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Miles - The Autobiography
Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe
300 pgs read
Coming into the electronic age, Miles began hearing things that he had not heard in music before. With large advancements in electronic music gear, music was beginning to undergo a huge evolution with the invention of distorted guitar, electronic piano and more. As I had said earlier, Miles' thing was to keep his music "fresh" or sounding new. The idea of incorporating new sounds into his music seemed like a great idea for him to take on. Working on an album with his pianist at the time Herbie Hancock, he had decided to take a step in a new direction and work with electronics. It was at this time too that Herbie had already been experimenting with the keyboard. Through this, Miles wrote the album Miles In the Sky. This album would also later be categorized as Fusion opposed to Jazz due to its fusion of jazz to modern music.
"It was on this recording date that Herbie first played the electric piano. I had been listening to Joe Zawinul playing it in Cannonball Adderly's group and loved the way it sounded; for me, it was the future." (Miles 289)
This idea of using the electronic keyboard was a huge new addition to Miles' arrangements. It was around this time that Chic Corea was also hitting hard on the music scene with his electronic arrangements of jazz. I think that Miles was always looking to the future so that he could expand his creativity and open different doors for musical possibilities. It certainly worked. When ever I get board of listening to one era of Miles, I just move onto a different era. each era has a totally new flavor which greatly impresses and inspires me. I also think that his interest in sounding futuristic came from his desire to be a great composer. This desire came from his work with Duke Ellington, one of the best composers of all time, having written and recorded over three thousand songs. If not for his futuristic approaches to his compositions, I do not think that Miles would have been as successful as he was. People of today still listen to Miles as he is one of the best known jazz musicians to date.
For me, this is a huge concept. A lot of the jazz that I play is straight out of the 40s 50s and 60s. I tend to try to play a lot like the musicians of this time so that I can add a level of authenticity to my playing. Recently, I have started listening to a lot of modern jazz guitarists. This has greatly changed my playing. Modern jazz guitarists have a very different approach to playing jazz than those from the early eras of jazz. I sometimes find it boring to continually play with a early jazz feel. Using new techniques and approaches has allowed me to expand my jazz improvisation largely as I can now play more exciting lines that modern listeners can listen too and be surprised by ideas that they may never have heard of before. This also allows me to modify and modernize old jazz into something new and interesting to listen too! I have found that when implicating new ideas and techniques into my jazz playing, other musicians that I am playing with respond very positively to these ideas. Also, the level of creativity from the rest of the musicians increases as they have to figure out how to react to something they have not heard before.
Here is a picture of Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington.
Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe
300 pgs read
Coming into the electronic age, Miles began hearing things that he had not heard in music before. With large advancements in electronic music gear, music was beginning to undergo a huge evolution with the invention of distorted guitar, electronic piano and more. As I had said earlier, Miles' thing was to keep his music "fresh" or sounding new. The idea of incorporating new sounds into his music seemed like a great idea for him to take on. Working on an album with his pianist at the time Herbie Hancock, he had decided to take a step in a new direction and work with electronics. It was at this time too that Herbie had already been experimenting with the keyboard. Through this, Miles wrote the album Miles In the Sky. This album would also later be categorized as Fusion opposed to Jazz due to its fusion of jazz to modern music.
"It was on this recording date that Herbie first played the electric piano. I had been listening to Joe Zawinul playing it in Cannonball Adderly's group and loved the way it sounded; for me, it was the future." (Miles 289)
This idea of using the electronic keyboard was a huge new addition to Miles' arrangements. It was around this time that Chic Corea was also hitting hard on the music scene with his electronic arrangements of jazz. I think that Miles was always looking to the future so that he could expand his creativity and open different doors for musical possibilities. It certainly worked. When ever I get board of listening to one era of Miles, I just move onto a different era. each era has a totally new flavor which greatly impresses and inspires me. I also think that his interest in sounding futuristic came from his desire to be a great composer. This desire came from his work with Duke Ellington, one of the best composers of all time, having written and recorded over three thousand songs. If not for his futuristic approaches to his compositions, I do not think that Miles would have been as successful as he was. People of today still listen to Miles as he is one of the best known jazz musicians to date.
For me, this is a huge concept. A lot of the jazz that I play is straight out of the 40s 50s and 60s. I tend to try to play a lot like the musicians of this time so that I can add a level of authenticity to my playing. Recently, I have started listening to a lot of modern jazz guitarists. This has greatly changed my playing. Modern jazz guitarists have a very different approach to playing jazz than those from the early eras of jazz. I sometimes find it boring to continually play with a early jazz feel. Using new techniques and approaches has allowed me to expand my jazz improvisation largely as I can now play more exciting lines that modern listeners can listen too and be surprised by ideas that they may never have heard of before. This also allows me to modify and modernize old jazz into something new and interesting to listen too! I have found that when implicating new ideas and techniques into my jazz playing, other musicians that I am playing with respond very positively to these ideas. Also, the level of creativity from the rest of the musicians increases as they have to figure out how to react to something they have not heard before.
Here is a picture of Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington.
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