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Home , Birth of the Cool, Blue Haze, Kenny Clarke, Seven Steps to Heaven

Miles Davis (1926-1991)

Presentation By Akram Najjar Karaz w Laimoon 16 Nov 2016 1 / 51 Cool Modal Jazz Free Jazz Jazz-Rock Fusion 2 / 51 50s Rhythm and Rock n’ Roll Ancestors of Blues Big Bands . . . 30s Boogie Woogie

Honky Tonk 20s Ragtime Stride Early Big Jazz Bands

20s+30s 30s+40s March Sacred Blues Bands Music Modern Jazz started in the early 40s

with the decline of Big Bands The Evolution of Extensive Opposed Modal Everything Jazz after Big Bands Jazz

Oppositional Oppositional Oppositional Free Jazz

Big Cool Hard Bebop Bands Jazz Bop

Absorbed Everything

Regressive Fusion : Periods and School (In Spite of Overlap!)

A) The New York Bebop Years 1944 - 1948 B) The (Nonet) 1949 - 1950 C) Hard Bop Period 1950 - 1954 D) The First Great Quintet 1955 - 1958 E) The Sextet 1957 - 1958 F) Collaboration with 1957 - 1963 G) Modal () 1959 - 1964 H) The Second Great Quintet 1964 - 1968 I) 1969 onwards . . . .

6 / 51 Bebop

(early 40s to late 50s) Key Bebop Musicians

(tr)  (ts)  (as)  (b)  (p)  (ts)  (p)  J.J. Johnson (tb)  Kenny Clark (dr)  Fats Navaro (tr)  (dr)  Miles Davis (tr)

8 / 51 “Modern Jazz” starts with a Severe Reaction by Bebop to Music  A rise of late night Jam Sessions for small Combos:

 Speeded up tempos

 Unusual keys

 Changed improvisation schemes  A rise in “cutting contests” encouraging virtuoso playing  A rise in small “dynamic” bands / soloists without contracts  Bebop musicians saw their music as Art Music NOT a Functional Music or Music for Dancing as in Big Bands in large halls, studios or events (army?)

9 / 51 They Saw a Major Need to Change the Musical Format

 No more writing for instrumental “sections”  Songs consisted of a single “head” (statement of melody) + an unspecified number of choruses assigned to one or more artists  Each chorus is an improvisation over the harmonic structure of the head  Sometimes, the “head” would also appear at the end  (Compare with Classical Sonata Allegro Form!!)  Often, the end would be through unresolved chords

10 / 51 More Musical Variance from Big Bands

 Soloists introduced fluid vs discontinuous playing influenced by: (tenor) and (guitar)  Competent musicians used advanced harmonic structures:

 New chords and unusual harmonies

 Flattened 5th, whole tone scales, 9th, 11th, 13th

 Tritones, Augmented and Diminished chords

11 / 51 And . . . Instrument Roles Changed

 Bass maintained “walking” but was promoted to to a soloist’s role (Thanks to Jimmy Blanton ( bassist) and )  Pianists started “comping” (or providing rhythmic accompaniment) This elevated the guitar to a soloist’s role  Emphasis on speed and virtuosic playing  Vocalists were not common anymore: melodic lines were changed from lyrical/melodic to more angular/fast

12 / 51 Rhythmic Changes?

 Advanced rhythms away from 2/4, 4/4  Also away from standard accents: 1-2-3-4 or 1-2-3-4  built on Basie’s enhanced drummers role

was not fast enough to provide flexible beats

 Moved beat from bass drum to the

 Bass drum freed to provide “dropping bombs”

 Often called KLOOK-MOP after Kenny’s nickname: Klook  Clarke’s polyrhythms affected later drummers:

 Max Roach and

13 / 51 Charlie Parker (Bird) Dizzy Gillespie (1920-1955) (1917-1993) Parker?

 Considered as the most influential Jazz Musician ever – Maybe Armstrong can sit with him  Grew up without musical training but with a love for Jazz  He taught himself music theory  His virtuosity was legendary: melodic, harmonic and rhythmic  Died as a burnout at 37

15 / 51 Gillespie

 Started life with large bands: Eckstine . .

