By the mid-1970s, Davis was struggling physically and emotionally (via Miles Davis). He had battled exhaustion and drug addiction, and he faced a range of other health problems as well. All of these personal challenges led him to take a break from music for a few years. Davis later returned to performing, and he received a special set of three Committee trumpets around this time. According to Christie’s, the instruments’ designer, Larry Ramirez, delivered the first two trumpets to Davis personally while he was in Denver for a show.
Davis had each of the trumpets decorated with a moon and stars and his first name inscribed in them. He also wanted them in different colors: one black, one blue, and one red. After his death, Davis was buried with the black moon and stars trumpet at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in New York City (via Find a Grave). The red version of this instrument remains in the Davis family. The blue trumpet was later owned by musician George Benson, according to Architectural Digest. That trumpet was auctioned off in 2019, and it sold for $275,000, way above the estimated $70,000 value.
