MU2404

ASSIGNMENT 1

Phil Tovell May 2011

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue

Davis, Evans, and, in the background, Chambers, during the recording process. (Don Hunsten/
Sony Music)

Introduction. Theres not much you can say about a jazz recording jazz is an event that is designed to produce unique experiences, so there is a sense that if you were not there, you are not even entitled to hear it - and what attracts a lot of performers to it is the tacit imperative to never do the same thing twice. Having said that, listeners and academicians are still talking about this

recording 50 years after it was made this is half the lifetime of jazz (Williams, 2009, chapter 1). Not only is there much to say about the revolutionary nature of the music modal jazz, but also the process by which Davis created it, where that may have came from, what an extraordinary influence it has had, and the Sextet itself. This document only has space to discuss two of the tracks in detail. A Revolutionary moment. Not many recordings can claim a pivotal moment in the history of music as clearly as the beginning of the first improvised solo on this album; Geoffrey Smith, the veteran presenter of jazz programs on BBC Radio 3, describes it (2005, after 23 minutes):
One of the great moments in jazz drumming . . between the sounding of the theme and the solos. Jimmy Cobb makes a kind of cymbal crash . . . sort of launches the soloists on their way as if we were all suddenly heading into open sea . . the piece ends with a fade, which somehow seems to suit that open, almost, suspended quality you cant imagine how this would end.

So What. The name of the opening track is So What, introduced by a mysterious, digressive pairing of piano and bass (very much in the style of Gil Evans, with whom Davis had recently had a successful collaboration), followed by the tune little more than

a riff [vamp or ostinato figure], answered with the famous so what chord voicings, like Amens in a gospel-style call and response, but meaning the opposite so what being a phrase Davis used a lot in the way currently reserved for the word whatever Then the solo itself one of Daviss most memorable often using just the notes of a primary triad bars against a static harmony for 8 bars this is also a challenge for the pianist. The chord voicings are designed to open up the whole of the scale dorian mode - and can be used starting on any degree, by stacking fourths on the bass note, often see-sawing up and down by a (major) second:

The uses of this approach are still being explored today (Richards, 2005, pp. 36-41). It is unlikely to be mere coincidence that the intervals are identical to those between the

bottom five strings on a guitar. All this comes with modal jazz; Ashley Khan has a neat way of explaining how this contrasts with Bebop:
Think of each change, each chord, in a . . . musical composition, as one room in a house so the more complicated it is, the more rooms in the house there are. With Bebop, the whole idea was to run from one room to another, to another, to another, in the most creative and unexpected and challenging ways. With Miles, the whole idea was: Lets find the most comfortable room and hang out, and just be there . . . so that what youre concentrating on is much more the melody, in the moment invention. BBC Radio 3 (2005) [after 9 mins]

Blue in Green. By complete contrast, Blue in Green has a more usual faster harmonic tempo; another difference is in the organisation of the solos Adderly is not featured but Evans and Davis play twice giving a symmetrical order with Coltrane in the centre. The most unusual feature is that a chorus lasts exactly 10 bars. This composition is generally credited to Evans, these days, and is a good example of claims of authorship by Davis where the project was a collaboration. It is known that Davis gave Evans a picee of paper outlining the chords G minor (7th) and A augmented, as one of the frequently challenging suggestions he would give to musicians in his bands, saying: What would you do with this? Also, listening to the master-tape of the recording,

Davis can be heard re-arranging the introduction, and was in overall control of the process. (NPR Music Web page) However the album is mainly a collection of starting points for improvisation Flamenco Sketches for instance has no theme at all, so here the issue of who came up with what is less pointed than it would normally be. The Process. In another program, BBC Radio 3 included Davis as a subject for their Composer of the Week series, even though his process was more about creating the conditions for the music to happen than anything else. The two most remarkable aspects of the way the album was created are the minimal preparations made and the short time it took to record. Chambers, in Daviss most comprehensive biography (700 pages) quotes Evans on this:
We never had a rehearsal, he said. Everything was done on the job. On the record dates, half or all of the material might be all new and had never been rehearsed before. Needless to say, that kind of regimen could work only with a cast of superior musicians. With the players in the sextet, especially on Kind of Blue, it worked magnificently.(1998, p310)

