Having moved to Denver at the age of 11, Ron Miles took a serious interest in the trumpet after hearing some Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson records in his junior high music class. Miles went on to study at the University of Denver, eventually graduating from the Manhattan School of Music in 1986. In 1991, he received his post-graduate degree from the University of Colorado and became an Assistant Professor of Music at the Denver's Metropolitan State College.

After releasing two early albums as a leader, 1986's Distance for Safety (Eye Witness) and Witness (Capri), Miles toured Italy in 1992 as part of the orchestra for the play Sophisticated Ladies, catching the attention of bandleader Mercer Ellington in the process. The fruitful, two-year stint with Duke Ellington's touring band which resulted was soon followed by some extensive recording and touring with guitarist Bill Frisell's Quartet. Besides also lending his talents to the Finding Forrester soundtrack, various groups led by ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker, and several other sideman projects, Miles has toured and recorded with his own group regularly since 1996. Miles' recent catalog includes two critically-acclaimed albums on Gramavision, My Cruel Heart (1996) and Woman's Day (1997), and the 2000 release Ron Miles Trio (Capri). A duet album with Bill Frisell, Heaven, has been released in May 2002 by Sterling Circle Records.