 Big Band music was always under his skin  With Parker, they were two of the most important creators of Bebop  He was Parker’s “other half of his heartbeat” but only for 3-4 years  Gillespie went back to Big Bands and changed a lot in the way they worked  He was behind introduction of Latin American modes  While most of his colleagues chose to be Black Moslems, he chose to be a Bahai

16 / 51 Miles Davis 1944 - 1948: The New York Bebop Years

 1944: he was 18 and on his way to Julliard in New York  Really, he was searching for Charlie Parker  He dropped out of Julliard  As a young genius trumpeter he played around beboppers  1947: Gillespie left Parker because of Parker’s drug abuse  Miles Davis replaced Gillespie (at 21 years of age)  1948: end of 3 years of great Bebop experience.

 BUT speed and complexity did not suit his style

 He left Parker and started on his own  Influences: Bebop and Dizzy Gillespie  Influenced greatly by Ahmad Jamal

17 / 51 A) The New York Bebop Years 1944 - 1948

1) Hothouse: Parker and Gillespie

With Parker + Max Roach (dr), Bud Powell (p), or (p)

2) Blue Bird (1947) 3) 4) You’re my Everything

18 / 51

(Late 40s to early 50s)

19 / 51 Key Cool Jazz Musicians

 Miles Davis  Stan Gets (ts)  Ahmad Jamal  (cool big band)  Dave Brubeck (p, qrt, oct)  Woody Herman  (as) (cool big band)  Bill Evans  Stan Kenton (p / (composer/arranger) (cool big band)  (bs)  (p)  (tr)  Art Pepper (as)  Gil Evans  (composer/arr)  Bob  Jimmy Giuffre (ts)

20 / 51 Characteristics of Cool Jazz

 A reaction to the hard driving, harmonically complex Bebop  Relaxed tempos (often slow)  Lighter melodies, lots of space  Re-emergence of (regressive!)  Closeness to European  Tonal colors can be compared to “pastel”  And . . .

21 / 51 Cool Jazz? Why and Where? (With considerable Overlap)

 Group 1: Musicians who preferred soft variants of Bebop (evolutionary)  Group 2: Musicians who dropped Bebop in favor of “Advanced” Swing (oppositional)  Moreover: the above were often reclassified as “East Coast” and “West Coast” Jazz

 Stylistically the difference was not significant

22 / 51 Group 1: Soft Variants of Bebop

 Miles Davis “Birth of the Cool” LP (1949-1950)

 John Lewis and Gerry Mulligan were part of the Nonet

 Lewis and Gil Evans – key arrangers  The Modern Jazz Quartet – MJQ (1952)

 John Lewis and (MJ?)  Gerry Mulligan (when with Chet Baker and )  Stan Kenton's sidemen (late 40s thru 50s)  George Shearing  (when with Woody Herman)

23 / 51 Group 2: Dropped Bebop for “Advanced” Swing

 Lennie Tristano (p)  Art Pepper (as) and (as)

 Both major influences on Paul Desmond  Dave Brubeck (p) and Paul Desmond (as)  Woody Herman’s Herds (First and Second)

Brothers: Gets, Sims, Steward, Chaloff (by Giuffre)  Jimmy Giuffre (ts)  Lester Young's small group music  Even later Gillespie who had his own Big Bands

24 / 51 1949 - 1950: The Birth of the Cool (The Nonet)

 1948: Miles Davis starts collaborating with 3 musicians all of them great instrumentalists, arrangers, composers:

 Gil Evans: extensive experience with Claude Thornhill (late big band) (Not to be confused with Bill Evans, a later collaborator)

 John Lewis: pianist, later with Modern Jazz Quartet

 Gerry Mulligan: Later with Chet Baker (trump) / Bob Brookmeyer (tromb): the -less Quartet  This led to the first Davis Band: The Nonet

 With Max Roach (drums), Lee Konitz (tenor), (tromb), etc.

 Also had and

25 / 51 "I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a round voice with not too much tremolo and not too much bass.

