach ulcers, and relied on alcohol, codeine and morphine to get through the engagements. His shows divided audiences and were routinely panned by critics which cited the trumpeter's tendency to perform with his back to the audience. However, Cosey later asserted that "the band really advanced after the Japanese tour", which involved a trek of the US opening for Hancock, during which Davis was once again hospitalized for his ulcers and a hernia. After his appearance at the 1975 Newport Jazz Festival in July, and the Schaefer Music Festival in New York City on September 5, Davis began a five-year period of inactivity from music.

1975–1980: Hiatus

In his autobiography, Davis openly wrote about his mental state during his break in activity, describing his New York City apartment as a wreck, his heavy drug and alcohol use, and his sexual encounters with many women. In December 1975, he had regained enough strength to undergo a much needed hip replacement operation. In March 1976, Rolling Stone reported rumors of his imminent demise citing his numerous health problems during his previous tour and lifestyle. In December 1976, Davis renewed his recording contract with Columbia for three years, but the label was initially reluctant to pay his usual large advances that they had done with his previous deals. This led to Davis' lawyer to enter negotiations with United Artists Records, causing Columbia to match the offer made by the rival label and complete the deal. They then established the Miles Davis Fund, paying the trumpeter on a regular basis thereafter. Pianist Vladimir Horowitz was the only other Columbia artist that had such a status with the label. Columbia released a series of compilation albums to fulfil contractual obligations, including Water Babies (1976) and Circle in the Round (1979).

In early 1978, Davis moved in with Elena Steinberg in Norwalk, Connecticut after her friend, music reporter Julie Coryell, was granted an interview with the trumpeter and wanted him cared to health. After working on some new music, including a tune co-written by him and guitarist Barry Finnerty, Davis got Coryell's husband, fusion guitarist Larry Coryell, to develop his work which was set for recording on March 2, 1978 with a line-up formed of Coryell, keyboardists Masabumi Kikuchi and George Pulis, bassist T. M. Stevens, and drummer Al Foster. Davis proceeded to play the arranged piece in an uptempo fashion, abandoned his trumpet for the organ, and had Macero record the session without the band's knowledge. After Coryell declined a spot in a band that Davis was beginning to put together, Davis returned to his reclusive lifestyle in New York City. Not long after, Eskridge had Davis jailed for failing to pay maintenance to their son which cost Davis $10,000 for release on bail. A further recording session that involved Buckmaster and Gil Evans was shelved, with Evans leaving after not receiving promised compensation. In August 1978, Davis took a step towards a comeback when he hired Mark Rothbaum, who had worked for Davis since 1972, as his new manager. In 1979, Davis placed in the yearly top-ten trumpeter poll of Down Beat.

By 1979, Davis had rekindled his relationship with actress Cicely Tyson, with whom he overcame his cocaine addiction and regained his enthusiasm for music. The two married on November 26, 1981 in a ceremony officiated held in Bill Cosby's home in Massachusetts and officiated by politician and civil rights activist Andrew Young; the marriage ended in divorce that was finalized in 1989.

In October 1979, Davis' contract with Columbia was up for negotiations. By this time, label president Clive Davis was replaced by George Butler, who had made several visits to Davis' home to for around the previous two years to encourage him back into the studio to record new material. To help his situation, Davis had Buckmaster come over to collaborate on new music. Upon his arrival at Davis' home, Buckmaster organised an intervention for the trumpeter who by this time was living in squalor among pest and cockroach infestations and darkness, with his curtains constantly closed. His sister Dorothy took charge to clean his home with help from Buckmaster, Tyson, and neighbor Chaka Khan; Davis later thanked Buckmaster in helping him.

1980–1985: Re-emergence

Davis had not played trumpet for the better part of three years, and found the process of reclaiming embouchure difficult. His first studio appearance since his hiatus took place on May 1, 1980. A day later, Davis was hospitalised for a month over a leg infection. Davis then recorded The Man with the Horn (1981) from June 1980 to May 1981, with Macero assuming his role as producer. The album sees Davis playing mostly wah-wah with a younger, larger band. The initial large band was eventually abandoned in favor of a smaller combo featuring saxophonist Bill Evans, not to be confused with pianist Bill Evans, and bass player Marcus Miller, both of whom would be among Davis' most regular collaborators throughout the decade.

