the compositions and arrangements that would be known as The Birth of the Cool.

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1 Name 1 Student Name Course Title Date Miles Davis and the Birth of Fusion, Miles Davis is one of the great icons of jazz music. He represents the style and mood of American culture throughout the decades. But at the same time Davis could also be labeled as an iconoclast, in that his recordings at significant moments moved the jazz world into new territories. Davis was at the forefront of cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and electric jazz or fusion. It is this last genre that often viewed as the downfall of jazz in general and Davis in particular. A closer study of this period should shed light on the music, its creator, and its importance in the history of race and jazz in America. To better understand the dynamics of Miles Davis s career between 1968 and 1970, an (extremely brief) overview of his earlier works is important. His arrival in New York in the mid 1940s placed Davis in the bebop world of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Out of this experience, Davis forged a new direction in 1949 with the compositions and arrangements that would be known as The Birth of the Cool. Working with Gil Evans, Davis was looking for the smallest possible sound. I said it had to be the voicing of a quartet (Davis, 118). Davis admits that this music was a reaction to bebop. Bebop didn t have the humanity of Duke Ellington. It didn t even have that recognizable thing. Bird and Diz were great, fantastic, challenging

2 Name 2 but they weren t sweet. But Birth of the Cool was different because you could hear everything and hum it also (Davis, 119). Having help create what would be called cool jazz or West Coast jazz, Davis went in the direction of hard bop in the mid 1950s. Davis began to evolve in the direction of more loose, emotional, blues- rooted music that paid explicit difference to the black base of jazz (Kofsky, 31). A song such as 1954 s Walkin not only made use of black dialect in the title, but was based on a 12 bars blues (Kofsky, 36-37). Another major shift came in 1959, when Davis Recorded Kind of Blue. For many this is the epitome of modal jazz, a style based upon scales and not chords. In his autobiography, Davis said I didn t write out the music for Kind of Blue, but brought in sketches for what everybody was supposed to play because I wanted a lot of spontaneity in the playing (Davis, 234). In the following decade, Davis career continued to flourish. But the 1960s saw dramatic changes in American culture and music. Rock music and the youth culture had an impact on the world of jazz. As 1968 began Davis was already searching for something new. He experimented by adding guitarist to the group (Joe Beck, George Benson, and Bucky Pizzarelli), having Herbie Hancock play on electric piano, and working toward the bass- grove, rock- influenced sound that characterized his music from the late 1960s until 1975 (Yudkin, 123) was a tumultuous year in American history. The escalation of the war in Viet Nam, the continuing struggles of racial and gender equality, the widespread growth of the hippie culture, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and

3 Name 3 Robert Kennedy were just some of the factors impacting the United States. There were also changes in the jazz world. The death of John Coltrane in 1967 was seen to mark the end of the golden age of modern jazz (Monson, 4). By 1968, the jazz clubs along 52 nd Street had closed (Yudkin, 2). It was after these moments that Miles Davis moved into the world of fusion. The albums Filles de Kilimanjaro (1969), In a Silent Way (1969), and Bitches Brew (1970) exemplify the new direction taken by Davis. One aspect of this change in music comes from Davis unique musical character. Throughout his career, Miles consistently spoke of his desperate need to break away from the fetters of the jazz past, of his continuing and relaxed search for the new sound (Martin, Jr., 111). In this light the electric period of Davis career resembles the early periods, insofar as he was breaking new ground in jazz music. This time the change came not only in composition, but also instrumentation. And at the same time, Davis created a sparse foundation upon which he could build his musical ideas. Recorded in 1968, Filles de Kilimanjaro may be viewed as transitional in that it included Davis famous quintet of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. A change came with Hancock and Carter playing electric piano and electric bass respectively. The renowned rhythm section allowed for greater musical freedom, a foundation upon which Davis and Shorter built (Nicholson, 74-75). On the same album, Davis also brings in new players, Chick Corea on electric piano, and Dave Holland on bass. The change in instrumentation, as well as the insertion of new musicians gave Davis a new palette to create with. As noted in the original liner notes by Ralph Gleason, Davis use of space and time, his breaking