Just right in the middle.

If I can’t get that sound I can’t play anything." More on the Cool . . . .

 1949 - 1950: The Nonet records many single 78 rpm records  1956: all 78 rpm tracks released as a single LP: The Birth of the Cool

 Later on, Konitz, Mulligan and Lewis going their own way with their own brand of Cool  Mysteriously, one year earlier, Dave Brubeck had started an Octet in LA: very similar style

27 / 51 B) The Birth of the Cool (Nonet) 1949 - 1950 5) Move 6) Jeru 7) Venus de Milo 8)

9) As a counter sample: Dave Brubeck’s Octet: Love Walked In (Gershwin)

28 / 51 1950 - 1954: Hard Bop Period

 1949: Long tour in Paris  Returns to New York worried about his throne  Compares great treatment by the French vs US Racialism  Turns to heroin and weakens his performance  1954: spends 3 months locked up in a room in his father’s farm: Cold Turkey / Self Rehabilitation  Collaboration with great Jazz artists without a specific Band: , Monk, Coltrane, etc.  Starts using the Harmon Mute  Many landmark LPs were recorded

29 / 51 Key Hard Bop Musicians

(tenor)  Sonny Rollins (tenor)  (piano/composer)  Art Blakey (drums)  (bass)  (piano/composer)  Yusuf Lateef (tenor)

30 / 51 C) Hard Bop Period 1950 - 1954

10) Walkin’ from Walkin (1954) JJ Johnson (tb) / (ts) / Kenny Clarke (dr), (b) and Horace Silver (p)

11) When the Lights are Low from (1954) John Lewis (p), Percy Heath (b) and Max Roach (dr)

12) Miles Ahead from Blue Haze (1954) John Lewis (p), Percy Heath (b) and Max Roach (dr)

31 / 51 1955 - 1958: The 1st Great Quintet and Sextet

 1955: performs in the (Great Solos)  Forms the First Great Quintet: John Coltrane (ts), Red Garland (p), (b) and Philly Joe Jones (dr)  Landmark LPs: Round about Midnight, Relaxin‘, Steamin‘, Workin' and Cookin'  1958: disbands quintet due to members involved with drugs (He fired Coltrane!)

32 / 51 1958: Reforms the First Great Quintet into a Sextet

 Reforms the band as a Sextet  Rehires Coltrane (tenor)  Hires Cannonball Adderley (alto)  Fires Red Garland and Jones  Hires Bill Evans (p) and (dr)  Records 1958, Milestones

33 / 51 D) The First Great Quintet 1955 - 1958 From Round about Midnight (1957) Coltrane, Garland, Chambers, Philly Joe Jones 13) Ah Leu Cha This is a Parker contrafact “Honeysuckle Rose” and “I Got Rhythm” 14) Bye Bye Blackbird

From Someday My Prince Will Come (1961) Coltrane, Kelly, Chambers, Cobb 15) Someday my Prince will Come 16) Pfrancing (1961) (same)

34 / 51 E) The Sextet 1957 - 1958 From Milestones (1958) Coltrane, Garland, Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Cannonball Adderley

17) Straight No Chaser (Monk) 18) Milestones

35 / 51 1957 - 63: The Collaboration with Gil Evans

 1957: records Miles Ahead (including “The Duke” by Brubeck)  1958: with a reshuffled sextet, records Porgy and Bess  1960+: records Quiet Nights (set of bossa nova titles) Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall (includes Rodriguez’s Aranjuez Concerto)

36 / 51 F) Collaboration with Gil Evans 1957 - 63 From Miles Ahead (1957) 19) The Duke (by Dave Brubeck) 20) New Rhumba (by Ahmad Jamal)

From Porgy and Bess by Gershwin (1958) 21) Bess You is My Woman Now

37 / 51 1959 - 64: The Modal Years Kind of Blue

 A reformed sextet recorded Miles Davis’ Iconic LP  This is the top selling Jazz LP, ever!  It sold 4 million copies and is still a best seller  5 tracks: some in strict 12 bar form BUT using Modal Harmony  Other LPs were released in this period (mixed styles): Someday My Prince Will Come, , Four and More, etc. 38 / 51 Characteristics of Modal Jazz

