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Miles Davis(1926-1991)

PresentationBy Akram NajjarKaraz w Laimoon16 Nov 2016

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BebopHard BopCool Jazz

Modal JazzFree Jazz

Jazz-Rock Fusion

Ancestors of Big Bands . . .

Ragtime Stride

Boogie

Woogie

Rock n’ Roll

Early

Jazz

March

Bands

Sacred

Music

Rhythm and

Blues

Honky

Tonk

Blues

20s+30s

50s

20s

30s

Big

Bands

30s+40s

Modern Jazz

started in the early 40s

with the decline of

Big Bands

The Evolution of Jazz after Big Bands

Oppositional

Big

BandsBebop

Cool

Jazz

Hard

Bop

Oppositional

Regressive

Modal

Jazz

Extensive

Free

Jazz

Opposed

Everything

Oppositional

Fusion

Absorbed

Everything

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Miles Davis: Periods and School

(In Spite of Overlap!)

A) The New York Bebop Years 1944 - 1948

B) The Birth of the Cool (Nonet) 1949 - 1950

C) Hard Bop Period 1950 - 1954

D) The First Great Quintet 1955 - 1958

E) The Sextet 1957 - 1958

F) Collaboration with Gil Evans 1957 - 1963

G) Modal (Kind of Blue) 1959 - 1964

H) The Second Great Quintet 1964 - 1968

I) 1969 onwards . . . .

Bebop(early 40s to late 50s)

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Dizzy Gillespie (tr)

Charlie Parker (as)

Thelonious Monk (p)

Bud Powell (p)

Kenny Clark (dr)

Max Roach (dr)

Miles Davis (tr)

Key Bebop Musicians

Dexter Gordon (ts)

Ray Brown (b)

Sonny Stitt (ts)

J.J. Johnson (tb)

Fats Navaro (tr)

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“Modern Jazz” starts with a Severe

Reaction by Bebop to Big Band Music

A rise of late night Jam Sessions for small Combos:

Speeded up tempos

Unusual keys

Changed improvisation schemes

A rise in “cutting contests” encouraging virtuoso playing

A rise in small “dynamic” bands / soloists without contracts

Bebop musicians saw their music as Art Music

NOT a Functional Music or Music for Dancing

as in Big Bands in large halls, studios or events (army?)

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They Saw a Major Need

to Change the Musical Format

No more writing for instrumental “sections”

Songs consisted of a single “head” (statement of melody) + an

unspecified number of choruses assigned to one or more artists

Each chorus is an improvisation over the harmonic structure of

the head

Sometimes, the “head” would also appear at the end

(Compare with Classical Sonata Allegro Form!!)

Often, the end would be through unresolved chords

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More Musical Variance from Big Bands

Soloists introduced fluid vs discontinuous playing

influenced by: Lester Young (tenor) and Charlie Christian (guitar)

Competent musicians used advanced harmonic structures:

New chords and unusual harmonies

Flattened 5th, whole tone scales, 9th, 11th, 13th

Tritones, Augmented and Diminished chords

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And . . . Instrument Roles Changed

Bass maintained “walking” but was promoted to to a soloist’s role

(Thanks to Jimmy Blanton (Duke Ellington bassist) and Oscar

Pettiford)

Pianists started “comping” (or providing rhythmic accompaniment)

This elevated the guitar to a soloist’s role

Emphasis on speed and virtuosic playing

Vocalists were not common anymore: melodic lines were

changed from lyrical/melodic to more angular/fast

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Rhythmic Changes?

Advanced rhythms away from 2/4, 4/4

Also away from standard accents: 1-2-3-4 or 1-2-3-4

Kenny Clarke built on Basie’s enhanced drummers role

Bass drum was not fast enough to provide flexible beats

Moved beat from bass drum to the ride cymbal

Bass drum freed to provide “dropping bombs”

Often called KLOOK-MOP after Kenny’s nickname: Klook

Clarke’s polyrhythms affected later drummers:

Max Roach and Art Blakey

Charlie Parker (Bird)(1920-1955)

Dizzy Gillespie(1917-1993)

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Considered as the most influential Jazz Musician ever – Maybe

Armstrong can sit with him

Grew up without musical training but with a love for Jazz

He taught himself music theory

His virtuosity was legendary: melodic, harmonic and rhythmic

Died as a burnout at 37

Parker?