The speed of producing results was not all that unusual in the early days of recording perhaps the lack of modern editing and mixing facilities meant even jazz musicians were more disciplined. (Khan, 2000) He was known for the unusual challenges he presented the people working with him Davis maintains that if a jazz

musician were forced to respond to a situation he might otherwise have thought beyond his capacities, he might very well come up with an unexpected and stunning solution, perhaps even a moment of genius (Chambers, 1998, p. 310). But then he chose his collaborators well all the musicians here were the best, or among the best, in their field and somehow he always spotted and attracted the best people around at the time. He may not have always been the easiest to work with nor was Coltrane and could be harsh and impatient, but he had already established himself as a soloist, band-leader and innovator. (Tirro, 2009, chapter 10) He has rarely said much about this particular work beyond apologising for not playing these tunes any more after 1960 he had the excuse that people could listen to the records. There are many reports of his relentlessly forward-thinking attitude, and he is not alone in this and the opposite is not rare either, for instance Durufles three different orchestrations of the Requiem. Teo Macero Daviss main technical collaborator compares the idea of him returning to his previous way of doing things with the idea of Picasso suddenly revisiting his blue period. (Chambers, 1998, vol. 2 p. 364) Where it came from. It is well known that Daviss strengths are his melodic invention and his relentless innovation, also that he invited Bill Evans to

the session because he brought a wealth of knowledge about such composers as Ravel and Debussy (Smith, 2005, BBC Radio 3) . The accompaniment on So What where a scale rather than a triad is the basis clearly owes something to Debussys saturated diatonic harmony in the solo piano piece La Cathedrale Engloutie from Preludes, Book 1:

Example 2; Neil A Kjos Music c.1995

The piano part for Flamenco Sketches had already been heard on Everyone Digs Bill Evans:

Example 3; Peace Piece 1938, musicroom.com [accessed 17.5.11]

The Influence. The most obvious influences are the copying of the harmonic structure of So What by Coltrane for his compositions Impressions, and a similarity between Wayne Shorters Footprints, and All Blues, including the unusual time-signature. The list of important musicians who have declared this recording to be a major influence is truly beyond practicality and will probably continue to expand for a while - and it seems that everyone who played with Davis around this time went on to even better things. (Lenz and Khan, 2004) One way the album influenced a lot of people to take their first steps into jazz was that the liner notes by Evans gave hints

of how the music had been put together, so that the album as a whole acted as a kind of tutor for other musicians (Collier,
Section VI [AFTER 1960] subsection 2 [The modal alternative: Davis and Coltrane.])

The Sextet. Miles Davis trumpet John Coltrane tenor saxophone Julian Cannonball Adderly alto saxophone (does not play on Blue in Green) Bill Evans piano; (All the above went on to achieve considerable success as banleaders) Paul Chambers bass Jimmy Cobb drums Wynton Kelly replaces Evans on Freddie Freeloader. Subsequently Daviss famous Quintet included his most stable rhythm section - Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams; the other soloist was Wayne Shorter, later front-line soloist of Weather Report, by far the longest lasting fusion jazz legacy of this historic album. (Coryell and Friedman, 1978)

This CD. The bonus track on this Album includes the previous recording made of Flamence Sketches, and is worth a listen for that reason alone but both Evans and Coltrane produce different approaches from those on track 6; they are relatively tentative, but perhaps that makes them even closer to the heart of the process that gradually reveals itself over the course of the album. Full CD Track Listing 1 So What (take 3, 3/2/59) 2 Freddie Freeloader (take 4, 3/2/59) 3 Blue in Green (take 5, 3/2/59) $ All Blues (1st. take, 4/6/59) 6 Flamenco Sketches (take 6, 4/6/59) 7 Flamenco Sketches (alternate take); the only other successful recording from the sessions. The photograph was taken by Don Hunsten.

Reference List
Chambers, Jack (1998) Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis. New York: Da Capo Press. Collier, J. L. Jazz(i) The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd edition [accessed 16.5.11] Coryell, Julie and Friedman, Laura (1978) Jazz-Rock Fusion; the People, the Music London: Marion Boyars. Discovering Music: Miles Davies: Kind of Blue.(2005) BBC Radio 3, 8 October, 14:00. Khan, Ashley (2000) Kind of Blue; The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece. London: Granta. Lenz, C. and Khan, A. (2004) Made in Heaven: The Story of Kind of Blue [DVD]. Nashville: Columbia/ Sony Music Entertainment. Available in 3 parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGQzNsZAtCo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I21UW_hgopE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX3K9CkORO0 [All accessed 12.5.11.]

Macleod, Donald (2006) Composer of the Week: Miles Davis (19261991) BBC Radio 3, 23rd October, 12:00.

