Get to know music: Miles Davis and his acolytes
By hicks91 7 Comments
Its that time again!
From the top
Miles Davis is arguably The jazz trumpeter, and is rightly a household name however his back catalogue is long and varied to say the least, im going to try and help cut through some of the murk that surrounds such bodies of work.
birth of the cool
Miles released arguably the defining album of his early years, Birth of the cool, in 1957 and featured unconventional instrumentation for the time and featured songs mainly clocking under 3 minutes, but never to the detriment of the quality of the recordings
From this point on, Miles davis just kept on going faster, faster and faster in a genre that would be dubbed "bebop", a subgenre defined by rapid chord changes and virtuoso playing
This track exemplifies the point im making: (two bass hit from the album milestones)
However miles grew tired of bebop, he though more emphasis should be placed on melody rather than simply playing fast leading to what many regard as the best jazz album of all time........
Kind of Blue
Rightly hailed at the time, and still held in massive regard now, King of Blue was part of a new movement of "modal jazz", Jazz that used fewer chord changes but emphasised the infinite uses that could be made of the fewer notes
Today, Kind of blue is amazing listening and if you havent ever heard it, you are missing out.
Kind of Blue marked a massive change for miles, leading him to release a string of classic albums......
Sketches of spain
Nefertiti
and many others in between.
At this point im going to take a moment to discuss what several of his ex bandsmen were doing
'Trane, Cannonball and Hancock
Over the years Miles had several sidesmen, and a lot went on to have massive success, before i continue onto miles changing music once again, a few select tracks by some of his greats
Possibly my favourite ever jazz album, Cannonball Adderley and the Quintets "mercy, mercy, mercy"
All of these were the dominants of jazz, all played with miles, all changed music forever.
Jazz Fusion
In 1969, Miles released "in a silent way" an album where melody is light and rhythmic interpretation of soloing is strong. It marked the dawn of so called "Rock Jazz", a term later used as a pejorative, regardless, in a silent way was miles doing as miles does: innovating
and then the even more famous Bitches Brew
Once again, the greats of jazz took his ideas and ran with it, leading to Herbie Hancock, and The bands Weather report and Mahavishnu Orchestra taking the ideas further
All revolutionised music, all had fantastic careers and Miles started it all.
I wish i could talk in more depth, but i fear trying to use too many words and not enough music may lead to me getting carried away
Essential Listening
Miles Davis
Birth of the cool
porgy and bess
sketches of spain
kind of blue
milestones
in a silent way
bitches brew
Herbie Hancock
Takin' off
head hunters
empyrean isles
Weather report
heavy weather
blakc market
Cannonball Adderley
Mercy,mercy,mercy
Mahavishnu orchestra
the inner mounting flame
birds of fire
john coltrane
a love supreme