This move towards static harmonies would reach its apotheosis on Kind of Blue , in which pianist Bill Evans played a significant role in midwifeing in the way Gil Evans had done at the Birth of the Cool sessions in and Joe Zawinul would do on the In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew sessions in Bill Evans was no stranger to modes. Today, Columbia staffers around at the time are no longer with us, making the full reason for the song title switch difficult to nail-down.
One wonders what is going on when liner notes by an authority such as Bill Evans are doctored in this way. Bob Belden has suggested that the song titles as Evans describes them are rooted in sound musical logic. What is true is that no one has ever challenged the changes based on a pure music analysis and offered convincing options as those I have suggested. This vamp is used between the first and second choruses of the theme, and between soloists.
Davis enters on harmon muted trumpet against a piano and bass accompaniment, and then outlines the order of the five modes used for improvisation, and this order is followed in turn by Coltrane, Adderley, Evans and Davis again, although they are free to play on each mode for as long as they want.
Davis : Mode no. Adderley : Mode no. Evans : Mode no. Davis : Mode No. Note that Adderley chooses the greatest variation of mode lengths. Davis [actually Bill Evans] constructed fragmentary tone-rows which replace harmony in giving the music coherence. These tunes, whatever their correct titles, comprised selections one and two respectively of side two of the vinyl releases. It has been learned by heart by almost every aspiring jazz musician on the planet, it has been set to words by Eddie Jefferson and orchestrated for trumpet section on the George Russell album So What Blue Note from It is an effective technique that has the effect of projecting a great solo onto a larger screen.
What is interesting is that the piece had a preset chord progression whose duration could be altered by the instrumentalists during their improvisation.
However, the master machine operating that day was running slightly slower than the industry standard of 15 ips. Unaware of this, the technicians took the tape from this recorder to mix and master Kind of Blue. For decades, musicians were aware that when playing along with side one of Kind of Blue it was necessary to retune their instruments to a slightly sharper pitch so as to be in tune with the recording.
This anomaly was rectified in with the release of the gold Mastersound reissue of Kind of Blue , using the tape recorded at the correct pitch from the safety machine.
The after-the-fact rationalisation of pitch correction has its critics, especially those who grew up with the slightly sharp version of the original vinyl side one. I think that is important for us to hear. But here the difference is so slight that what it might do, if anything, is slightly broaden the sound and it might be intriguing to hear the true tempo of it, and the true sound of it. Fred Plaut was a highly educated and responsive engineer, trained in classical recording techniques, and that was a big difference.
A difference in the use of space by the engineer, and dynamics and arrangements for the musicians. It remains the best-selling jazz album of all time. Its unforgettable solos by Davis, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, and pianist Bill Evans create an ethereal atmosphere; the album continues to be one of the most beloved records in jazz. Kind of Blue popularized a new approach to improvisation. Rather than basing its five tunes on a rigid framework of changing chords, as was conventional for post-bop music, Davis and Evans wrote pieces with a more limited set of scales in different modes.
As this detailed video on modal jazz by Polyphonic explains, this creates a more open network of harmonic relationships. The modal approach to jazz became so popular it changed the way jazz was taught and analyzed.
This has justified the significance of the album for many players and aficionados. Music scholar Samuel Barrett argues, however, that this narrative oversimplifies both the way Kind of Blue was composed and performed, and its true cultural impact. Modal jazz emphasized melodies created through scales, just as the blues had always done, albeit with a more limited set of tools—typically the pentatonic scale. It sold very well from its first day, and it has sold increasingly well ever since.
It is the best-selling jazz album in the Columbia Records catalogue, and at the end of the twentieth century it was voted one of the ten best albums ever produced. But popularity or commercial success do not correlate with musical worth, and it is in the music on the recording that we find both quality and significance.
From the very first notes we know we are hearing something new. Piano and bass draw in the listener into a new world of sound: contemplative, dreamy and yet intense. Evans played spaciously and had an advanced harmonic sense. His sound was floating and open.
The lighter sound and less crowded manner were more akin to the understated way in which Davis himself played. What exactly is modal jazz? There are two characteristic features that set this style apart. The first is the use of scales that are different from the standard major and minor ones. So the first secret of the special sound on this album is the use of unusual scales.
But the second characteristic is even more noticeable, and that is the way the music is grounded on long passages of unchanging harmony. It is based upon five scales or modes, and each musician improvises in turn upon all five in order. An aside here: It is possible — even likely — that the titles of these two tracks are reversed. I also show how the mixup occurred in , just as the album was released.
0コメント