MUSC 2140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Modal Jazz, Piano Trio, Philly Joe Jones
13 Dec 2016
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History of Jazz Unit 10
Miles and Trane; Modes and Liberation
Musical Terms:
- Modal Jazz: jazz that uses musical modes rather than chord progressions as a harmonic
framework.
o Diatonic major scale: do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do
o Dorian mode: A one-chord pattern in a minor key can imply an Aeolian, Dorian or
Phrygian mode. As soon as a second chord is added the mode is usually more
clearly defined.
- The Avant-Garde: an umbrella term to describe an inclusive, ongoing school of jazz that,
despite connections to mainstream jazz, evolved as a separate entity, a tradition in its own
right
o Rhythm: avant-garde jazz dispensed with the steady beat, preferring an ambiguous
pulse or several pulses at once
o Harmony: the avant-garde did away with patterns based on chords or scales
creating a serendipitous harmony as the musicians instinctively felt their way
through a performance
o Melody: the soloist might shoot for angelic lyricism or indulge in a fury of squeals
and squawks—either way, melody no longer relied on harmonic patterns and
resolutions
o Structure: the avant-garde frequently rejected blues and songs, and encouraged
free improvisation, in which the sheer energy or emotionalism of a performance
dictated its overall shape
o Instrumentation: the avant-garde favored the widest variety of instruments, from
the hand drums and wood flutes of formerly colonized Third World countries to
symphonic standbys like the cello and oboe
o Presentation: avant-garde jazz could be witty, even funny, but it wasn’t slick
entertainment: it was a serious, challenging music, requiring the listener’s full
concentration—art for art’s sake
o Politics: jazz became entrenched in the increasingly militant racial and antiwar
struggles of the 1950s and 1960s; whether or not it referred to specific events, it
adopted an assertive posture
The Contribution of Miles Davis:
- His innovations, what he called new directions, altered the musical landscape at least 6
times in 2 decades of his greatest impact
- Davis’s work involved a continuous rethinking of the four primary elements that define
jazz and most other kinds of music: harmony, melody, rhythm, and instrumentation
o His approach to the trumpet remained ardently personal and consistent
- By the 1970s, he had achieved the rare distinction of remaining on edge of jazz innovation
while borrowing techniques from avant-garde classical music and signaling a
rapprochement with the latest currents in both black and white pop
- He emerged as the archetypal modern jazz musician and the civil-rights-era black man
- He was born in Alton, Illinois to a wealthy black family who moved to East St. Louis when
he was a year old.
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o He studied trumpet in school and when Billy Eckstine’s orchestra visited St. Louis
in 1944, he sat in alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker
o He persuaded his father to send him to NY to study at Juilliard school where he
attended classes for a year and took piano lessons before dropping out to pursue
his real goal: learning from and working for Parker
o He was hired by Parker in 1945 for his quintet and first recording date. In Parker’s
quintet, Davis had to solo after the leader in almost every piece, and the contrast
did not favour him
▪ He had a different approach as he preferred the middle register to the more
exciting high register and focused on timbre and melody, playing fewer and
longer notes
▪ He broke off from Parker in early 1949 and began working with the
musicians and composers who would form the historic nonet
• He was now recognized for the more emotional and rhythmic
restraint of his solos
• He descended into heroin additction which took him through circles
of hell utterly foreign to his privileged upbringing. He was hooked
on heroin for 4 years
o There was a turning point in 1954 when he returned to jazz following withdrawing
from heroin
▪ He signed a contract with Prestige Records and presided over 5 remarkable
sessions with many of the best musicians of the day
▪ During this time, he demonstrated the Harmon mute which was held in place
by a cork ring, forcing the musician’s entire air column into the appliance
to produce a thin, vulnerable humming sound. This would become
emblematic of his style
- In the summer of 1955 he signed with Columbia Records—a major career leap beyond the
independent jazz labels like Prestige
o His first Columbia record introduced his first great quintet with John Coltrane
(tenor), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums)
▪ The diverse repertory combined original pieces with pop songs dating back
to the 1920s or borrowed from recent Broadway shows
- He did an orchestral album with Gil Evans as the arranger. They settled on a 19-piece
ensemble and Davis would be the only soloist
- He disbanded his quintet b/c a few of his musicians had been derailed by drugs. He then
agreed to a tour of Europe
o While there, he had the chance to compose a film score for a French police thriller
starring Jeanne Moreau and directed by Louis Malle (pg. 312)
- Kind of Blue
o Album released in 1959.