The Man with the Horn received a poor critical reception despite selling fairly well. In early June 1981, Davis returned to the stage, for the first time since 1975, for a ten-minute guest solo spot as part of Mel Lewis' band and orchestra at the Village Vanguard, New York City. This was followed by appearances with a new band, including a four-night run at Kik in Boston from 26–29 June, followed by two shows at Avery Fisher Hall on 5 July as part of the Kool Jazz Festival. Recordings from a mixture of dates from 1981, including the Kix and Avery Fisher Hall gigs, were released on We Want Miles (1982), which earned Davis a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance by a Soloist.

In January 1982, while Tyson was working in Africa, Davis "went a little wild" with alcohol and suffered from a stroke which temporarily paralysed his right hand. Tyson returned home and cared for him; after three months of treatment with a Chinese acupuncturist Davis was able to play his trumpet, after which he took his doctor's warnings on board and began a lifestyle free of alcohol and drugs. He credits Tyson in his recovery which involved regular exercise, piano playing, and visits to spas, yet he lost weight and got a weave to cover his thinning scalp. Tyson also encouraged Davis to pursue drawing which the trumpeter took a particular liking to and worked on art for the rest of his life.

Davis resumed touring in May 1982 with a line-up that included French percussionist Mino Cinelu and guitarist John Scofield, with whom he worked closely on his studio album Star People (1983). In mid-1983, while working on the tracks for Decoy, an album mixing soul music and electronica that was released in 1984, Davis brought in producer, composer and keyboardist Robert Irving III, who had earlier collaborated with him on The Man with the Horn. With a seven-piece band, including Scofield, Evans, keyboardist and music director Irving, drummer Al Foster and bassist Darryl Jones (later of the Rolling Stones), Davis played a series of European gigs to positive receptions. In December 1984, during his stay in Denmark, Davis was awarded the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. During the event, Danish trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg had written a contemporary classical piece titled "Aura" for the event which impressed Davis to the point of returning to Denmark in early 1985 to record his next studio album, Aura (1989). However, Columbia was dissatisfied with the recording and delayed its release for four years.

In May 1985, one month into a tour, Davis signed a new recording deal with Warner Bros. Records which included Davis signing over his entire publishing rights. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis publicly dismissed Davis' more recent fusion recordings as not being "'true' jazz", comments Davis initially shrugged off, calling Marsalis "a nice young man, only confused." This changed after Marsalis appeared, unannounced, onstage in the midst of Davis' performance at the inaugural Vancouver International Jazz Festival in 1986. Marsalis whispered into Davis' ear that "someone" had told him to do so. Davis responded by ordering him off the stage. Davis had become increasingly irritated at Columbia's delay releasing Aura. The breaking point in the label-artist relationship appears to have come when a Columbia jazz producer requested Davis place a goodwill birthday call to Marsalis. The 1985 tour included a performance in London in July that saw Davis on stage for five hours. Jazz critic John Fordham concluded: "The leader is clearly enjoying himself". By 1985, Davis was a diabetic and required daily insulin injections.

Davis released his final album for Columbia, You're Under Arrest, in September 1985. It included another brief stylistic detour, this time with his interpretations of Cyndi Lauper's ballad "Time After Time", and Michael Jackson's pop hit "Human Nature". Davis considered releasing an entire album of pop songs and recorded dozens of them, but the idea was scrapped. Davis noted that many of today's accepted jazz standards were in fact pop songs from Broadway theater, and that he was simply updating the "standards" repertoire with new material. 1985 also saw Davis guest-star on the TV show Miami Vice as pimp and minor criminal Ivory Jones in the episode titled "Junk Love" (first aired November 8, 1985).

Davis collaborated with a number of figures from the British post-punk and new wave movements during this period, including Scritti Politti. At the invitation of producer Bill Laswell, he recorded some trumpet parts during sessions for Public Image Ltd.'s Album, according to Public Image's John Lydon in the liner notes of their Plastic Box box set. In Lydon's words, however, "strangely enough, we didn't use [his contributions]." According to Lydon in the Plastic Box notes, Davis favorably compared Lydon's singing voice to his trumpet sound during these sessions.

1986–1991: Final years

After taking part in the recording of the 1985 protest song "Sun City" as a member of Artists United Against Apartheid, Davis was featured on the instrumental "Don't Stop Me Now" by Toto for their album Fahrenheit (1986). For his next studio album, Davis intended to record as a collaboration with pop artist Prince, but the project was soon shelved. Instead, Davis chose to work with multi-instrumentalist Marcus Miller. The resulting album, Tutu (1986), was Davis' first to use modern studio tools including programmed synthesizers, sampling and drum loops, to create an entirely new setting for his music. Released in September 1986, its front cover features a striking portrait of Davis by Irving Penn. The album was described as the modern counterpart of Sketches of Spain and, in 1987, won Davis his second of three Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist.

