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).

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Electric Miles (Part Two)

In A Silent Way (1969)

All through 1968 Miles had tried new directions and in the beginning of 1969 he was ready for a major change. On february 18th and 20^th 1969, he recorded two sessions, that would produce the record ‘In A Silent Way’ and the beginning of a revolution in Miles Music.

Like all major artists Miles had observed the signs of the time, listened to ‘The Beatles’ and 'Jimi Hendrix’, and was ready to include these influences into his music.

The first major change concerned the recording technics. Up to now recording was mainly linear(especially in Jazz). The musicians were invited for a session , played the tunes in several takes, often in the (theme/solo/theme)-fashion, the producer would  chose the best takes etc. Miles had already tried to outpass these conventions for example with the track  “Circle In the round” (04/12/67) a 26 minute track, but now together with longtime producer Teo Macero, he wanted to go further. He decided to use the studio not as a means to an end, but to make it  a part of the creative process. Miles is together with ‘Zappa’, ‘Hendrix’ and ‘The Beatles’ among the first musicians who realized the full potential of modern  recording studios. He decided to let all mikes open during the sessions and to record non-stop (the whole session) , already having in mind to choose afterwards from the material and to assemble it according to his plans. He would use this technique in an extensive way, especially on ‘Bitches Brew’, creating real musical puzzles through multiple edits, up to a point whre the original tracks are barely recognizable.

The second change concerned the musical material. Miles wanted to break free from the ‘dictatorship’ of the melody. Up to now Jazz musicians played mainly standards, and even when they stretched out as far as Miles with his second Quintet, they were still bound by the melodic (and consequently harmonic) material. So Miles  decided to use mainly riffs or short segments (apart from the title track, a Zawinul composition) and  more often just simple rhythmic figures, that would serve as a base for collective improvisation. (In the following years Miles would reach  with this procedure a great degree of abstraction) At the same time Miles wanted the musicians deliberately to contain their skills. At one point of the sessions Miles  -not quite happy with a track- asked John Mc Laughlin to play “like he had never touched a guitar in his life”, a quite enigmatique quest, which leaves the young Mc Laughlin in awe, but is typical for Miles way to ‘open up’ the musicians.

The third change concerned the orchestration. Miles had already tried in 1968 occasionally  to thicken up the sound by means of new instruments (‘Fender Rhodes’ electric piano, Electric Guitar) or by doubling instruments (mainly keyboards). For the february sessions we find eight musicians : Miles (trumpet),Wayne Shorter ( Soprano Sax), Chick Corea (keyboards), Herbie Hancock, (Keyboards), Joseph Zawinul (Keyboards), John Mc Lauglin (guitar), Dave Holland (bass), Tony Williams (drums), with  a special mention for John Mc Laughlin , a young British guitarist invited by Miles for these sessions , who would become one of  the key elements of the Electric-Miles -Sound to come.  An interesting point is  the proportion between the Rhythm section (6 musicians) and  the winds (2 musicians), with  a strong accent on the  rhythm section. Even so the number of musicians has increased the overall sound of ‘In A Silent Way’ is ‘stripped down’ and rather thin, a ventilated sound without ensemble sections, in the fashion of a patchwork, especially drummer Tony Williams and Bass player Dave Holland are obliged to play only short repetitive rhytym figures. (not an easy task for such highly gifted musicians BTW) and  the three keyboarders don’t play any solos, and  deliver mainly rhythmic figures, leaving the few solos  to Miles, Wayne Shorter and John Mc Laughlin.

Miles and Teo Macero taped about 2 hours of music during the first session (18th), choose about 80 minutes and edited everything down to two tracks of  9 minutes each. For the release of a record, due to the demands of an  LP, Miles and Teo decided then  to repeat certain parts by editing them together and got finally  two sides of  18 and 20 minutes ( Side one contains “SHHH/Peaceful” (17:58) and side two “In A Silent Way/ It’s About That time” (19:57). This procedure might look like ‘filling up’, but the editing process in itself created a new ‘work’ of it’s  own and works perfectly in terms of overall balance and harmony. ( for details read the liner notes of the ‘IASW’ box set, where you find the unedited tracks as well as the edited LP versions) The editing is quite rough and easy to perceive, as if Miles wanted to say “Up to now I played ”My Funny Valentine” and “Round About Midnight” just listen to this now!”

The overall athmosphere of the record is ‘silent’ and meditative with few solos (Wayne Shorter  had switched to soprano-sax giving the record an dreamy  and eary sound) and deliberate pauses, ( a feature that Miles would bring in his 1975 live recordings to a nearly painful procedure  by slowing the (heart)-beat of the music down to an extreme)

‘ In A Silent Way’ is a revolutionary record ( a silent revolution),  beautiful and enigmatique (as the portrait of Miles on the cover) and would be followed the next year by an outburst of sheer energy and raw power : ‘Bitches Brew’.

(à suivre)