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Gillespie

Started life with large bands: Eckstine . .

Big Band music was always under his skin

With Parker, they were two of the most

important creators of Bebop

He was Parker’s “other half of his heartbeat”

but only for 3-4 years

Gillespie went back to Big Bands and changed

a lot in the way they worked

He was behind introduction of Latin American

modes

While most of his colleagues chose to be Black

Moslems, he chose to be a Bahai

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1944: he was 18 and on his way to Julliard in New York

Really, he was searching for Charlie Parker

He dropped out of Julliard

As a young genius trumpeter he played around beboppers

1947: Gillespie left Parker because of Parker’s drug abuse

Miles Davis replaced Gillespie (at 21 years of age)

1948: end of 3 years of great Bebop experience.

BUT speed and complexity did not suit his style

He left Parker and started on his own

Trumpet Influences: Bebop Fats Navarro and Dizzy Gillespie

Influenced greatly by Ahmad Jamal

Miles Davis

1944 - 1948: The New York Bebop Years

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A) The New York Bebop Years

1944 - 1948

1) Hothouse: Parker and Gillespie

With Parker +

Max Roach (dr), Bud Powell (p), or John Lewis (p)

2) Blue Bird (1947)

3) Donna Lee

4) You’re my Everything

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Cool Jazz(Late 40s to early 50s)

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Miles Davis

Ahmad Jamal

Modern Jazz Quartet

Dave Brubeck (p, qrt, oct)

Paul Desmond (as)

Bill Evans

(p / (composer/arranger)

Gerry Mulligan (bs)

Chet Baker (tr)

Gil Evans

(composer/arr)

Jimmy Giuffre (ts)

Key Cool Jazz Musicians

Stan Gets (ts)

Claude Thornhill(cool big band)

Woody Herman(cool big band)

Stan Kenton (cool big band)

Lennie Tristano (p)

Art Pepper (as)

George Shearing

Bob Brookmeyer

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Characteristics of Cool Jazz

A reaction to the hard driving, harmonically complex Bebop

Relaxed tempos (often slow)

Lighter melodies, lots of space

Re-emergence of arrangement (regressive!)

Closeness to European Classical Music

Tonal colors can be compared to “pastel”

And . . .

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Cool Jazz? Why and Where?

(With considerable Overlap)

Group 1: Musicians who preferred soft variants of Bebop (evolutionary)

Group 2: Musicians who dropped Bebop in favor of “Advanced” Swing

(oppositional)

Moreover: the above were often reclassified as “East Coast” and “West

Coast” Jazz

Stylistically the difference was not significant

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Group 1:

Soft Variants of Bebop

Miles Davis “Birth of the Cool” LP (1949-1950)

John Lewis and Gerry Mulligan were part of the Nonet

Lewis and Gil Evans – key arrangers

The Modern Jazz Quartet – MJQ (1952)

John Lewis and Milt Jackson (MJ?)

Gerry Mulligan (when with Chet Baker and Bob Brookmeyer)

Stan Kenton's sidemen (late 40s thru 50s)

George Shearing

Stan Getz (when with Woody Herman)

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Group 2:

Dropped Bebop for “Advanced” Swing

Lennie Tristano (p)

Art Pepper (as) and Lee Konitz (as)

Both major influences on Paul Desmond

Dave Brubeck (p) and Paul Desmond (as)

Woody Herman’s Herds (First and Second)

Four Brothers: Gets, Sims, Steward, Chaloff (by Giuffre)

Jimmy Giuffre (ts)

Lester Young's small group music

Even later Gillespie who had his own Big Bands

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1948: Miles Davis starts collaborating with 3 musicians all of them

great instrumentalists, arrangers, composers:

Gil Evans: extensive experience with Claude Thornhill (late big band)

(Not to be confused with Bill Evans, a later collaborator)

John Lewis: pianist, later with Modern Jazz Quartet

Gerry Mulligan: baritone saxophone

Later with Chet Baker (trump) / Bob Brookmeyer (tromb): the Piano-less

Quartet

This led to the first Davis Band: The Nonet

With Max Roach (drums), Lee Konitz (tenor), Kai Winding (tromb), etc.

