How can Miles Davis’s career be seen as a virtual history of jazz from the 1940s to the 1970s?

Question

This is a question for my jazz history class. I'm having a tough time summing this answer up into a small paragraph.

Answer 1

what a fantastic history assignment!

well, take a look at the 1940s
miles was working with charlie parker and dizzy gillespie, inventing bebop while all the big bands were overseas with the soldiers
until a little after charlie parkers death, miles was a frontman of the bebop movement, succeeding dizzy as bird's trumpeter

during much of the 50s, he stuck to bebop
his quintet in the mid-50s was one of the first hard bop groups
the famous sextet of 1959 recorded the greatest selling jazz album of all time, representing jazz's peak before rock would grow in popularity

although jazz began to wane in public eye in the 60s, the early years of the decade showed great popularity
his second great quintet exemplified the changes made to the music, with freer chords and solos with a much more free hard bop style

in the late 60s, rock finally overcame jazz, and miles turned to fusion to regain support
thus in the 70s jazz saw a lot of electronic instruments and more influence from rock and funk (which ironically emerged from jazz)

again, thats a great question
your class sounds fun