Electric Miles (Part one)

 

Introduction :

The Jazz-Rock period of Miles Davis starts in 1969 and ends in1975 when Miles retired due to health problems until the end of the seventies. In these years Miles distributed an important part to Jazz-Rock. ‘Columbia’ released  four studio records ‘In a Silent way’(1969), ‘Bitches Brew’ (1970), ‘Jack Johnson’ (1970) and ‘On the Corner’ (1972), but  only the first two records were successful, ‘Jack Johnson’ was released as a soundtrack (a documantary about the boxer Jack Johnson) , but at the time the  great potential of the record was  not  perceived and ‘On The Corner’received  very negative critics when it was released, and was understood at it’s real value only later. These four records present only a small part of Davis output during these years . A greater part of the tracks recorded during these years were releasd only in the second half of the 70’s and first half of the 80’s on various compilations, that assembled material from different periods and didn’t presented the material in it’s original context. Fortunately, thanx to Bob Belden, who released all ‘Miles Davis Columbia’ studio material in Boxsets, you can now discover  all  the sessions , remastered and in chronological order . Apart from the studio recordings,  there are a lot  of live recordings from this period, that illustrate Miles music, especially between 1972 and 1975, when Miles didn’t recorded in the studio.

 The beginnings (1968):

Between 1965 and 1967 Miles Davis had explored with his famous second  Quintette [ Herbie Hancock (piano), Wayne Shorter (Tenor sax), Tony Williams (Drums) and Ron Carter ( Bass)] every corner of Modal Jazz and at the beginning of 1968 Miles felt ready for a change. In 1967 the Beatles had released ‘Sergeant Peppers’ and Hendrix ‘Axis Bold As Love’, two major rock records, that used sophisticated studio technics. Miles was impressed and looked for new directions. This was not the first musical revolution that Miles was part of, but the former ones  had all happened inside the Jazz field. The new revolution was not  one of harmony and melody, but one of sound and style (and of society in a wider sense).  New studio technics, new electronic instruments( among them the famous ‘Fender Rhodes’ electric piano) and new sound devices,(Miles would use heavily the ‘Wah-Wah’ pedal)  would  enlargen the sound spectrum of the music. 

 "Fun" [released on the compilation Directions]  was recorded on january  1^st 1968 and  Miles uses  just a short  riff, that is played during the whole track.( a procedure that Miles had already tested 10 years earlier in”So What”, but never explored further.)and  a feature that would be used a lot on ‘Bitches Brew’. On “Water From the pond” [Directions] from the same session Hancock plays for the first time a Hohner Clavinet and on “Stuff”,17/05/1968 [Miles In The Sky] Miles uses for the first time a binary Rock rhythm, Ron Carter plays for the first time an electric bass and Hancock uses for the first time the famous Fender Rhodes piano, that would become the most used keyboard in Jazz Rock.. In the meantime  Hancock, Carter and Williams had decided to leave Miles touring band (but would still appear on the records) and new musicians would join Miles,  among them Chick Corea and Joseph Zawinul, both excellent pianists and composers, (Miles used a lot of Zawinul’s compositions in 1969 and 1970) and  who would  introduce a keyboard-heavy period, where Miles would use sometimes 3 keyboards at the same time to thicken the sound,  two keyboards on "Two Faced" (11/11/68) and especially "Ascent" (27/11/68) [Directions] with 3 keyboards. During the year 1968 Miles would try out different formulas, that would prepare the (silent) revolution of ‘In A Silent Way’ (1969) and the outburst of ‘Bitches Brew’ (1969).

(à suivre)