Miles Davies Reading Answers for IELTS

Kasturika Samanta

12 min read

Updated On Jul 17, 2024

Reading Passage
Miles Davis IELTS Reading Answers With Explanation
Tips for Answering the Question Types in the Above Reading Passage
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In the IELTS Reading module, you will have to answer three different passages, like Miles Davies Reading Answers, within one hour. As a result, you need to be fast enough to solve all the questions to score a high band score.

The Academic passage, Miles Davies Reading Answers, also known as Result of Creative Disputes, is a reading passage that appeared in an IELTS Test. It contains some of the IELTS reading question types. If you are interested in familiarizing yourself with all the question types, don’t hesitate to take an IELTS reading practice test.

There are 13 questions in Miles Davies IELTS Reading Answers, which showcase two different IELTS Reading question types. They are:

Matching Headings (Q. 1-6)
True/False/Not Given (Q. 7-13)

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Reading Passage

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on the Reading Passage below.

Miles Davies

A At the age of thirteen, Miles Davis was given his first trumpet, lessons were arranged with a local trumpet player, and a musical odyssey. These early lessons, paid for and supported by his father, had a profound effect on shaping Davis’ signature sound. Whereas most trumpeters of the era favoured the use of vibrato (a wobbly quiver in pitch inflected in the instrument’s tone), Davis was taught to play with a long, straight tone, a preference his instructor reportedly drilled into the young trumpeter with a rap on the knuckles every time Davis began using vibrato. This clear, distinctive style never left Davis. He continued playing with it for the rest of his career, once remarking, ‘If I can’t get that sound, I can’t play anything.’

B Having graduated from high school in 1944, Davis moved to New York City, where he continued his musical education both in the clubs and in the classroom . His enrolment in the prestigious Julliard School of Music was short- lived. However – he soon dropped out, criticising what he perceived as an over-emphasis on the classical European repertoire and a neglect of Davis did later acknowledge, however, that this time at the school was invaluable in terms of developing his trumpet-playing technique and giving him a solid grounding in music theory. Much of his early training took place in the form of jam sessions and performances in the clubs of 52nd Street, where he played alongside both up-and-coming and established members of the jazz pantheon such as Coleman Hawkins. Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, and Thelonious Monk.

C In the late 1940s, Davis collaborated with nine other instrumentalists, including a French horn and tuba player, to produce The Birth of Cool, an album now renowned for the inchoate sounds of what would later become known as ‘cool’ in contrast to popular jazz styles of the day, which featured rapid rollicking beats, shrieking vocals, and short, sharp horn blasts. Davis’ album was the forerunner of a different kind of sound – thin, light horn-playing, hushed drums and a more restrained, formal arrangement. Although it received little acclaim at the time (the liner notes to one of Davis’ later recordings call it a ‘spectacular failure ), in hindsight, The Birth of Cool has become recognised as a pivotal moment in jazz history, cementing – alongside his 1958 recording, Kind of Blue – Davis’ – legacy as one of the most innovative musicians of his era.

D Though Davis’ trumpet playing may have sounded effortless and breezy, this ease rarely carried over into the rest of his life. The early 1950s, in particular, were a time of great personal turmoil. After returning from a stint in Paris, Davis suffered from prolonged depression, which he attributed to the unravelling of a number of relationships, including his romance with a French actress and some musical partnerships that ruptured as a result of creative disputes. Davis was also frustrated by his perception that he had been overlooked by the music critics, who were hailing the success of his collaborators and descendants in the ‘cool’ tradition, such as Gerry Mulligan and Dave Brubeck, but who afforded him little credit for introducing the cool sound in the first place.

E In the latter decades of his career, Davis broke out of exclusive jazz settings and began to diversify his output across a range of musical styles. In the 1960s, he was influenced by early funk performers such as Sly and the family Stone, which then expanded into the jazz-rock fusion genre – of which he was a frontrunner – in the 1970s. Electronic recording effects and electric instruments were incorporated into his sound. By the 1980s, Davis was pushing the boundaries further, covering pop anthems such as Cyndi Lauper’s Time after Time and Michael Jackson’s Human Nature, dabbling in hip hop, and even appearing in some movies.

F Not everyone was supportive of Davis’ change of tune. Compared to the recordings of his early career, universally applauded as linchpins of the jazz oeuvre, trumpeter Wynston Marsalis derided his fusion work as being ‘not true jazz’, and pianist Bill Evans denounced the ‘corrupting influence’ of record companies, noting that rock and pop ‘draw wider audiences’. In the face of this criticism, Davis remained defiant, commenting that his earlier recordings were part of a moment in time that he had no ‘feel’ for any more. He firmly believed that remaining stylistically inert would have hampered his ability to develop new ways of producing music. From this perspective, Davis’ continual revamping of genre as not merely a rebellion, but an evolution, a ‘necessary path that allowed him to release his full musical potential.