 The term comes from the use of the pitches of particular modes (or scales) in the creation of solos, modal jazz compositions or accompaniments may only or additionally make use of the following techniques:  Slow-moving harmonic rhythm, where single chords may last four to sixteen or more measures  Pedal points and drones  Absent or suppressed standard functional chord progressions  Quartal harmonies or melodies

39 / 51 Melody

Chords = Harmony 40 / 51 Modal Improvisation

Melody = Notes from a Scale 41 / 51 Stretch the piano sideways: C major scale is only 7 white notes

C D E F G A B

C# Eb F# Ab Bb

C D E F G A B C

T T 1/2 T T T 1/2 42 / 51 Greek Modes: Pythagorean Numbers

 The Greeks used 7 notes in their music.  Greek Modes are made up by starting on a white note and playing the next 6.  Each note vibrated a whole fraction higher than the previous note: 5/4, 3/2, etc.  The notes in Greek scales were not equally spaced.  Therefore, each of the 7 modes would sound different  Later on in Europe, they inserted 5 black notes so that the 12 notes were equally spaced.

43 / 51 Greek Modes and Jazz

 Table shows the white notes and their:  T (whole step or a jump of 2 notes, black or white) and  S (semi-step or a jump of a single note, black or white)  Ionian/ Aeolian are the only ones with us today

Mode 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ionian C D E F G A B C T T S T T T S Dorian D E F G A B C D T S T T T S T Phrygian E F G A B C D E S T T T S T T Lydian F G A B C D E F T T T S T T S Mixolydian G A B C D E F G T T S T T S T Aeolian A B C D E F G A T S T T S T T Locrian B C D E F G A B S T T S T T T Miles Davis and Greece?

 “So What” is played into two Greek Modes  Most of the song is played in G Dorian.

 This is a Dorian scale (using the Dorian intervals) starting on G (it would have black notes)  In the B section, the group switches to A minor (By coincidence, this is the Aeolian Mode).  Other songs on Kind of Blue are also in Greek Mode  “All Blue” is in G Mixolydian

45 / 51 G) Modal (Kind of Blue) 1959 - 64 Started a little before Kind of Blue (Miles Ahead)

Coltrane (tenor), Adderley (alto), Bill Evans (p), (p), James Cobb (dr), Paul Chambers (dr)

22) So What 23) 24)

46 / 51 1964 - 68: The Second Great Quintet

 Coltrane and Jones restart on drugs  Bill Evans burns out  1965: Miles Davis starts a new quintet: (ts / ss) or Steve Coleman (ts), (p), (b) and (dr)

 Two percussions groups: 1 in the east and 1 in the west  Records: ESP, My Funny Valentine, , etc.  This would be his last acoustic band

47 / 51 A Major Change in his Playing

 Stopped recording Jazz standards and focused on music composed by band members: Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock  He still used modal writing  He started experimenting with Free Jazz, a style he had rejected earlier  Trumpet: harder edge, plays in higher register  Shorter / Hancock compositions introduced new ways of improvising on harmonies --- no more traditional variation

48 / 51 H) The Second Great Quintet 1964 - 1968 Wayne Shorter (ts / ss) or Steve Coleman (ts), Herbie Hancock (p), Ron Carter (b) and Tony Williams (dr)

From Seven Steps to Heaven (1963)

24) Ancient Footprints (Wayne Shorter) 25) Seven Steps to Heaven 26) So Near, So Far (same)

49 / 51 I) 1969 onwards . . . .

 Tries everything . . . Mostly Electric  Plays with everyone: McLaughlin, Zawinul, Pastoris,  Jazz Rock Fusion ()  Free Jazz (Ornette Coleman) (Miles Smiles)

 We will try Bitches Brew for luck . . .  Gary Bartz (soprano / alto), Chick Corea (electric piano), Keith Jarrett (organ, electric piano), Dave Holland (electric and acoustic bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Airto Moriera (percussion)

50 / 51 Now You Has Jazz

51 / 51