Also had French Horn and Tuba

1949 - 1950: The Birth of the Cool (The Nonet)

"I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a round voice with not too much tremolo

and not too much bass.

Just right in the middle.

If I can’t get that sound I can’t play anything."

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1949 - 1950: The Nonet records

many single 78 rpm records

1956: all 78 rpm tracks

released as a single LP: The Birth of the Cool

Later on, Konitz, Mulligan and Lewis going their own way with

their own brand of Cool

Mysteriously, one year earlier, Dave Brubeck had started an Octet

in LA: very similar style

More on the Cool . . . .

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B) The Birth of the Cool (Nonet)

1949 - 1950

5) Move

6) Jeru

7) Venus de Milo

8) Boplicity

9) As a counter sample: Dave Brubeck’s Octet:

Love Walked In (Gershwin)

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1949: Long tour in Paris

Returns to New York worried about his throne

Compares great treatment by the French vs US Racialism

Turns to heroin and weakens his performance

1954: spends 3 months locked up in a room in his father’s farm:

Cold Turkey / Self Rehabilitation

Collaboration with great Jazz artists without a specific Band:

Sonny Rollins, Monk, Coltrane, etc.

Starts using the Harmon Mute

Many landmark LPs were recorded

1950 - 1954: Hard Bop Period

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Cannonball Adderley (tenor)

Sonny Rollins (tenor)

Horace Silver (piano/composer)

Art Blakey (drums)

Charles Mingus (bass)

Tadd Dameron (piano/composer)

Yusuf Lateef (tenor)

Key Hard Bop Musicians

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C) Hard Bop Period

1950 - 1954

10) Walkin’ from Walkin (1954)

JJ Johnson (tb) / Lucky Thompson (ts) / Kenny Clarke (dr),

Percy Heath (b) and Horace Silver (p)

11) When the Lights are Low from Blue Haze (1954)

John Lewis (p), Percy Heath (b) and Max Roach (dr)

12) Miles Ahead from Blue Haze (1954)

John Lewis (p), Percy Heath (b) and Max Roach (dr)

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1955: performs in the Newport Jazz Festival (Great Solos)

Forms the First Great Quintet:

John Coltrane (ts), Red Garland (p), Paul Chambers (b)

and Philly Joe Jones (dr)

Landmark LPs:

Round about Midnight, Relaxin‘, Steamin‘, Workin' and

Cookin'

1958: disbands quintet due to members involved with drugs

(He fired Coltrane!)

1955 - 1958: The 1st Great Quintet and Sextet

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Reforms the band as a Sextet

Rehires Coltrane (tenor)

Hires Cannonball Adderley (alto)

Fires Red Garland and Jones

Hires Bill Evans (p) and Jimmy Cobb (dr)

Records 1958, Milestones

1958:

Reforms the First Great Quintet into a Sextet

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D) The First Great Quintet

1955 - 1958

From Round about Midnight (1957)

Coltrane, Garland, Chambers, Philly Joe Jones

13) Ah Leu Cha

This is a Parker contrafact “Honeysuckle Rose” and “I Got Rhythm”

14) Bye Bye Blackbird

From Someday My Prince Will Come (1961)

Coltrane, Kelly, Chambers, Cobb

15) Someday my Prince will Come

16) Pfrancing (1961) (same)

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E) The Sextet

1957 - 1958

From Milestones (1958)

Coltrane, Garland, Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Cannonball

Adderley

17) Straight No Chaser (Monk)

18) Milestones

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1957: records Miles Ahead (including “The Duke” by

Brubeck)

1958: with a reshuffled sextet, records Porgy and Bess

1960+: records

Sketches of Spain

Quiet Nights (set of bossa nova titles)

Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall (includes Rodriguez’s

Aranjuez Concerto)

1957 - 63: The Collaboration with Gil Evans

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F) Collaboration with Gil Evans

1957 - 63

From Miles Ahead (1957)

19) The Duke (by Dave Brubeck)

20) New Rhumba (by Ahmad Jamal)

From Porgy and Bess by Gershwin (1958)

21) Bess You is My Woman Now

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A reformed sextet recorded

Miles Davis’ Iconic LP

This is the top selling Jazz LP, ever!

