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Miles Davis: Professional Boxing Student
(not just a jazz trumpet legend)
Matt Zeigler
January 23, 2025
Miles Davis kicked his heroin habit at 28. He was already massively successful, but fame (and mostly the heroin) was trying to kill him.
Not only did his physical health improve immediately, but his music soared to new heights. The run of albums he released from the mid-50s into the '60s remains some of my favorite music ever – pieces I return to constantly, and still can find new details in every listen.
But here's what most people miss: Miles’ ability to pattern-connect across life took a massive leap forward too. Think of it as his neural pathways reigniting after a long darkness. You can hear it. And if you read his autobiography (or, re-read it 20-some years after your first pass) you can read about it too.
This is a masterclass in personal growth after a major setback. Not only is it possible, but the potential never expires. All you have to do is step up.
Back in NYC, Miles made it his mission to convince the great boxing trainer Bobby McQuillen to take him on as a student. They'd hang out, catch fights together, and study the masters of the day like Sugar Ray. The connection between boxing and jazz might seem strange, but watch how Miles, ever the pattern-matcher, pieces it together in real-time through these quotes from his autobiography:
The reason I'm talking so much about Sugar Ray is because in 1954 he was the most important thing in my life besides music. I found myself even acting like him, everything. Even taking on his arrogant attitude. Ray was cold and he was the best and he was everything I wanted to be in 1954. I had been disciplined when I first came to New York. All I had to do was go back to the way I had been before I got trapped in all that bulls*** dope scene. So that's when I stopped listening to just anybody.
And then there’s this beautiful riff on the concept of “style”:
Boxing is a science...
Boxing's got style like music's got style...
But you've got to have style in whatever you do—writing, music, painting, fashion, boxing, anything. Some styles are slick, creative and imaginative and innovative, and others aren't...
You don't just learn any kind of s*** like that naturally. That's something somebody else teaches you, like when you teach somebody how to play a musical instrument correctly. After you've learned how to play your instrument the right way, you can turn around and play it the way you want to, any way you hear the music and sound and want to play it. But you've got to first learn how to be cool and let whatever happens—both in music and in boxing—happen. Dizzy and Bird taught it to me in music; so did Monk and so did Ahmad Jamal and Bud Powell.
Miles' boxing training wasn't just exercise – it was rewiring his musical brain. It reconnected him to his roots and that electric presence he deeply understood that was required both in the ring and on stage. As he put it:
That person with a habit was never the real me. So when I kicked, I just came back to myself and kept on trying to grow, which was what I was all about when I came to New York in the first place—growing.
I’m so glad I’m re-reading this book now. Because here’s the truth:
Whatever mess life throws at you, whatever choices knock you off course – if you're still breathing, you can find your way back. And if you truly understand what that path means to you, you won't just return to it – you'll come back stronger, smarter, and more skilled than ever before.
Play the note. Throw the punch. Forget what went wrong, just do it with style.