I'm probably just late to the party...



...Heard about IT, but never saw it before. ( Looks like there's even a KISS involved.)


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

NYE Benefit Gig.... lemme make a call to NY

tA, you've never seen/heard that 20+ minute jam on "It's gonna be a beautiful night", incl. for example Chain of Fools?


"Is this the shit, is this the shit? No, wait! I got it!" (cue JB groove)

Badass! I need to see this whole show like now!

Thanks.

GangstaFam said:

Me too. Is there more?

anon said:

I think so. They did a whole New Year's Eve gig together. I didn't know it was so professionally shot though.

GangstaFam said:

...


Yup the entire concert is pro-shot...this is the only part that Miles shows up for, though....




...

theAudience said:

that says it all....
nice footage, though....I actually enjoyed the listen...

theAudience said:

Hi Audience,

PLEASE hip me to what Miles Davis is all about. I mean, he sounds sublime, but he's also just noodling a bit on his instrument. Is he underplaying? Or is that his genius? What is all this mystique about? Why considered so great?

o my GOD!! i have been trying to see that show for so long!! that was great, even tho it cut off just as i was getting into it! lol

heartbeatocean said:

Yikes. That's a tall order.
People have written books on those subjects.

Reader's Digest version:
After he got from under Dizzy and Bird's fast/hectic bop style, his personal playing style was always about space, less is more.
Not a constant stream of notes, just the right ones. The antithesis of his idol Dizzy.

Davis understood that the space between the notes was sometimes just as important as the notes themselves.
~ Genius Guide to Jazz (July 2001)


The other part of it is his sound.
In another contradiction, directly opposed to his hard-ass public persona (Prince of Darkness), his lighter (compared to many of his contemporaries) trumpet sound was very delicate, sensual and haunting (aided by a non-vibarto muted approach). You could almost consider it at times feminine.

That's until the end of the 60s anyway when he threw another curve ball (this one aimed squarely at the heads of the Jazz intelligentsia) by taking on a hard edged electrified wah-wah/echoplexed horn sound and dropping it right in the middle of a Rock/Funk stew.

If I had to break the answer down to its smallest components:
1. His maverick approach to making innovative music
(changing its course at least 4 times and braving the slings and arrows in the process)
Each time becoming the river from which other great musicians and bands would flow.

2. The sound of his horn. 2 or 3 notes max and you know it's Miles.
(developing a unique and distinct personal voice, probably the hardest thing a musician can do)

3. The Uber-cool personality (how he talked, how he dressed, etc.)

4. His ability to remain an active & valid artist through 6 decades.

There, I gave it a shot.
I'm sure others can add more perspective.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

tA, I'd be really interested in a thread dedicated to those 4 times Miles changed things... what impact he had, what exactly was changed. Would you care to attempt one?

calldapplwondery83 said:

That's a REALLY tall order. I wish my boyfriend posted here. He could really school people on Miles.

1sexymf said:

Well, if he's your boyfriend...couldn't you, you know, force him?

calldapplwondery83 said:

I'll see what I can get out of him later. He's explained it to me before, but I only half listen. He's as much as a Miles fan as I am a Prince fan.

calldapplwondery83 said:

Here's a repost of something I did some time ago




...Birth of the Cool (1949)

The beginning (1st recordings as a leader). The Cool Period.
The successful attempt to harness the bebop language created by Charlie Parker and Dizzy into an orchestrated (read "controlled") larger band format (nonet - 9 piece band).




...Kind of Blue (1959)

The Modal Period. (Solos/melodies are built around the song's key scales and not the specific chord changes)




...In A Silent Way (1969)

The Impressionist Period (Tunes based on layers of sounds.)




...Bitches Brew (1969)

The Jazz-Fusion Period (Elements of Rock and Funk combined with Jazz)


This is a general timeline. In between are scores of great records bridging these "periods".
The most beautiful are the collaborations with arranger Gil Evans...



...This where you get to understand the incomparable beauty of the Miles Davis trumpet sound.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

Great post, tA!!!

Regarding his great work with Gil Evans...

I always come back to Miles Ahead, and Porgy and Bess, those two are favorites, but for some reason, Sketches of Spain doesn't hit me that way...I don't know why, especially since most fans tend to cite that one as one of their favorites...

but it's been awhile, so maybe it's time to go back and listen some more, maybe it'll hit me this time...


...

paligap said:

Thanks.

I think with Sketches Of Spain, it's about the treacherous Gil Evans arrangements...

The first recording sessions for Sketches took place in November 1959, starting with Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio)"óand almost ending with it. Evans's orchestration proved exceptionally difficult and some of the musicians were grumbling. The producer, Teo Macero, sided with the musicians and nearly fomented a mutiny. For the beleaguered Evans, Davis was no help. He failed to show up for the first session, and he played very little at the second one.

Surprisingly, the only comment about this turmoil in the notes accompanying the music is Phil Schaap's ingenuous observation that "Miles Davis did not approach the recordings of November, 1959 with the same directness and work ethic as on Miles Ahead and Porgy and Bess. I do not know the reasons." But the reasons are no secret. Davis had been assaulted by two policemen in front of Birdland in late August. He took ten stitches in his scalp, spent the night in jail, lost his cabaret card, and faced criminal charges. He counter-sued, and in October saw the charges against him dismissed in return for dropping his suit. But the assault became a lifelong obsession. At first, like a trauma victim, he talked incessantly about being persecuted by the police and cheated by the courts. And then he stopped talking. For a time, he also stopped working. The Sketches of Spain sessions were his only studio work for 23 months.

Evans worked on the "Concierto" score that fall pretty much alone. Unlike the two earlier collaborations, Sketches of Spain exists because Gil Evans took charge. He was used to standing his ground when musicians were struggling to master his charts. (Bill Crow said that in the waning days of the Claude Thornhill orchestra, Thornhill used to bring out Evans's arrangements only "when he wanted to punish the orchestra.") So Evans stood his ground now, and the battleground was the longest and probably the most complex score he ever wrote. In the end, the results more than justified his faith in the score, but it was four more months before he returned to the studio to record the rest of the music for Sketches of Spain.

http://www.chass.utoronto...miles.html

...

I'm gonna spin it as soon as I get to work.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

Thanks again, That actually does help a lot!! And I forgot that this was the same time as that Birdland altercation...fascinating story about the near-mutiny, too!!

Man I wish I had the CD with me , I'll have to wait til I get home, now I'm anxious to put an ear on it again....



...

tA late on something. A hsitoric moment.

That whole concert is AWESOME!!!

WOW! Those 2 together are just dynamite!!!!!

theAudience said:

I remember that great post. They just needed to add the Second Great Quintet Era

Stymie said:

I'm late on quite a bit my dear, I just keep it hid.


Something tells me i'm gonna get taken care of though.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Scrapluv said:

Thank you.


The Second Great Quintet did some fabulous music for sure.
I think most historians would stick them in the Modal Period.
But in the Miles Davis chronology there are always periods within periods, and that would be one.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

cubic61052 said:

he does a dope version of popcorn too

theAudience said:

Ndeed! I'm thinkin' the same thing, lol!


...

That picture looks pretty intimate!

I'm going to have to watch this asap

NDRU said:

You might get carded.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

those two sentences weren't related

Why is this stuff not available on DVD? It's such a pain being aPrince fan!