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Miles Davis(1926-1991)

PresentationBy Akram NajjarKaraz w Laimoon16 Nov 2016

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BebopHard BopCool Jazz

Modal JazzFree Jazz

Jazz-Rock Fusion

Ancestors of Big Bands . . .

Ragtime Stride

Boogie

Woogie

Rock n Roll

Early

Jazz

March

Bands

Sacred

Music

Rhythm and

Blues

Honky

Tonk

Blues

20s+30s

50s

20s

30s

Big

Bands

30s+40s

Modern Jazz

started in the early 40s

with the decline of

Big Bands

The Evolution of Jazz after Big Bands

Oppositional

Big

BandsBebop

Cool

Jazz

Hard

Bop

Oppositional

Regressive

Modal

Jazz

Extensive

Free

Jazz

Opposed

Everything

Oppositional

Fusion

Absorbed

Everything

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Miles Davis: Periods and School

(In Spite of Overlap!)

A) The New York Bebop Years 1944 - 1948

B) The Birth of the Cool (Nonet) 1949 - 1950

C) Hard Bop Period 1950 - 1954

D) The First Great Quintet 1955 - 1958

E) The Sextet 1957 - 1958

F) Collaboration with Gil Evans 1957 - 1963

G) Modal (Kind of Blue) 1959 - 1964

H) The Second Great Quintet 1964 - 1968

I) 1969 onwards . . . .

Bebop(early 40s to late 50s)

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Dizzy Gillespie (tr)

Charlie Parker (as)

Thelonious Monk (p)

Bud Powell (p)

Kenny Clark (dr)

Max Roach (dr)

Miles Davis (tr)

Key Bebop Musicians

Dexter Gordon (ts)

Ray Brown (b)

Sonny Stitt (ts)

J.J. Johnson (tb)

Fats Navaro (tr)

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Modern Jazz starts with a Severe

Reaction by Bebop to Big Band 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?)

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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

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More Musical Variance from Big Bands

Soloists introduced fluid vs discontinuous playing

influenced by: Lester Young (tenor) and Charlie Christian (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

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And . . . Instrument Roles Changed

Bass maintained walking but was promoted to to a soloists role

(Thanks to Jimmy Blanton (Duke Ellington bassist) and Oscar

Pettiford)

Pianists started comping (or providing rhythmic accompaniment)

This elevated the guitar to a soloists role

Emphasis on speed and virtuosic playing

Vocalists were not common anymore: melodic lines were

changed from lyrical/melodic to more angular/fast

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Rhythmic Changes?

Advanced rhythms away from 2/4, 4/4

Also away from standard accents: 1-2-3-4 or 1-2-3-4

Kenny Clarke built on Basies enhanced drummers role

Bass drum was not fast enough to provide flexible beats

Moved beat from bass drum to the ride cymbal

Bass drum freed to provide dropping bombs

Often called KLOOK-MOP after Kennys nickname: Klook

Clarkes polyrhythms affected later drummers:

Max Roach and Art Blakey

Charlie Parker (Bird)(1920-1955)

Dizzy Gillespie(1917-1993)

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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

Parker?

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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 Parkers 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

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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 Parkers 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

Trumpet Influences: Bebop Fats Navarro and Dizzy Gillespie

Influenced greatly by Ahmad Jamal

Miles Davis

1944 - 1948: The New York Bebop Years

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A) The New York Bebop Years

1944 - 1948

1) Hothouse: Parker and Gillespie

With Parker +

Max Roach (dr), Bud Powell (p), or John Lewis (p)

2) Blue Bird (1947)

3) Donna Lee

4) Youre my Everything

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Cool Jazz(Late 40s to early 50s)

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Miles Davis

Ahmad Jamal

Modern Jazz Quartet

Dave Brubeck (p, qrt, oct)

Paul Desmond (as)

Bill Evans

(p / (composer/arranger)

Gerry Mulligan (bs)

Chet Baker (tr)

Gil Evans

(composer/arr)

Jimmy Giuffre (ts)

Key Cool Jazz Musicians

Stan Gets (ts)

Claude Thornhill(cool big band)

Woody Herman(cool big band)

Stan Kenton (cool big band)

Lennie Tristano (p)

Art Pepper (as)

George Shearing

Bob Brookmeyer

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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 arrangement (regressive!)

Closeness to European Classical Music

Tonal colors can be compared to pastel

And . . .

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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

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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 Milt Jackson (MJ?)

Gerry Mulligan (when with Chet Baker and Bob Brookmeyer)

Stan Kenton's sidemen (late 40s thru 50s)

George Shearing

Stan Getz (when with Woody Herman)

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Group 2:

Dropped Bebop for Advanced Swing

Lennie Tristano (p)

Art Pepper (as) and Lee Konitz (as)

Both major influences on Paul Desmond

Dave Brubeck (p) and Paul Desmond (as)

Woody Hermans Herds (First and Second)

Four 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

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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: baritone saxophone

Later with Chet Baker (trump) / Bob Brookmeyer (tromb): the Piano-less

Quartet

This led to the first Davis Band: The Nonet

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

Also had French Horn and Tuba

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

"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 cant get that sound I cant play anything."

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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

More on the Cool . . . .

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