- 1. Stuff
- 2. Paraphernalia
- 3. Black Comedy
- 4. Country Son
- 5. Black Comedy (Alternate Take) [Bonus Track]
- 6. Country Son (Alternate Take) [Bonus Track]
An electrifying experience as Davis moves away from his traditional
quintet sound toward a more jazz/rock feel later to be known as fusion.
Illuminated by Herbie Hancock's Fender Rhodes, along with a guest
appearance by George Benson on Paraphernalia.
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With MILES IN THE SKY, Davis
began to consciously incorporate elements of popular music and blues
into the quintet's open-ended style of group improvisation. This was an
attempt to reach out, not sell out. By 1968, groups such as the Beatles
had stretched the parameters of the pop song form way beyond their
humble harmonic beginnings, while the blues trio Cream significantly
elevated the level of musicianship and added a bold improvisational
dimension to live performances.
It
was impossible to ignore these developments. And as Miles indicated in
his autobiography, he was already becoming enamored of musicians such as
Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Sly Stone and Muddy Waters (elements of soul
jazz had already crept into the quintet's repertoire with "Eighty-One"
from E.S.P.).
On MILES IN THE SKY, the trumpeter's "Stuff" juxtaposes a long elliptical blues
line over a harmonically varied Ron Carter bass vamp, as Herbie Hancock
pumps out billowy turqoise clouds of Fender/Rhodes chords and Tony
Williams alternatingly locks in and deconstructs the eighth note pulse. On Shorter's "Paraphernalia" the horns play harmonic cat and mouse with a
swinging vamp, resolving tension in cyclical chord progression, as
George Benson's electric guitar offers a teasing suggestion of things to
come. Tony Williams' "Black Comedy" and Davis' "Country Son" offer a
series of radical tempo and textural changes: The former does so in a,
more or less, straight ahead groove, while the latter intersperses swing
beats with abstract gospel and ballad moods, culminating in an epic
Shorter solo, and a Davis solo which hints at the newer style of
phrasing he'd reveal on IN A SILENT WAY.
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