Questions 1-6

Reading Passage has six paragraphs, A – F.

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A – F from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i – ix, in the space given for questions 1- 6.

1 Paragraph A ………………………………….

2 Paragraph B …………………………………

3 Paragraph C …………………………………

4 Paragraph D …………………………………

5 Paragraph E …………………………………

6 Paragraph F …………………………………

List of Headings

i. A legacy is formed

ii. Formal education not helpful

iii. An education in Two segments

iv. Diverging in new directions

v. Family life and childhood

vi. A necessary change to stay creative

vii. Conflicted viewpoint over Davis’ earlier work

viii. Davis’ unique style of playing the trumpet

ix. Personal and career struggles

Questions 7-13

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the Reading Section?

In the space given for questions 7-13, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

7 Davis’ trumpet teacher wanted him to play with vibrato .

8 According to Davis, studying at Julliard helped him to improve his musical abilities.

9 Playing in jazz clubs in New York was the best way to become famous.

10 The Birth of Cool featured music that was faster and louder than most jazz at the time.

11 Davis’ personal troubles had a negative effect on his trumpet playing.

12 Davis felt that his contribution to cool jazz had not been acknowledged.

13 Davis was a traditionalist who wanted to keep the jazz sound pure.

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Miles Davis IELTS Reading Answers With Explanation

1 Answer: viii

Question type: Matching Headings

Answer location: Paragraph A, line 3-line 4

Answer explanation: In the specified lines, it is stated that “…Davis was taught to play with a long, straight tone, a preference his instructor reportedly drilled into the young trumpeter with a rap on the knuckles every time Davis began using vibrato. This clear, distinctive style never left Davis.”. It can be inferred that the first paragraph describes Davies’s unique style of playing the trumpet, which he was taught by his instructor and that he followed throughout his life. Hence, the answer is viii (Davis’ unique style of playing the trumpet).

2 Answer: iii

Question type: Matching Headings

Answer location: Paragraph B, line 1

Answer explanation: In the introductory sentence of the mentioned paragraph, it is given, “Having graduated from high school in 1944, Davis moved to New York City, where he continued his musical education both in the clubs and in the classroom .”. This reference proves that the education of Davies had two distinct phases – one was in the classroom of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, which was short-lived, and the other in the jam sessions and performances in the clubs of 52nd Street, where he performed with established jazz artists. Hence, the answer is iii (An education in Two segments).

3 Answer: i

Question type: Matching Headings

Answer location: Paragraph C, line 2-line 3

Answer explanation: In the specified section, it is given “Davis’ album was the forerunner of a different kind of sound…in hindsight, The Birth of Cool has become recognised as a pivotal moment in jazz history, cementing – alongside his 1958 recording, Kind of Blue – Davis’ – legacy as one of the most innovative musicians of his era.”. In other words, Davis’s album, The Birth of Cool, was the first of its kind and created a legacy for Davies as one of the most innovative musicians of his time. Hence, the answer is i (A legacy is formed).

4 Answer: ix

Question type: Matching Headings

Answer location: Paragraph D

Answer explanation: In the fourth paragraph, we can find the reference to the personal and professional crisis of Davies’s life as it states that “The early 1950s, in particular, were a time of great personal turmoil. After returning from a stint in Paris, Davis suffered from prolonged depression …Davis was also frustrated by his perception that he had been overlooked by the music critics…who afforded him little credit for introducing the cool sound in the first place.”. It can be pointed out that during the 1950s, Davies suffered from depression caused due to the failure of his affairs, along with professional dissatisfaction as music critics were not giving him enough credit. Hence, the answer is ix (Personal and career struggles).

5 Answer: iv

Question type: Matching Headings

Answer location: Paragraph E, line 1

Answer explanation: Through a reference line like, “In the latter decades of his career, Davis broke out of exclusive jazz settings and began to diversify his output across a range of musical styles.”, it can be concluded that the fifth paragraph deals with the different types of changes Davies brought about in his music. Further, the remaining paragraph explains these variations. Hence, the answer is iv (Diverging in new directions).

6 Answer: vi

Question type: Matching Headings

Answer location: Paragraph F, line 4-line 5

Answer explanation: In the quoted lines of the last paragraph, it is written, “He firmly believed that remaining stylistically inert would have hampered his ability to develop new ways of producing music. From this perspective, Davis’ continual revamping of genre as not merely a rebellion, but an evolution, a ‘necessary path that allowed him to release his full musical potential.”. It points out the fact that Davies believed that experimenting with music would enable him to update his genre and stay creative. He believed that if he followed a single type (remaining stylistically inert), it would badly affect his creativity (hampered his ability to develop new ways of producing music). Hence, the answer is vi (A necessary change to stay creative).

7 Answer: False