School me on Miles Davis, y'all....

[infamous003]

...so I've downloaded a discography of Miles Davis, and there's a lotta music in there. I figure I'll get through it, but can y'all gimme some advice, point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance :smoker:

[T O N Y M.]

start with kind of blue. that's his most well known album and one of the best selling jazz albums. it's damn good.

for real all of his **** is good but from there i would go on to his other well known works like *****es brew, in a silent way, on the corner, sketches of spain, and birth of the cool.

[Copper Scroll]

That is one of the most diverse catalogs in music ever. I think I made a thread about this a long time ago. It's hard to give advice on where to start.

I started with some stuff from like the early 50s and then Kind of Blue, and I wasn't all that impressed--much less hooked. My appreciation for those records didn't really happen until I became acquainted with his later stuff from the mid- and late-60s. Now, that's the stuff that hooked me: ESP, Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky, Filles de Kilimanjaro, Water Babies, In a Silent Way, Biitches Brew. Even within this small set of records, there is great diversity. Biitches Brew sounds nothing like ESP, but you start to hear this gradual progression from Nefertiti on through as new ideas are tried that eventually lead to BB--including the gradual incorporation of electric instruments and rock rhythms.

Now, I love Kind of Blue and like a lot of the earlier stuff too, so I just wouldn't get discouraged if you find that it's not clicking off the bat. I think there is something in a catalog that diverse for everybody.

[WesUp]

upping

[King illa]

First song you need to listen to the song "So What" and Milestones

[Copper Scroll]

One thing that I didn't think to do in my last post is sort of mapping out Miles' discography. It can be overwhelming for someone not really acquainted with his work, so this might help.

Bebop era (late 40s-early 50s):

Miles worked as Charlie Parker's trumpeter for sometime and they recorded many of Parker's best known records together. Several compilations document this work, under Parker's name of course. I think the Yardbird Suite compilation is a decent one. One thing you might immediately notice is how restrained Miles sounds next to Bird's frenetic playing. Miles' technique was never really equipped for the gymnastics of bebop, but he tries. His strong suit has always been his control and his tone.

It's possible that, under Parker's leadership, Miles learned a role that he would continue to fill throughout his career--that reserved emphasis on tone and melody on trumpet could serve as a great complement to harmonically complex and hyperactive saxophone playing. Time and time again, Miles would team up with fiery saxophone players and these partnerships would make the sharp contrast evident: Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Dave Liebman, and others.

Cool:

After working for Bird, Miles made some records as a leader of various small groups, but probably the best known recordings he made during this era under is own name were later compiled into Birth of the Cool. Here, instead of really trying to sound like a bop player, tone and melody are definitely the emphasis. The band on these records was a nonet (9-piece) that formed out of a community of young bop-era players that congregated around arranger Gil Evans.

These records would help spawn the "cool jazz" movement of the West Coast, after California had largely rejected the "hot" sound of NY bop. (Sound familiar?) Several members of the Miles Davis Nonet went on to fame as "cool" players under great influence from Miles. The coolest thing Miles recorded after his time with the nonet was the soundtrack to a French film called Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud with a small group of French musicians.

Orchestral jazz with Gil Evans:

Almost as an aside to the other things Miles had going on, around 1965, Miles began recording a series of albums with orchestras conducted by Gil Evans. The result was, of course, nothing like Miles' work with small bands, but there's some great stuff that came out of the partnership with Evans: Miles Ahead, Porgy & Bess, and Sketches of Spain. All of these albums are pretty distinct--especially the third which is dominated by classical Spanish music, while the others were sort of like an orchestra imitating a small bop group in a lot of ways. They all feature Miles playing in ways that he didn't really play with his small groups--again, especially Sketches of Spain.

Hard bop era (mid- late-50s):

After kicking a heroin habit that suppressed his career and talents in the early 50s, Miles started a band that would dominate the mid-50s--his first "classic" quintet featuring John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. They recorded a series of albums over the course of maybe a year and a half that are some of the era's very best--most notably: Workin', Relaxin', Cookin', Steamin', and Round About Midnight. (The first four have been packaged together as a box set that I think is called The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions. The fifth was Miles' first album with Columbia--the label he would stick with until the mid-80s.)

Straight-ahead bebop was the dominant flavor of these albums, though Miles' playing definitely had that cool aspect much of the time, and rhythm and blues was becoming influential on the jazz scene in general, leading to the emergence of the hard bop style. Trane definitely had that hard bop sound during these formative years of his style. These were formative years for Miles too, as his technique improved by leaps and bounds.

Modal jazz era (late 50s to mid 60s):

As the personnel in Miles' band started shifting (bringing in talent like Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Cobb, and Wynton Kelly), he started out trying a new idea that I think began in the writings of jazz musician George Russell. The end result of the new idea was a form of soloing free from the harmonic restraints characteristic of bop--freer for more melodic exploration. This approach suited Miles' style well. The album Milestones was much like the bop-dominated quintet albums recorded before it, but its title track adopted the new "modal" approach--mellow and melodic. This would become the characteristic sound of the famous Kind of Blue album, and as the approach was adopted by Coltrane (in his work away from Miles) and many young players first emerging in the early 60s, the modal sound became very influential.

