Miles Davis @100: Yomi Sower leads Jazz Community in honouring a musical revolutionary

For six consecutive years, Jazz broadcaster, Jazz Vocalist Educator and Cultural advocate Yomi Sower has made it her mission to keep the music and legacy of Miles Davis alive.

The Miles Davis Tribute Competition Ghana — First held on May 26, 2020, is  a unique platform created by Yomi Sower  that celebrates one of the most influential figures in modern music while promoting Jazz appreciation among Ghanaian audiences and creating opportunities for local musicians.

This year, as Miles Davis would have turned 100, Yomi Sower is leading Ghana’s Jazz community in its most ambitious commemoration yet.

Through radio and television campaigns, newspaper features, historical retrospectives, social media activations, music listening sessions and a major live tribute concert, the centenary celebration seeks not only to honour the legendary American trumpeter but also to introduce a new generation to the artistic courage, innovation and creativity that defined his remarkable career.

At the centre of it all is the Miles Davis Tribute Competition Ghana, an initiative Yomi Sower conceived in 2020  during the COVID- 19 Pandemic era, at a time when the world had come to a standstill and musicians were searching for ways to remain connected to audiences.

Six years later, the tribute has become one of Ghana’s most distinctive Jazz traditions.

Born out of Yomi Sower’s response to a crisis

According to Yomi  the origins of the Miles Davis Tribute Competition Ghana can be traced to one of the most challenging periods in recent history.

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives and economies across the globe, the entertainment industry was among the hardest-hit sectors. Concerts were cancelled, venues were closed, and musicians suddenly found themselves without opportunities to perform.

For Yomi, Founder and Host of Maximum Jazz Radio Programmes and Events, the crisis presented an opportunity to think differently.

“It was a tribute that began during the COVID pandemic era, held on May 26, 2020, inside the studios of Radio Univers 105.7 FM in Accra”,  she recalled.

With lockdowns in force and public gatherings prohibited, Yomi developed a concept that would simultaneously celebrate Miles Davis, support musicians and keep Jazz audiences engaged.

The idea was simple but innovative.

Musicians would perform selected compositions from the Miles Davis repertoire while competing for prize money during a live radio broadcast of her Maximum Jazz Radio Programme that she hosted. Listeners would experience live Jazz performances from the safety of their homes, while performers would have a platform to showcase their talent at a time when opportunities were scarce.

The concept resonated immediately.

While Ghanaian audiences tuned in through radio, Jazz lovers beyond the country’s borders joined through digital platforms, creating an international audience connected by a shared admiration for Miles Davis and his music.

“Though the world had come to a standstill due to lockdowns and social distancing, the Jazz world was still connected by one thing — love and loyalty to Miles Davis and his music,” Yomi said.

What started as a creative response to an unprecedented global crisis soon evolved into an annual event.

Miles Davis Tribute Competition Ghana

Since its launch, the Miles Davis Tribute Competition Ghana has become much more than a musical contest.

It has developed into a platform for education, cultural preservation and artistic development.

Each year, the event brings together musicians, Jazz enthusiasts, students and music lovers to celebrate the life and contributions of Miles Davis while creating opportunities for performers to engage with one of the richest catalogues in Jazz history.

For Yomi, the initiative is part of a broader mission to deepen appreciation for Jazz in Ghana and strengthen the country’s growing Jazz community.

Through Maximum Jazz which she founded in 2012, Yomi has spent years promoting Jazz through radio programmes, live performances, educational content, community engagement and cultural events.

The annual Miles Davis tribute has become one of the most visible expressions of that commitment.

The centenary celebration

This year’s edition carries special significance.

May 26, 2026 marked exactly 100 years since the birth of Miles Dewey Davis III, the legendary American trumpeter, bandleader and composer whose influence transformed not only Jazz but modern music itself.

According to Yomi, the centenary milestone provides an opportunity to reflect on the enduring relevance of Davis’ artistic legacy.