4 Name 4 through the barriers of structure and formulization, his construction of improvised music in layers of sound in this album indicate the direction he is traveling. In other words, Davis is on the border between two musical eras. He has his old band to rely on, and new instrumentation and musicians to explore new ideas. This transitional phase develops further with In a Silent Way. This time Davis retains Shorter, Hancock, and Williams from his established band, along with Corea and Holland from before, and adds Joe Zawinul on organ, and John McLaughlin on electric guitar. The blend of acoustic and electric instruments allows for some familiarity. This time the invention comes in song form. Davis typically gave the most minimal instruction to his musicians (Cook, 205). This allowed the musicians freedom to improvise, and with some creative editing, two tracks were created for the album. Zawinul composed the title track. In typical fashion, Davis threw out the chord sheets and told everyone to just play the melody (Davis, 296). Thus creating the feel and ambiance of In a Silent Way. In a Silent Way is also known for its method of editing. Producer Teo Macero spliced In a Silent Way to the beginning and end of It s About That Time (Cook, 205). Such creative editing is more akin to the highly produced rock albums of the day, not jazz records. Asked about his experience recording In a Silent Way, John McLaughlin recalls Davis as a Zen teacher. He handed me the piano part with all these chords for In a Silent Way I said It ll take me a while to get this together, and Miles said, Play it like you don t know how to play guitar (Himes, 30).

5 Name 5 In 1970, Miles Davis released Bitches Brew. The personnel on this album grew dramatically, with Larry Young replacing Hancock, and Lenny White and Jack DeJohnette taking the place of Williams. A second bass player was added Harvey Brooks who played electric. Two percussionists were added, Don Alias and Jumma Santos. And Bernie Maupin s bass clarinet was added to Shorter s soprano saxophone. Once again creative editing was part of the recording. For example, on Pharaoh s Dance, the opening track that lasts for twenty minutes, there are 19 specific edits, [as well as] echo and reverb chambers, and tape loops to create riffs (Cook, 216). While the sound of this album was remarkably different from Davis recordings in previous decades, its conception matches Davis mindset. I had seen the way to the future with my music, and I was going for it like I had always done (Davis, 298). As important as Davis was to the forging of new directions in jazz, it must be understood that he did not work in a vacuum. By his own admission, Davis recognized the impact of popular musicians. I started realizing that most rock musicians didn t know anything about music. They didn t study it, couldn t play different styles and don t even talk about reading music. But they were popular and sold a lot of records because they were giving the public a certain sound, what they wanted to hear. So I figured if they could do it reach all those people and sell all those records without knowing what they were doing then I could do it, too, only better (Davis, 302).

6 Name 6 One band that Davis singles out in his autobiography is the Grateful Dead. The Dead played long sets because their pot- smoking. LSD- eating hippie audience wanted to trip out the incredible volume and the fantastic light and slide shows that were part of the acid- rock experience. Music was for dancing and free expression, and a key factor was the strong improvisatory element introduced by breaking open songs for extended jams that went on forever for the hallucinating dancers (Nicholson, 83). Davis music took on this psychedelic quality in the late 60s, both on record and in live performance. But improvisation was nothing new for Davis, and he compares this to the old time jam sessions we used to have up at Minton s back in the old bebop days (Davis, 300). The English band Cream also had an influence as well. Their performances were influenced by the improvisational style of jazz, extending their solos in live performances. When Cream played the Fillmore West, they made a considerable impact on the San Francisco bands.around this time- maybe coincidently just like the San Francisco bands, Miles Davis began playing nightclub sets as one continuous piece of music (Nicholson, 84). Davis also enjoyed listening to James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Sly and the Family Stone. Of these, it was Hendrix who Davis made the most direct connection (Davis, 292). There can be no mistaking how the deeply mysterious groove of Hendrix s Voodoo Chile was echoed on Brew s Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (Nicholson, 113). Davis worked to duplicate Hendrix s sound buying a wireless

