Monday, August 6, 2012

SOD: Miles Davis "In A Silent Way"

In the spirit of the weekend (Newport Jazzfest), I'll continue the flavor with one of the best efforts from Miles Davis. Props must be given to Matt (again), as he mentioned he came upon the album recently and cannot stop listening to it. As we speak, it's on it's fourth pass today in my office, and it's getting better every time.

To describe the album is very difficult, but if it doesn't draw some kind of emotion out of you, you're brain dead. It opens with an amazing rhodes and guitar intro, that's playful but foreboding. Throughout the entire first section there's an ethereal and spacious quality to it, that the trumpet only seems to enhance (whereas one might have expected it to reel it all back in). The second part continues this idea, but lapses into some very tight grooves, the groundwork for which, is set by the bass. Yet it still retains that mysterious and breathable quality we feel in the beginning, and often returns to, or draws from that.

The album is seen as some of the most experimental work structurally, that Davis did. It's also largely said that this was the beginning of his "electric period." For more info, read the blurb written under the video. Definitely take note of the musicians who lent their hands to this album, because they are absolutely some of the best at their craft.

I chose to include the whole album as a "song" of the day, because in my eyes, there is no breaking this masterpiece into pieces. Its all or nothing.

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