“Because 100 is a significant number in human years, regardless of whether Miles Davis is alive or not, his music, artistry and stylistic development of Jazz remain very much alive and worthy of recognition,” she said.

The centenary celebrations, which run from May 26 to June 7, 2026 represent the most extensive programme since the tribute competition was established.

Activities include radio and television campaigns, social media activations, newspaper publications, historical retrospectives, music listening sessions, educational discussions and special content dedicated to exploring the life and legacy of Miles Davis.

Jazz enthusiasts are also being encouraged to follow the Maximum Jazz Community and Yomi Sower on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X for exclusive content, historical insights and archival materials highlighting Davis’ extraordinary journey and contributions to music.

In addition, Yomi Sower’s weekly “Me & My Jazz” column in the Business & Financial Times is publishing special centenary editions exploring different aspects of Miles Davis’ life, artistry and influence.

The climax of the celebrations will be a major tribute concert featuring a five-piece ensemble recreating the sound of Miles Davis’ legendary Second Great Quintet of the period between 1963 and 1968 of his career.

Additional musicians will perform alongside the quintet music to represent the various stylistic phases of Davis’ five decades  career,

The objective is to take audiences on a musical journey through the different periods of a career defined by innovation and reinvention.

Why Miles Davis?

Yomi Sower explained that the significance of the tribute lies in the extraordinary legacy of the musician it honours.

Few artists in history transformed music as radically, as frequently and as fearlessly as Miles Davis.

Born Miles Dewey Davis III on May 26, 1926, in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, Davis emerged from a relatively privileged African-American family during a period when racial segregation shaped much of American life.

His father was a successful dental surgeon and landowner, while his mother was a music teacher who initially hoped he would learn the violin.

Instead, Davis chose the trumpet.

It would become the instrument through which he revolutionised modern music.

After moving to New York in 1944 to study at the Juilliard School of Music, he quickly immersed himself in the city’s thriving Jazz scene, performing alongside pioneers such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

What distinguished Davis from many of his contemporaries was not merely his talent but his refusal to remain artistically comfortable.

Throughout a career spanning nearly five decades, he continually reinvented both himself and the music he played.

He pioneered Cool Jazz through the groundbreaking Birth of the Cool sessions in the late 1940s, helped define Hard Bop in the 1950s and transformed Modal Jazz with the release of Kind of Blue in 1959 — widely regarded as one of the greatest Jazz albums ever recorded.

In the 1960s, his celebrated Second Great Quintet pushed the boundaries of improvisation and rhythmic complexity.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, he once again challenged convention by embracing electric instruments, Rock influences and Funk rhythms, helping to create what became known as Jazz Fusion.

Many traditionalists criticised the move.

Davis remained unapologetic.

He understood that music must evolve.

That philosophy not only shaped his own career but also influenced generations of musicians across Jazz, Rock, Hip-hop, R&B and contemporary music.

A legacy that continues to inspire

Miles Davis died in 1991 at the age of 65, but his influence remains deeply embedded in modern music.

His recordings continue to be studied in conservatories, sampled by producers and celebrated by audiences across the world.

For Ghana’s Jazz community, his centenary serves as a reminder that truly great art transcends geography, language and time.

It also reflects the efforts of dedicated advocates such as Yomi Sower, whose commitment to preserving and promoting Jazz has ensured that Miles Davis’ music continues to find new audiences thousands of miles away from where it was first created.

Six years after launching the Miles Davis Tribute Competition during the uncertainty of a global pandemic, Yomi Sower has built more than an annual event.

She has created a living platform through which musicians, students and music lovers can engage with the ideas, creativity and fearless spirit that defined one of the greatest innovators in musical history.

As Ghana’s Jazz community celebrates Miles Davis at 100, the tribute stands not only as a commemoration of a legendary artist but also as a testament to the power of music to connect people across generations, cultures and continents.

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