7 Name 7 mike for his trumpet, and later added an Echoplex tape- delay device and a Crybaby wah- wah foot pedal (Szwed, 288). There is another connection between the two musicians through the cover art of Bitches Brew. Davis commissioned Mati Klarwein, who had done album covers for Jimi Hendrix as well. The front cover features two black women embracing as they gaze out at a thunderstorm. While the back depicts two more women seen against a glistering night sky. With the double album cover opened, a pink face looks out in profile on one side, a Nubian one stares impassively out on the other (Cook, 220). In her book Freedom Sounds, Ingrid Monson used five aesthetic streams to explain the way jazz musicians created their sound during the mid- twentieth century. They are: 1) the aesthetics of African American vernacular musics as expressed in jazz, blues, gospel, and R & B 2) the aesthetics of American popular song as descended from Tin Pan Alley and musical theater 3) the aesthetics of modern classical music 4) the aesthetics of Africa and its diaspora 5) the aesthetics of other non- Western music, most notably in this time period, India (Monson, 71). While Monson used this outline to study the music from 1950 to 1967, it can be used to study the music of Miles Davis between 1968 and 1970.

8 Name 8 Monson admits that jazz musicians pulled from the aesthetic streams and combined them in various ways. So it is not necessary to run the music of Davis through a checklist. But it is clear that the electric jazz of Davis does adhere to Monson s premise. To use Bitches Brew as the example, it is most clearly seen as a development of the second criterion. While Bitches Brew is not related to Tin Pan Alley or musical theater, it is clearly connected to the music of Jimi Hendrix and other popular musicians of the period. Davis use of electronic instruments and post- production editing exemplify the modern popular form. Likewise, the aesthetics of R & B and funk rhythms serve as a foundation to Bitches Brew. The aesthetics of Africa and the diaspora are seen in the album s artwork, with the facial features and hair and clothing of the depicted figures. The heady colors and mysterious images hint at some strange pan- cultural mix which suggests that the music, if such it represents, belongs nowhere, yet has a black heritage fueling its existence (Cook, ). Davis was open and eager to explore this new music. In this new climate of enquiry, integrating jazz and rock seemed like the most logical connection to make in the world, a new idea in a decade where new ideas were being tried out everyday (Nicholson, 29). However, it is this experimental electric period of Miles Davis music that begets some of the harshest criticism towards him. The first complaint is that Davis had sold out and gone commercial. There is truth insofar as Clive Davis, the head of Columbia Records, was putting increasing pressure on Miles to produce albums that would sell in the quantities his rock signings were delivering (Nicholson, 96). And Davis admits a desire to sell more

9 Name 9 records and play to larger audiences (Davis, 302). Yet Richard Cook points out that whatever else Bitches Brew was, it was scarcely a sell- out, and the music was about as pop- oriented as John Cage or Elliot Carter: side long tracks steeped in percussive noise, leading players who often said very little, ensembles that were steeped in murk yes, there was a guitar player on there, but often he was barely audible (Cook, 219). So while Davis looked to expand his audience and develop a more modern sound, he was going to do it his way. The measure of popularity through record sales and concert attendance is completely objective. The album sold 400,000 copies when it was first released, and stayed Billboard s Top 40 chart for a month (Nash). The subjectivity of criticism is split when it comes to Davis fusion period. Critic Martin Williams found Bitches Brew unfocused, rhythmically redundant, regressive work, one missing the true elements of jazz (Szwed, 297). Others found the album a foolish and desperate attempt by an aging man to attract a young audience by creating a new genre of music, jazz- rock (Szwed, 297). Rolling Stone Magazine found Bitches Brew an exciting musical development. This music is so rich in its from and substance that it permits and even encourages soaring flights of imagination by anyone who listens (Winner). This divergence of opinion may prove Davis right in looking toward a musical future addressed to the young, and not kowtowing to the established canon of jazz. In light of the music that Miles Davis created from 1968 to 1970, as well as considering the reaction, both positive and negative, to the music, it is important to