In 1988, Davis had a small part as a street musician in the Christmas comedy film Scrooged, starring Bill Murray. In November 1988, he was inducted into the Knights of Malta at a ceremony at the Alhambra Palace in Spain. Later that month, Davis cut his European tour short after he collapsed and fainted after a two-hour show in Madrid and flew home. Rumors of Davis' health were made public after the American tabloid magazine Star, in its February 21, 1989 edition, published that Davis had contracted AIDS, prompting Davis' manager Peter Shukat to issue a statement the following day to deny the claim. Shukat revealed Davis had been in hospital for a mild case of pneumonia and the removal of a benign polyp on his vocal cords, yet was resting comfortably in preparation for his 1989 tours. Davis later blamed one of his former wives or girlfriends for starting the rumor and decided against taking legal action. In 1989, Davis was interviewed on 60 Minutes by Harry Reasoner. In October 1989, Davis received a Grande Medaille de Vermeil from Paris mayor Jacques Chirac. In 1990, Davis received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In early 1991, he appeared in the Rolf de Heer film Dingo as a jazz musician. In the film's opening sequence, Davis and his band unexpectedly land on a remote airstrip in the Australian outback and proceed to perform for the surprised locals.

Davis followed Tutu with Amandla (1989), another collaboration with Miller and George Duke plus the soundtracks to four films—Street Smart, Siesta, The Hot Spot (with bluesman John Lee Hooker), and Dingo. He continued to tour in the late 1980s with a band of constantly rotating personnel. Davis' last albums, both released posthumously, were the hip hop-influenced studio album Doo-Bop (1992) and Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux (1993), a collaboration with Quincy Jones for the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival where, for the first time in three decades, Davis performed songs from Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain. Some listeners and critics who had been disappointed with his experimental late period were happy that his career ended in such a way.

On July 8, 1991, Davis returned to performing material from his past at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival with a band and orchestra conducted by Quincy Jones. The set consisted of select arrangements from his albums recorded with Gil Evans. The show was followed by a concert billed as Miles and Friends at the Grande halle de la Villette in Paris held two days later, featuring guest performances by artists he had worked with across his career, including John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and Josef Zawinul. During his stay in Paris, Davis was awarded the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Such retrospective concerts that Davis agreed to do in a short space of time led to the argument that the trumpeter knew he was dying, yet his road manager Gordon Meltzer believed Davis was unaware. A week after Paris, Davis and his group performed at the Nice Jazz Festival, followed by a show in London on July 19. Upon his return to the US, he stopped off in New York City to record material on his next album, Doo-Bop, and returned to California where he played at the Hollywood Bowl on August 25, his final live performance.

Death

In early September 1991, Davis checked into St. John's Hospital near his home in Santa Monica, California, for routine tests. During his stay in hospital, his doctors suggested the idea of a tracheal tube implant to relieve his breathing following his repeated bouts of bronchial pneumonia which provoked an outburst from Davis that led to a cerebral haemorrhage followed by a coma. On September 28, 1991, several days after, his life support system was turned off. Davis was 65 years old. His death was officially reasoned as the combined effects of a stroke, pneumonia and respiratory failure. According to Troupe, Davis was taking azidothymidine (AZT), a type of antiretroviral drug used for the treatment of HIV and AIDS, during his treatments in hospital. A funeral service was held on October 5, 1991 at St. Peter's Church in New York City that was attended by around 500 friends, family members, and musical acquaintances, with many fans standing outside in the rain. Davis was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City, with one of his trumpets, close to the site of fellow jazz musician and his early idol, Duke Ellington.

Views on his earlier work

Late in his life, from the "electric period" onwards, Davis repeatedly explained his reasons for not wishing to perform his earlier works, such as Birth of the Cool or Kind of Blue. In his view, remaining stylistically static was the wrong option. He commented: ""So What" or Kind of Blue, they were done in that era, the right hour, the right day, and it happened. It's over [...] What I used to play with Bill Evans, all those different modes, and substitute chords, we had the energy then and we liked it. But I have no feel for it anymore, it's more like warmed-over turkey." When Shirley Horn insisted in 1990 that Miles reconsider playing the ballads and modal tunes of his Kind of Blue period, he demurred. "Nah, it hurts my lip," was the reason he gave.

Other musicians regretted Davis’ change of style, for example, Bill Evans, who was instrumental in creating Kind of Blue, said: "I would like to hear more of the consummate melodic master, but I feel that big business and his record company have had a corrupting influence on his material. The rock and pop thing certainly draws a wider audience. It happens more and more these days that unqualified people with executive positions try to tell musicians what is good and what is bad music."

