Jazz music has shown itself to be a very organic form over the last one hundred years.  It has been divided into near-countless sub-genres, particularly following the end of World War Two.  The one man arguably most responsible for the continuous shaping and re-shaping of jazz was Miles Davis.

'Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s...His greatest achievement as a musician, however, was to move beyond being regarded as a distinctive and influential stylist on his own instrument and to shape whole styles and ways of making music through the work of his bands, in which many of the most important jazz musicians of the second half of the Twentieth Century made their names.'  Included among these musicians is primary exponent of jazz guitar John McLaughlin.
Davis influenced many musicians outside of jazz as well, and expressed admiration for fellow black musician Jimi Hendrix.  He also 'took significant cuts in his usual performing fees in order to open for rock groups like the Steve Miller Band, the Grateful Dead and Santana.'

Perhaps one of Davis' most seminal and accessible albums is the classic Kind of Blue.  The fact that this work sounds so smooth makes even more astounding the fact that it was nearly all improvised by the session musicians on hand, as they were given only the loosest of guidance by Davis during the recording.