▪ Davis regrouped his sextet to record a few unrehearsed musical ideas that
he had been toying with
o This album represented the fruition of the modal approach he’d been working on
since the film score in Paris and would alter the playing habits of countless
musicians
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o He kept the compositional demands simple and, determined to stimulate each of
his musicians, he did not show them the pieces until they arrived at the recording
sessions.
o In the 1950s modal improvisation emerged as a specific technique in reaction to
the busyness of bop harmony. It offered a solution to the problem of revitalizing
the relationship b/w improvised melodies and the foundations on which those
improvisations are based
o The modal arrangements and moderate tempos of Kind of Blue underscored
Davis’s strengths and not his weaknesses, encouraging his predilection for the
middle range, his measured lyricism, and his reserved disposition
- So What? (DAVIS)
- This piece is the warhorse of Modal jazz
o First appears on Kind of Blue by Davis in 1959
o Focuses on the dorian mode
o An easy piece to learn but difficult to improvise on due to having only one mode—
less harmonic context = relatively static and reliance on a single group of notes
- ESP (Davis, Columbia)
o Davis’s 1965 album
o Represented the first studio recording by the new quintet and the 7 compositions
challenged listeners who expected Davis’s tender, meditative sound to listen to
music that was audacious, fast and free
o Emphasized the idea of “extra-sensory perception” (ESP)
o 32 bar AA’ tune but its harmonic structure is more complex than So What
o the soloists take wing over the rhythm by bending notes in and out of pitch, soaring
beyond the usual rhythmic demarcations that denote swing
Bill Evans (1929—1980)
- One of the most influential musicians of his generation. He was on the verge of achieving
recognition when George Russell introduced him to Davis
- Born in Plainfield, New Jersey
- Began playing classical piano and violin at age 6 and worked in dance bands as a teen. He
wowed critics with his work with Russell and was invited to record with his own trio in
1956
- He recorded as a sideman with Davis, Mingus, Adderly, etc. and finally returned to studio
under his own steam in 1958 with an album entitled Everybody Digs Bill Evans
o He released his third album the next year
▪ it premiered a new approach to the piano trio in which each member was a
fully active participant
- his best known composition is “Blue in Green” first performed on Kind of Blue. It’s a 10
measure circular sequence of chords that has no obvious beginning or ending
o his quartal harmonies help to define the modal achievement of Kind of Blue
- Scott LaFaro (Bassist)
o Bassist worked with Evans who favoured his strong melodic ideas.
o Evans found an ally with his superb intonation, smooth timbre, and melodic fancies
o He died early shortly after the group reached it’s peak.
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Document Summary
As soon as a second chord is added the mode is usually more clearly defined. His innovations, what he called new directions, altered the musical landscape at least 6 times in 2 decades of his greatest impact. Davis"s work involved a continuous rethinking of the four primary elements that define jazz and most other kinds of music: harmony, melody, rhythm, and instrumentation: his approach to the trumpet remained ardently personal and consistent. By the 1970s, he had achieved the rare distinction of remaining on edge of jazz innovation techniques from avant-garde classical music and signaling a while borrowing rapprochement with the latest currents in both black and white pop. He emerged as the archetypal modern jazz musician and the civil-rights-era black man. He did an orchestral album with gil evans as the arranger. They settled on a 19-piece ensemble and davis would be the only soloist.
