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Miles Davis - The Complete in a Silent Way Sessions '2001/2014

The Complete in a Silent Way Sessions
ArtistMiles Davis Related artists
Album name The Complete in a Silent Way Sessions
Country
Date 2001/2014
GenreJazz
Play time 03:30:13
Format / Bitrate Stereo 1420 Kbps / 44.1 kHz
MP3 320 Kbps
Media CD
Size 1.1 gb
PriceDownload $9.95
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Tracks list

Tracklist:

CD1

1. Miles Davis - Mademoiselle Mabry 
2. Miles Davis - Frelon Brun 
3. Miles Davis - Two Faced (New Mix) 
4. Miles Davis - Dual Mr. Tillman Anthony (New Mix) 
5. Miles Davis - Splash (New Mix) 
6. Miles Davis - Splashdown (New Mix) 

CD2

1. Miles Davis - Ascent (New Mix) 
2. Miles Davis - Directions I (New Mix) 
3. Miles Davis - Directions II (New Mix) 
4. Miles Davis - Shhh _ Peaceful (New Mix) 
5. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way (Rehearsal) (New Mix) 
6. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way (New Mix) 
7. Miles Davis - Its About That Time (New Mix) 

CD3

1. Miles Davis - The Ghetto Walk (New Mix) 
2. Miles Davis - Early Minor (New Mix) 
3. Miles Davis - Shhh _ Peaceful (LP Version) (New Mix) 
4. Miles Davis - In A Silent Way _ Its About That Time (LP Version) (New Mix) 

spoiekr=preview]Of all the recording sessions completed by Miles Davis with his
various bands, the sessions surrounding In a Silent Way Sessions in 1968 and
1969 are easily the most mysterious and enigmatic. For starters, they signified
the completion of his transformation from acoustic to electric sound, and
secondly, they marked the complete dissolution of the second quintet of Davis,
Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, and Ron Carter that had begun on
Filles de Kilimanjaro. The addition of Chick Corea as a second keyboard player
and the replacement of Ron Carter with Dave Holland had changed the sound of the
bands dynamic, textural, and rhythmic palettes. The final break with Davis own
previous musical sound happened when he added guitarist John McLaughlin and
keyboardist/composer Joe Zawinul (for a temporary three-keyboard sound). 

 The music on the In a Silent Way Sessions comes packaged three ways, all of it
chronologically ordered: there is the material used to finish Filles de
Kilimanjaro (Mademoiselle Maby and Freon Brun); material that has been, up until
now, unissued in any form; session outtakes that appeared, in edited form, on
Circle in the Round, Water Babies, and Directions; unissued and rejected takes;
and finally, the music recorded for In a Silent Way itself as it was rehearsed,
played, and finally, heavily edited into the released album, which also appears
here.

This was an ambitious undertaking, even if it only covered six months in the
recording life of Davis (September 1968 through February 1969), whose musical
inspirations and directions were crisscrossing as they were changing direction.
With the exception of one tune, Davis or Zawinul composed everything here.
Zawinul, though a jazz veteran, was discovering new ways to write particularly
since the advent of the electric piano -- and proved to be a profound influence
on his employer. The other heavy influence on Davis during this volatile,
fertile period was Tony Williams, who was soaking up the pop music of the day,
from the Beatles Sgt. Peppers album (via a girlfriends suggestion) to the
in-his-prime James Brown, to Jimi Hendrix.

On disc one the set begins with the missing tracks from the quintet box set:
Mademoiselle Mabry and Frelon Brun. Hearing them in this context, as the first
complete expressions of Davis new sound, is revelatory. For the first time the
three-chord vamp in Mademoiselle Mabry comes across as the fitting tribute to
Hendrix it should have been, echoing the turnaround tags in The Wind Cries Mary.
These tracks mark the entrance of Dave Holland into the band and the first
marked absence of Hancock. The contrast in styles, from Hancocks chunky,
groove-laden chords and single-note runs and Coreas deep, cerebral spaciousness,
is remarkable; its a wonder they were issued on the same record at all. The
simple, slow jam riff the former tune evokes was, in some way, the cornerstone
on which the material for these sessions would be built, while the latter
provided the space and pace for its establishment.

The elegantly spaced-out Two Faced and Dual Mr. Anthony Tillmon Williams Process
were recorded as a sextet with Hancock. Both tunes are a showcase for the
interplay between both keyboardists and Holland, whose near-mystical lyricism
was exactly what Davis was looking for in a bass player one who could change the
role of the instrument in an ensemble setting. The loose-jam feeling on these
tunes could be heard by some as meandering, but it would be shortsighted to
assume this for the entire picture. The various extrapolations on blues-feel and
meter moving them into modal settings and then deconstructing these for a
streamlined, open music that allowed for both improvisation and direct musical
interplay between various members were integral, and created in Davis music a
space that changed jazz forever.