NPR Music, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99805408,

[accessed 17.5.11]. Richards, Tim (2005) Exploring Jazz Piano, London: Schott. Tirro, Frank (2009) The Birth of the Cool of Miles Davis and His Associates. Hillsdale: Pendragon Press. Williams, Richard (2009) The Blue Moment; Miles Daviss Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music London: Faber and Faber.MU2404

MU2404

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Phil Tovell May 2011

Khan, Ashley (2000) Kind of Blue. London: Granta. Subtitled The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece as the title (and the year) suggest, this book earns its definitive title by its completeness. The most important aspect of the record is the process by which it was made; here it is thoroughly and sensitively documented. Khan is called upon as an Authority by BBC Radio 3, and he directed and produced the DVD Made in Heaven (see below) for Columbia Records. Davis, Miles (Transcribed: DuBoff, Rob; Vinci, Mark; Davis, Mark; Davis, Josh). Kind of Blue. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard. Some of the most individual soloists in jazz - Davis, Evans, Coltrane every note of every solo. Especially interesting to see how Davis achieves the lyrical simplicity of his opening on the first track, So What. Evans tremolo on All Blues , voicings on Blue in Green and solo using notes a 2nd apart on So What are also documented. Discovering Music: Miles Davies: Kind of Blue.(2005) BBC Radio 3, 8 October, 14:00. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gxvtw [last accessed 13.5.11] The record is the text! More objective than Made in Heaven, and explains modal jazz very clearly, with the aid of Ashley Khan, and its evolution as a contrast to Be-bop. Guy Barker [British trumpeter] makes a telling contribution; especially worth listening to for his note-by-note analysis of Miless crucial first solo, and their exploration of the contrast between the styles of Davis and Coltrane.

Collier, J. L. Jazz(i) The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd edition: especially Section VI AFTER 1960; subsection 2 The modal alternative: Davis and Coltrane. [accessed 16.5.11] Collier recognises the influence of Daviss creative process, in that the liner notes to the Album acted as a kind of tutor for other musicians. New Grove in the biographical entry, also has relevant information for those interested in the vexed issue of Daviss claims of authorship, especially those of Blue in Green and Flamenco Sketches generally thought of these days as being Bill Evans compositions. Williams, Richard (2009) The Blue Moment. London: Faber and Faber. Subtitled Miles Daviss Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music. Argues strongly for the recognition of the recording as a crucial moment in music and jazz in particular. There is a good balance of writing, attempting to be both passionate and objective. Lenz, C. and Khan, A. (2004) Made in Heaven: The Story of Kind of Blue [DVD]. Nashville: Columbia/ Sony Music Entertainment. Available in 3 parts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGQzNsZAtCo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I21UW_hgopE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX3K9CkORO0 All last accessed 12.5.11. Probably the only document of its kind, this DVD deepens the context through personal evidence from a range of respected and wellknown performers especially as regards the extent of the records influence. One drawback is that the comments from non-musicians may carry less weight if, or when, they are no longer so well-known. It contains poignant archive film and photographs of the recording and

features the only surviving [at the time] member of the Sextet - Billy Cobb, the drummer; these atmospheric elements contribute more nostalgia than academic analysis. Levine, Mark (1995) The Jazz Theory Book. Petaluma: Sher Music. Recognised as one of the experts on jazz theory especially jazz harmony and piano. One irony of Kind of Blue. is it makes jazz sound a lot easier than it is Levine demonstrates that it has an almost inexhaustibly rich pallet (evidence: Blue in Green) composed of rich textures with or without cadential motivity. This comprehensive volume over 500 pages - provides a sound academic approach to analysing the structures and sonorities that jazz improvisers have at their/ our disposal. It may seem a little dated; for instance it was probably written when many performers were discovering the melodic minor scale. Appel, Alfred Jr. (2004) Jazz Modernism. New haven: Yale. He has a compelling vision of how jazz and modern art evolved together. Written in an intense post-modern voice, his ideas may prove to be valuable if only as provocation. I was particularly affected by his description of Thelonious Monk getting up and dancing during a performance, in the small space in front of the piano. Drawbacks are that he is not concerned with jazz after 1950, he focuses rather narrowly on the sexual content of vocal performance and then there is the inherent limitation of writing about music using predominantly language evolved to describe visual arts. Vian, Boris (trans. Mike Zwerin) (1988) The Jazz Writings of Boris Vian. London: Quartet Books. Vian is a very entertaining writer; this is a collection of his contributions

to periodicals, especially Jazz Hot, and radio. It is also useful to hear a non-anglophone voice so immersed in the aesthetics of the music and the conviction that it matters. He makes an especially valuable insight into the hostile reception bebop received in some quarters, as indeed did Kind of Blue some people still like to exclude it from the category of jazz recordings. McLuhan, Marshall (1964) Understanding Media. London: Routledge. Subtitled The Extensions of Man and famous for The Media is the Message (The title of the 1st. Chapter). Here context equals the bigger picture, being an economic history of the evolution of communications media of all sorts. He also dissects the terms cool & hot (essential to understanding the culture of the U.S.A. when the recording was made) and, crucially for this study, in Chapter 28 the role of The Gramophone the Toy that Shrank the National Chest, contrasting the medium of recorded music with, for instance, the radio The Tribal Drum responsible for World War II! and the bicycle, as an ideal extension of our ability to communicate.