Does Miles Davis belong in Prog?

 

Two pertinent points here.  Categories serve a purpose but ultimately that purpose breaks down, like any metaphor or simile.  The categories are most useful for those new to the subject - it helps them understand what they are experiencing.  But for those of us who have been listening seriously to music for decades, those categories become more of a hindrance than a help.  I used to organize my music collection by category but had so many that crossed over from one to another I abandoned that method.  This is why Jeff Beck sits next to Beethoven on my shelf.  Why Motorhead precedes Mozart and Vai nestles with Vangelis.  Now it is all music.  And that relates to what Miles himself once said, "It's music and I like it."  He transcended existing categories and here we are arguing over what category he belongs in.  It is like saying Buddha was a fool because he did not understand Socratic principles.  Truth be told, Miles is his own category.  His roots are Jazz for sure, and he never abandoned them, but he changed what we regard as Jazz.  In this process he merged it with rock, and changed the nature of that as well.  If Jazz/Rock Fusion belongs on this site, if we regard RTF, Weather Report, etc. as both Jazz and Rock, then again Miles belongs on this site.

......Miles Davis influence is extremely distant from a percentage of Progressive Rock in the world. Pulsar, Omega were like Pink Floyd where they approached music like theater. "European Rock opera" mentality more often dismisses large doses of Jazz. With the exception of 10CC who were a bit 1920's or "Big Band era" and a few others, you wouldn't hear any emulation/reflection of ANY particular sound existing in the Avant-Garde Jazz style of Miles. Basic evidence of any influence from Miles Davis to Prog was usually found in the 70's Fusion bands, but it was easy to pick up on the fact that Phil Collins was attempting Tony Williams style in some of the Genesis songs. Ian Mosley, Bill Bruford, Pip Pyle, and Curt Cress all displayed that idea to be more "Avant-Garde on the drums and with Miles Davis...he had this going on musically with a long list of drummers a decade before Progressive Rock existed. Let's say for example that the aforementioned drummers had no interest in Miles Davis....but it wouldn't matter in the real world if they didn't..because the ideas Miles Davis left behind were tools to work with for creating styles of new music in the 70's, ...and most musicians unknowingly  borrowed his ideas to create. 

I believe Miles Davis created these premature ideas and concepts for music that slowly entered into what became other genres. The intro of " A Passion Play" has a heartbeat or a kind of thump ..surrounding by distant swirly sounding keyboard effects. They still sound distant like an atmospheric hypnotic calling by the time the heartbeat has grown louder and then...the haunting melody of "A Passion Play" is now being played on the sax. I heard Miles Davis creating this kind of soundscape in the 60's...where his trumpet has an echo or 3 second delay over top of a bass sustaining note and swirling distant sounding keyboards. Miles Davis formed/shaped ideas for future generations of musicians. All the strange open chord voicings used by John McLaughlin in Mahavishnu Orchestra were used in the music of Miles Davis first and then later ...many of those chord voicings were written all over the music of Happy The Man, Brand X, Bruford, Gong (with Steve Hillage), Steve Hillage, Hatfield and the North, Univers Zero, King Crimson, National Health and many others. Miles Davis had contributed a style to playing over these oddball chord voicings and I've heard it repeated like a reflection by many of the 70's sax and horn players who worked with established Progressive Rock bands. Miles Davis created ideas and their foundation which was naturally adapted to Progressive Rock music.