Final answer:
Miles Davis was key in popularizing modal jazz through his influential album 'Kind of Blue,' shifting jazz away from bebop's complex harmony to a simpler, more improvisational framework. This aligned with the cultural and artistic changes of the time, emphasizing artistic freedom and expression.
Step-by-step explanation:
Miles Davis played a critical role in popularizing the modal style of jazz music. His album Kind of Blue, released in 1959, is regarded as one of the most influential jazz albums of all time, shifting away from the more rigid harmonic structures of bebop to a modal framework which allowed for greater improvisational freedom. This modal approach drew on the concept of modality from medieval and Renaissance music, which used scales that consisted of different combinations of whole and half steps rather than the more familiar major and minor scales of tonal music. Davis took these older modal forms and created a new style of jazz that emphasized simplicity, space, and interaction among the musicians, which resonated with the art and culture shifts of the time.
By doing so, Davis did not invent modality but was instrumental in bringing it into the modern jazz vernacular, changing the course of jazz and influencing countless musicians. The significance of modal jazz is also underscored by the fact it paralleled the cultural and social changes of its time, just as black musicians and other artists reflected and influenced the cultural narrative, including figures like painter Aaron Douglas and musicians like Scott Joplin and Bessie Smith. Davis' adoption of modality transformed jazz into a platform for artistic freedom and expression, which resonated with the themes of independence and social transformation seen in the Harlem Renaissance and beyond.