Miles continued to record in this vein on several live albums recorded during the early 60s (like the Blackhawk and Carnegie Hall albums--My Funny Valentine is my favorite of these) and on studio albums like SomeDay My Prince Will Come and Seven Steps to Heaven. (The track "Teo" from Someday is amazing--featuring one of Trane's most memorable appearances... and he was just a guest on that track--not really in Miles' band anymore.)

"Free"-bop era (mid to late-60s):

I think it was in either '64 or '65 when Miles, upon advise from his young drummer Tony Williams, decided to bring avant garde tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers into the band. Rivers was somewhat of a misfit. Miles wasn't very enthusiastic about avant garde or free jazz that had become fairly popular, but he was obviously open to bringing workers in that field into his group. Williams and other members of the band at the time (Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter) had all recorded work in this area away from Miles, but restrained their "free" tendencies to a certain extent under Miles' leadership. Rivers, on the other hand, probably couldn't be restrained. I think he only recorded one album with the group (Miles in Tokyo), but it would seem that his brief time with them opened up their sound a bit--made it freer.

This freed up approach to modal and bop would become the definitive sound of Miles' second "classic" quintet, which was complete when Rivers was replaced by Wayne Shorter. They recorded shows at the Plugged Nickel, which sounded like Tokyo should have sounded, and then a series of albums that I think (personally) are unparalleled in jazz: ESP, Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, and Nefertiti. The sound couldn't really be pigeon-holed into any of the major approaches of the era. At some point, someone called it "free-bop". While some approaches to jazz were free and dissonant and other approaches adhered to formal structure, the sound of this band was elastic and structurally dynamic. The interaction between the band members is uncanny and strong enough to alter structure on the spot. Pages and books could be written on the individual contributions of each member to the overall sound, but I'll just leave it at this. I'll also note that Miles' leadership role had somewhat diminished during this period. He left most of the compositional work up to Shorter and Hancock and much of the ad hoc musical direction up to Williams' roller coaster approach to keeping time.

By the time Nefertiti was recorded, though, you could tell that Miles had become less satisfied and started reaching for new ideas. Some of these were tried more aggressively on Miles in the Sky, which (for the first time in Miles' music) featured electric piano, guitar, and pop-rock rhythms (on the first side). The second side was all acoustic, featuring one song that probably took the band's elastic paradigm to its most extreme form ("Black Comedy") and another that tried something new altogether--"Country Son".

"Country Son" is open and airy--silence playing just as an important a role in the music as sound. I would call it straight-up "free jazz" but that would be misleading. The sound is sketchy, tentative, and whimsical--still interactive, but pretty much unstructured. The sound of "Country Son" would dominate the Filles de Kilimanjaro album--only there, electric piano and bass would be incorporated. The personnel was also changing--Dave Holland replacing Ron Carter (because Carter didn't like playing electric bass) and Chick Corea replacing Hancock (whose career as a leader was taking off by that point

Early fusion era (late 60s to mid 70s):

Next came In A Silent Way, which wiped nearly all traces of traditional jazz from the increasing electric music and brought in even more young talents, including Joe Zawinul and John McLaughlin. Without a strong "jazz" sound and with such a large number of players freely sketching over a bed of silence (three keyboardists playing at once) and almost void of structure, the sound was somewhat exotic. This exotic quality was taken a step further on Biitches Brew. Plenty as been written about that album. I don't really have much to add other than to say it was a natural extension from In A Silent Way--only more dense and a good deal "darker". (The Complete In A Silent Way and Biitches Brew Sessions box sets do a good job of documenting all of these experimental transitions away from traditional jazz toward... something else.)

Miles' live shows were very different from his work in the studio during this era. On stage, Miles let the aggressive free jazz tendencies of his young band members take over. Much of his soloing at this point was an exercise in finding a way to tie all of the loud and dissonant music together, and he was quite successful in this. His solos always made good musical sense--even when nothing else about the music did. The Fillmore albums recorded in '70 are pretty incredible examples of this. I think Miles' playing in 1970 was stronger than at any other point in his career. It was like he was playing trumpet, electric guitar, and drums with his trumpet (which he also started sending through wah-wah) all at once.

Miles also recorded the blues-rock and funk influenced Tribute to Jack Johnson in '70--the album rock fans should pick up before picking up Biitches Brew. Guitarist McLaughlin is in fine jazz-rock form on this album--much more Hendrix than Montgomery. Good stuff. The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions box set features a number of other more funk-oriented tunes Miles was recording in the studio, most of which never saw the light of day until the box was released.

Miles' music was definitely becoming more structured in the second half of 1970, when r&b bassist Michael Henderson replaced Dave Holland. Funk became the dominant sound, finding its earliest expression on the Live Evil album (see the Cellar Door Sessions for most of the source material for this album). Henderson ended up staying with Miles longer than any other musician during the bands of this era.