It sold 4 million copies and is still a best

seller

5 tracks: some in strict 12 bar form BUT

using Modal Harmony

Other LPs were released in this period

(mixed styles): Someday My Prince Will

Come, Seven Steps to Heaven, Four

and More, etc.

1959 - 64: The Modal Years

Kind of Blue

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The term comes from the use of the pitches of particular modes

(or scales) in the creation of solos, modal jazz compositions or

accompaniments may only or additionally make use of the

following techniques:

Slow-moving harmonic rhythm, where single chords may last four

to sixteen or more measures

Pedal points and drones

Absent or suppressed standard functional chord progressions

Quartal harmonies or melodies

Characteristics of Modal Jazz

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Melody

Chords = Harmony

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Modal Improvisation

Melody = Notes from a Scale

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Stretch the piano sideways:

C major scale is only 7 white notes

C D E F G A B

C# BbEb F# Ab

C D E F G A B

C

T T 1/2 T T T 1/2

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Greek Modes: Pythagorean Numbers

The Greeks used 7 notes in their music.

Greek Modes are made up by starting on a white note and playing the next 6.

Each note vibrated a whole fraction higher than the previous note: 5/4, 3/2,

etc.

The notes in Greek scales were not equally spaced.

Therefore, each of the 7 modes would sound different

Later on in Europe, they inserted 5 black notes so that the 12 notes were

equally spaced.

Greek Modes and Jazz

Table shows the white notes and their:

T (whole step or a jump of 2 notes, black or white) and

S (semi-step or a jump of a single note, black or white)

Ionian/ Aeolian are the only ones with us today

Mode 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Ionian C D E F G A B C T T S T T T S

Dorian D E F G A B C D T S T T T S T

Phrygian E F G A B C D E S T T T S T T

Lydian F G A B C D E F T T T S T T S

Mixolydian G A B C D E F G T T S T T S T

Aeolian A B C D E F G A T S T T S T T

Locrian B C D E F G A B S T T S T T T

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Miles Davis and Greece?

“So What” is played into two Greek Modes

Most of the song is played in G Dorian.

This is a Dorian scale (using the Dorian intervals) starting on G (it would

have black notes)

In the B section, the group switches to A minor (By coincidence,

this is the Aeolian Mode).

Other songs on Kind of Blue are also in Greek Mode

“All Blue” is in G Mixolydian

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G) Modal (Kind of Blue)

1959 - 64

Started a little before Kind of Blue (Miles Ahead)

Coltrane (tenor), Adderley (alto), Bill Evans (p), Wynton

Kelly (p), James Cobb (dr), Paul Chambers (dr)

22) So What

23) All Blues

24) Freddie Freeloader

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Coltrane and Jones restart on drugs

Bill Evans burns out

1965: Miles Davis starts a new quintet:

Wayne Shorter (ts / ss) or Steve Coleman (ts), Herbie

Hancock (p), Ron Carter (b) and Tony Williams (dr)

Two percussions groups: 1 in the east and 1 in the west

Records: ESP, My Funny Valentine, Miles Smiles, etc.

This would be his last acoustic band

1964 - 68: The Second Great Quintet

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Stopped recording Jazz standards and focused on music

composed by band members: Wayne Shorter and Herbie

Hancock

He still used modal writing

He started experimenting with Free Jazz, a style he had

rejected earlier

Trumpet: harder edge, plays in higher register

Shorter / Hancock compositions introduced new ways of

improvising on harmonies --- no more traditional variation

A Major Change in his Playing

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H) The Second Great Quintet

1964 - 1968

Wayne Shorter (ts / ss) or Steve Coleman (ts), Herbie Hancock (p),

Ron Carter (b) and Tony Williams (dr)

From Seven Steps to Heaven (1963)

24) Ancient Footprints (Wayne Shorter)

25) Seven Steps to Heaven

26) So Near, So Far (same)

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Tries everything . . . Mostly Electric

Plays with everyone: McLaughlin, Zawinul, Pastoris,

Jazz Rock Fusion (Bitches Brew)

Free Jazz (Ornette Coleman) (Miles Smiles)

We will try Bitches Brew for luck . . .

Gary Bartz (soprano / alto), Chick Corea (electric piano), Keith

Jarrett (organ, electric piano), Dave Holland (electric and acoustic

bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Airto Moriera (percussion)

I) 1969 onwards . . . .

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Now You Has Jazz