Legacy and influence

Davis is regarded as one of the most innovative, influential and respected figures in the history of music. The Guardian described him as "a pioneer of 20th-century music, leading many of the key developments in the world of jazz." He has been described as “one of the great innovators in jazz", and had the titles the Prince of Darkness and the Picasso of Jazz bestowed upon him. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll noted: "Miles Davis played a crucial and inevitably controversial role in every major development in jazz since the mid-'40s, and no other jazz musician has had so profound an effect on rock. Miles Davis was the most widely recognized jazz musician of his era, an outspoken social critic and an arbiter of style—in attitude and fashion—as well as music".

William Ruhlmann of AllMusic wrote that "To examine his career is to examine the history of jazz from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s, since he was in the thick of almost every important innovation and stylistic development in the music during that period [...] It can even be argued that jazz stopped evolving when Davis wasn't there to push it forward." As an innovative bandleader and composer, Miles Davis has influenced many notable musicians and bands from diverse genres. Miles' influence on the people who played with him has been described by music writer Christopher Smith as follows:

Miles Davis's artistic interest was in the creation and manipulation of ritual space, in which gestures could be endowed with symbolic power sufficient to form a functional communicative, and hence musical, vocabulary. [...] Miles' performance tradition emphasized orality and the transmission of information and artistic insight from individual to individual. His position in that tradition, and his personality, talents, and artistic interests, impelled him to pursue a uniquely individual solution to the problems and the experiential possibilities of improvised performance.

His approach, owing largely to the African-American performance tradition that focused on individual expression, emphatic interaction, and creative response to shifting contents, had a profound impact on generations of jazz musicians.

Kind of Blue remains the best selling jazz album of all time. On November 5, 2009, U.S. Representative John Conyers of Michigan sponsored a measure in the United States House of Representatives to recognize and commemorate the album on its 50th anniversary. The measure also affirms jazz as a national treasure and "encourages the United States government to preserve and advance the art form of jazz music." It passed, unanimously, with a vote of 409–0 on December 15, 2009. The trumpet Davis used on the recording is displayed on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. It was donated to the school by Arthur "Buddy" Gist, who met Davis in 1949 and became a close friend. The gift was the reason why the jazz program at UNCG is named the Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program.

In 1986, the New England Conservatory awarded Davis an Honorary Doctorate for his extraordinary contributions to music. Since 1960 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) honored him with eight Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and three Grammy Hall of Fame Awards.

In 2001 a two-hour documentary film by Mike Dibb entitled The Miles Davis Story (Dibb Directions/Channel 4 Television) won an International Emmy Award for arts documentary of the year.

In 2010, Moldejazz premiered a play called Driving Miles, which focused on a landmark concert Davis performed in Molde, Norway, in 1984.

Miles Ahead, is a 2015 American music film directed by Don Cheadle, co-written by Cheadle with Steven Baigelman, Stephen J. Rivele, and Christopher Wilkinson, which interprets the life and compositions of Davis. It premiered at the New York Film Festival in October 2015. Starring Cheadle, the film also features Emayatzy Corinealdi as Frances Taylor, and a cast including Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Keith Stanfield.

Awards

Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll Best Trumpet Player 1955

Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll Best Trumpet Player 1957

Winner; Down Beat Reader's Poll Best Trumpet Player 1961

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Composition Of More Than Five Minutes Duration for Sketches of Spain (1960)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group for Bitches Brew (1970)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for We Want Miles (1982)

Sonning Award for Lifetime Achievement In Music (1984; Copenhagen, Denmark)

Doctor of Music, honoris causa (1986; New England Conservatory)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for Tutu (1986)

Knight Hospitaller by the Order of St. John (1988)

Governers Award from the New York State Council on the Arts (1989)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist for Aura (1989)

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band for Aura (1989)

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1990)

St. Louis Walk of Fame (May 20, 1990)

Australian Film Institute Award for Best Original Music Score for Dingo, shared with Michel Legrand (1991)

Knight of the Legion of Honor (July 16, 1991; Paris)

Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance for Doo-Bop (1992)

Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance for Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux (1993)

Hollywood Walk of Fame Star (February 19, 1998)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction (March 13, 2006)

Hollywood's Rockwalk Induction (September 28, 2006)

RIAA Quadruple Platinum for Kind of Blue (October 7, 2008)

Wikipedia

#Miles Davis #05-26 #09-28

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