10 Name 10 consider the way in which the fusion created by Davis relates to the American culture of the period. During the 1960s and 1970s African American jazz players, like writers and other artists, were in various ways trying to connect with their audience and fulfill what they viewed as their communal responsibilities (Porter, 134). Beginning with Bitches Brew, Davis drew a younger audience. As his fusion efforts continued, he made a real effort to connect with young black people (Davis, 324). This decision is evident in Davis inclusion of funk and R & B rhythms, amplified instruments, and, by the time of Bitches Brew, a wider spectrum of world percussion instruments. As mentioned above, Davis enjoyed the music of, and sought a connection to, performers such as James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Sly Stone. The symbolism found in Miles Chase the Voodoo Down is a holdover from West African mystical practice [avoiding] popular music s smooth corners with grittiness that flies in the face of commercialism using dissonant chords and angular, open- ended improvisation (Nicholson, 113). This direction aligns Davis with the Black Pride movement of the late 60s. As a political organization, The Black Panthers worked to raise the consciousness of the people and motivate them to move more firmly for their total liberation (BlackPanther.org) Therefore, Davis was not selling- out to the wider whiter audience of commercialization. During this period there arose the idea of Unity Music. Amiri Baraka, who saw a blending of jazz and blues, religious and secular music, coined the term. It was music to affect a social change and was part of the Black Panther philosophy. Yet Unity Music did not have the mass- market appeal of R & B. Davis musical

11 Name 11 synthesis during his electric period and his commitment to reaching a wider audience made his vision in some ways consistent with the concept of unity music, while his refusal of racial separatism and the belief that he unduly was influenced by record company marketing decisions seems at odd with it (Porter, ). In this light, Davis was doing what he wanted to do. He was happy to create music that would speak to a young, urban, and black audience, without regard to pleasing record company executives. The impact of Miles Davis upon American music and culture is undeniable. When looking at the fusion period of Davis career, there is disagreement on the aesthetic value of the music. Many see Davis on the cutting edge, taking risks and moving the music forward. Others find the music lacking, leaving the listener waiting for something more to come. In taking a longer view of Davis musical history, it can be seen that what he created in the late 60s is a continuation of his previous work. From the Birth of the Cool, through Kind of Blue, Davis desired a sparser sound. One in which he was able to be free of any preconceived notions. In listening to the music of Filles de Kilimanjaro, In Silent Way, and Bitches Brew, one should hear how Davis found the ability to interact with the musicians and the music in a style that allowed him to interject in the sparsest of ways. His economy of notes freed him completely from all that was expected of him. The apex of Davis fusion period is Bitches Brew. On this album Davis not only achieved his musical goal of being free of jazz s recent history and the notions of his established audience, but Davis also opened his music to a larger and younger

12 Name 12 audience. While this was pleasing to Clive Davis and the record company, others saw it as an attempt to cash in on the popular music of the day. Regardless of what others thought, Davis remained faithful to his musical ideals. He created a sound inclusive of popular music, yet still of his own.

13 Name 13 Works Cited Black Panther Party. Vision. BalckPantehr.org. Web. 25 June < Cook, Richard. It s About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off Record. New York: Oxford University Press, Print. Davis, Miles, with Quincy Troupe. Miles: The Autobiography. New York: Simon and Schuster, Print. Davis, Miles. Bitches Brew. Columbia, CD Filles de Kilimanjaro. Columbia, CD In a Silent Way. Columbia, CD. Himes, Geoffrey. John McLaughlin on Coltrane, Miles, Mahavishnu, and the Search for Infinite Oneness. Jazz Times August 2010: Print. Kofsky, Frank. Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music. New York: Pathfinder Press, Inc., Print. Martin, Jr., Waldo E. Miles Davis and the 1960s Avant- Garde. Miles Davis and American Culture. Ed. Gerald Early. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, Print. Monson, Ingrid. Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa. New York: Oxford University Press, Print. Nash, Andrew. Playing with Miles. WAVE Magazine. Wavemag.com. April Web. 24 June <

14 Name 14 Nicholson, Stuart. Jazz Rock: A History. New York: Schirmer Books, Print. Porter, Eric. It s About That Time The Response to Miles Davis s Electric Turn. Ed. Gerald Early. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, Print. Szwed, John. So What: The Life of Miles Davis. New York: Simon & Schuster, Print. Winner, Langdon. Bitches Brew by Miles Davis. Rolling Stone.com. Rolling Stone Magazine, 28 May Web. 24 June < Yudkin, Jeremy. Miles Davis, Miles Smiles, and the Invention of Post Bop. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Print.