The next big thing came in On the Corner, a tightly woven knot of impenetrable funk--much tighter than the loose and often sloppy music that Miles' band was performing on stage by this time. Dark Magus, Agharta, and Pangaea document this dense and messy jungle funk. Musicians coming out of the jazz tradition were by now a small minority in Miles' band. The studio work corresponding to this live material is best documented on Get Up With It and the Complete On the Corner box that came out a little while ago.

I should note that, by now, many of the jazz musicians who had left Miles' late 60s bands had gone on to be quite successful in the jazz-rock fusion idiom they had pioneered with Miles. Williams and McLaughlin had explored the sound in Williams' Lifetime band. (Their Emergency! album is incredible.) McLaughlin went on to form Mahavishnu Orchestra. Hancock had started the Mwandishi and Head Hunters bands. Shorter and Zawinul had formed Weather Report, and Corea eventually formed Return to Forever. Head Hunters, Weather Report, and Return to Forever dominated the fusion era.

Later fusion era (80s and early 90s):

Miles didn't record in the late 70s--suffering various medical and drug problems. In the early 80s, he reemerged with music not completely different from the funky fusion he had been pursuing before his semi-retirement, but the music wasn't nearly as dense and crazy. It was an easier pill to swallow--well documented on the Miles! Miles! Miles! live album.

I don't have much to say about the 80s era for Miles. There was a lot of good stuff... and there was a lot of slick AOR stuff (like his covers of pop tunes) that (sadly) helped spawn "smooth jazz". There was a lot of Miles recording over pre-recorded tracks. Some of it was wack (most of the hip hop dominated Doo Bop album) and some of it was decent (most of the quiet storm oriented Tutu album). Much of the You're Under Arrest Album is really good, and Live Around the World is mostly decent and a nice overview of his 80s output. Aura is a pretty unique album from this era--one of the stranger things Miles ever did but still really tame and accessible. Other than that, I don't know all that much about this last chapter in Miles' career... and I'm actually okay with that. haha

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I could provide more detailed info on or review most or all of the albums named here if necessary....

[infamous003]

I worked my way through "Kinda Blue", and I gotta say, I was blown away. I'll start back at Yardbird now, good lookin' on all the information, fam....

[THE 101]

I could provide more detailed info on or review most or all of the albums named here if necessary....

What's your feelings on, "A Tribute To Jack Johnson"?

[Copper Scroll]

What's your feelings on, "A Tribute To Jack Johnson"?
I think it's great. I'm not sure what your experience is with other Miles albums from around 1968-74, but Jack Johnson is probably the most accessible album he produced during that time from a rock or funk perspective. Keep in mind that it's comprised of 2 long tracks, and the groove only changes up maybe 4 times or so.

"Right Off" is a blues-rock jam. Miles plays his ass off. John McLaughlin (guitar) is brilliant as well.

The story behind this track is that the band was waiting around the studio for the session to begin. Miles wasn't around, so the band just started playing a piece the McLaughlin was writing. Drummer Billy Cobham was in McLaughlin's band Mahavishnu Orchestra at the time, so they already had a working relationship. Bassist Michael Henderson was a new-comer but would end up working with Miles for several years. Anyway, they started playing. After a little while, Miles burst into the recording room with his trumpet and started playing with them. They were taping. That ended up becoming the first ten minutes or so of "Right Off".

According to Herbie Hancock, he had just dropped by the studio to give Miles a copy of his new album (which would've been either Fat Albert Rotunda or Mwandishi). Miles insisted that he play an organ solo on another take of "Right Off". Reluctantly and with no preparation, Hancock appeared on the the track. Toward the end of the track, McLaughlin starts playing the riff from Sly & the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song". Good stuff.

The two main pieces of "Right Off" are split by a couple of minutes of Miles playing a mellow and emotive solo without the band.

The second track "Yesternow" begins as a slower piece based off a very simple and repetitive funk bass figure and a short guitar riff that McLaughlin doodles with throughout. This piece gets a little boring after a while. I don't even think Miles plays any trumpet on it. Eventually, Steve Grossman comes in with a soprano sax solo.

The piece is eventually interrupted by a brief excerpt of "Shhh/Peaceful" from In A Silent Way with Miles overdubbing a new solo.

The track then segues into a funky little joint--called "Willie Nelson" on other releases, which is better than the earlier part of "Yesternow". Funky sht--with more great playing from Miles.

The track ends with a brief and mellow orchestral piece that Miles recorded during another session.

Like I was saying in the other post, Jack Johnson is closer to rock (think Hendrix or Santana) than Biitches Brew and any other Miles release for that matter. It's good, but the grooves can be a little repetitive for some.

[Pluke]

honestly, i think it's best to start off with a "best of" just so you can get a general idea or feel of what Miles' music is really like.

[Iron Man Production]

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yhjnyyz1vuo