Maijazz 2026: Bjergsted Jazz Ensemble – Milestones

Main Hall

Doors: 7:00 pm

Concert start: 7:30 pm

Age limit: 18 years or accompanied by a guardian

Maijazz 2026 presents: Bjergsted Jazz Ensemble – Milestones

In May 2026, it will be 100 years since Miles Davis was born. To mark this anniversary, Maijazz presents a concert concept aimed primarily at involving the city’s young music students—particularly those from the Faculty of Performing Arts at the University of Stavanger and the Bjergsted Young Talents programme.

Miles Davis—often simply called “Miles”—is one of jazz music’s greatest soloists and innovators, and for many the most influential figure in American jazz of the 20th century, from the late 1940s until his death in 1991.

In addition to being an outstanding trumpeter and improviser, he constantly sought new musical frameworks for his artistry. Many of his recordings have become iconic snapshots of stylistic change in American art music. Albums such as Birth of the Cool, Milestones, Kind of Blue, Miles Smiles, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, We Want Miles and Tutu are key examples.

His pedagogical influence on new generations—particularly in developing musical intuition and ear-based understanding—is less frequently highlighted, but equally significant.

Miles’s rhythmic, melodic and tonal approach to improvisation, along with his constant collaboration with younger musicians, has made him an enduring artistic role model for new generations of creative artists up to the present day.

With the concert concept Milestones, Maijazz celebrates this centenary by challenging the city’s music students to use Miles’s music as a framework for their own interpretations.