Posted in
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Miles Davis
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Genre
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Jazz Fusion
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Media
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CD
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Label | Sony Jazz | ||
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Reviewer
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Gareth
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Track List
1) Shhh / Peaceful
2) In A Silent Way
Description
With IN A SILENT WAY, the elements of popular music, blues and electronics that had been implicit in Miles Davis' previous recordings now came centre stage, and the trumpeter never looked back again. IN A SILENT WAY is Miles' BIRTH OF THE COOL/MILES AHEAD/KIND OF BLUE for the rock generation.
Gone are the rhythmic and harmonic trappings of bebop. In their place, Miles conjures a hypnotic, subliminal dance pulse and an airy, celestial drone of electric keyboards. Miles fell in love with the bell tones and flute-like textures of Fender/Rhodes electric pianos, and in the hands of Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul (who doubles on organ), theycreate layer upon layer of choral texture, in great reverberant washes of colour and counterpoint.
The juxtapositionof groove and impressionistic drone movements creates the inner tension in each of the extended pieces--Miles' "Shhh/Peaceful" and Zawinul's "In A Silent Way/It's About Time". Newcomer John McLaughlin's lyric, sitar-like guitar sets a serene mood on "Shhh", as bassist Dave Holland and drummer Williams essay a pulsating vamp. Miles' open horn is nuanced and graceful, combining long notes and cracked speech-like tonesinto one of his classic melodic statements, followed by McLaughlin's dancing figures and Wayne Shorter's chanting soprano. The title tune is a dark, dreamy, aquatic tone poem thatbreaks into an irresistable blues vamp. IN A SILENT WAY is one of Miles most sublimely beautiful, enduring creations.
Review
This is the birth of fusion, where Miles Davis eschewed the conventions of jazz and created his own lexicon and language. Gone are the complex rhythms of bop; the frenzied cutting contests of old and complex solo's; instead the groove is the primary driving force on this seminal album.
Davis never had trouble calling the cream of the crop to participate on his albums, and this is no exception: Herbie Hancock, Chic Corea, Dave Holland, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, John McLaughlin, Tony Williams - look any of these names up on Wikipedia to see just how amazing this line up was. And Davis, as always, manages to get the best out of them.
This is where jazz meets rock -improvisational genius coupled with a kicking rock beat (courtesy of Tony Williams). Hypnotic at times, alluring and overpowering - this will captivate you and not let you go until the last few seconds; even then you'll never forget this album.
The title track, In A Silent Way has to be mentioned purely for the beautiful, dreamy guitar courtesy of John McLaughlin -who would later front his own stellar fusion band "The Mahavishnu Orchestra". This is pure poetry.
Jazz never sounded like this before, and In A Silent Way would change the face of it forever; whether this was a good thing, few people can really say. What can be said, though, is this is a wonderful album and an example of ensemble playing at its best.
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