Miles Davis voted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Was Miles Davis a rocker?

Just in case you didn't see or hear a shred of entertainment news yesterday, this year's crop of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been announced, and jazz trumpeter (and Metro East native) Miles Davis is among the musicians honored. Others in this year's class include heavy rock pioneers Black Sabbath, punk anarchists the Sex Pistols, new wavers Blondie and southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd. In addition, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss will be inducted in the non-performer category for their work as executives with A&M Records, and inductees in the sideman category will be announced at a later date.

So what's Miles doing in the R&R HOF? "Davis, known primarily as a jazz trumpeter, edged into rock music in the later part of his career with albums like A Tribute to Jack Johnson and Bitches Brew that fused jazz, soul and rock music in the late 1960s and early 1970s," reads the Reuters wire story. "Miles Davis was one of the 20th Century’s most creative artists changing the sound of popular music many times in his six decade career. His musical experimentation beginning in the late 60’s created a fusion of jazz with rock and roll, soul, funk and hip hop," says the brief entry on the R&R HOF Web site.

Certainly, those fusion albums were popular and widely heard, and the jazz-rock movement that erupted in their immediate wake and eventually morphed into fusion had a number of bands, both famous and obscure, that paid homage to Miles or claimed to be influenced by him.

But 30+ years after those recordings, Miles' legacy seems much more pervasive in jazz (for obvious reasons) and hop-hop (through the use of production techniques like collage, dissonant sonics, and electronic instrumentation) than in rock - in fact, I can't think of too many specific rock bands that display an identifiable Davis influence. Perhaps some of the new "math rock" groups, or jazz-influenced instrumental bands like Tortoise may qualify, but I haven't heard enough of their music to have an informed opinion.

Of course, Miles' extra-curricular activities - and I'm thinking specifically of his involvement with money, dope, expensive clothes, fancy cars and accomodating women - resemble those of certain rock musicians, but they also follow a pattern not uncommon historically among artists and bohemians of all stripes and eras. Maybe it was simply the late trumpeter's badass, take-no-crap-from-anyone attitude that qualifies him as a rocker.

Don't get me wrong - as a major fan, I'm happy to see Davis receive any and all accolades that come his way. But I think the question of exactly what sort of rocker Miles was, and why he's going in the Hall of Fame, is an interesting one. Your thoughts?