Disc one ends with the full version of Splash that appeared on Circle in the
Round. Here, all of its four interludes are included after the unedited version
of the tune. All of the interludes were recorded as scripted fragments with no
improvisation and featured Hancock playing electric harpsichord and Corea on
organ. Lastly we get Splashdown, the first Davis recording that features Zawinul
and the three-keyboard lineup. Here, too, the track was unissued and one has to
wonder why because the dialogue between the three principals, and Holland and
Williams, is remarkable -- Davis is all but absent, but it hardly matters as
Shorter covers his territory well. With two electric pianos and an organ, the
tune is so psychedelic and fat; full of a kind of inherent funkiness brought by
the rhythm section, and Shorter underscores the jazz element in his solo by
taking two cues from Coltrane and turning them into modal paragraphs. Both
interludes that follow the tune were also rejected.

Disc two is where the In a Silent Way project begins in earnest. The next set is
from the album issued in 1981 as Directions. The three tracks that comprise it
reveal just how far Davis was willing to take the massive keyboard section. With
slow, drifting, methodical improvisation concerned more with the development of
sound and texture than riffs and intervals, the Davis group drifts through
Ascent, with Zawinul keeping the color hushed and silvery as Hancock improvises
and Corea plays a series of modulated, though very subtle, changes. The most
noticeable change is on the driving Directions, both pieces one and two.
Williams has been replaced, for this session at least, with Jack DeJohnette, and
the driving, slippery force of DeJohnettes drumming with Shorters precisely
punctuated soprano solo is overwhelming in its glorious intensity. These are
both unedited takes, recorded as they happened without studio trickery from Teo
Macero. The second take is slower, more defined; the intimate speech that
developed between Shorter and Zawinul here offers a first glimpse of the sound
that would be the genesis of Weather Report a little over a year later. For the
time being, largely due to the intuitive improvisation of DeJohnettes drumming,
the sound of Directions was a rock sound with wild intervalic fanfare and
slippery rhythms shifting under the explosive interplay between soloists and
ensemble.

From the middle to the end of disc two, the In a Silent Way project begins to
take shape. The first version of Shhh/Peaceful rings with the presence of John
McLaughlins guitar. The first version is a bit faster from the jump than the one
released later -- and heavily edited. There is no chord structure to the tune;
theres just a small groove figure with solo vamps appearing all over it. The
bassline is doubled by Coreas electric piano; Hancocks silky piano accompaniment
fills in the shapes. The hi-hat and McLaughlins guitar shimmer colors and
nuances as Davis enters with the only solo he could play to such beautiful
accompaniment. There is an accented chordal passageway from the middle to the
end where Zawinul enters, creating a series of overtones with his organ that
lend a spectral, eerie presence to the proceedings. It dissolves eventually,
only to give way to the intro to Zawinuls gorgeous In a Silent Way/Its About
That Time. The rehearsal version has a ton of chords compared to the way it was
written; they were added as coloration devices to involve the instrumentalists
in a deeper way. First, there is the reductionism of McLaughlin playing the
melody in just one chord, and then Davis and Shorter enter to play over the
Rhodes and doubled bassline.

When the early recorded versions are set in place, and McLaughlin opens the
tune, you can feel how much the tune has developed from the rehearsal tape. The
pace is tortoise-like; everything is gone from the mix, and theres just that
guitar with Zawinul eventually adding his organ and Hancock slinking his piano
into the intervals. When the band does enter, its via Shorters sweet, singing
soprano rather than Davis trumpet. Its reduced to essence as a melodic frame
with no foundation to hook onto, as transitory and elegant as it is beautiful.

The suspended vamp that begins Its About That Time is a floating one; it never
anchors itself to either E-or F-sharp. Hancock offers the chords and Corea and
Zawinul join him, playing shifting, ghostly fills before McLaughlin jumps in and
doubles the keyboards sleepily with a bluesy graciousness. The piece was
recorded in sections, so everything we hear has an illusory quality to it,
because Macero edited it all into one tune. Solos and density structures mark
the individual takes; Hancock and McLaughlin deconstruct tonalities in favor of
sound, creating overtonal ambiences.

The rest of the set offers finished, wonderfully remastered versions of both In
a Silent Way/Its About That Time and Shhh/Peaceful: those that appeared on the
original LP. Bob Beldens revealing, insightful, and authoritative liner notes
tell the fascinating story of how the recorded tracks were edited into final
versions, so we wont go into it here. But the two other tracks recorded with the
same band minus Tony Williams replaced by Joe Chambers, of all people -- are
both unissued: The Ghetto Walk and Early Minor. Both are deeply
Hendrix-influenced, using his choice of keys and a series of sevenths around
E-flat, B-flat, and A-flat, and finally shifting themselves, in transmuted form,
to the big daddy of all rock keys, E. Both of these tracks, filled with space,
blues, rock, and killer piano and organ fills, are rhythmically carried by
Holland and danced through the pocket by Chambers, who, while not as muscular as
either Williams or DeJohnette, was more nuanced as a blues player, which is what
these two awesome numbers called for, as they turned out to be especially Ghetto
Walk the precursors to the material that would be recorded for Jack Johnson a
year later.

There is nothing extra in this set in terms of fluff, viscera, or detritus. All
of the material included from these sessions offers perhaps the most fascinating
look to date into the musical mind of Miles Davis, who was undergoing a
revolution of his own he looked to the younger players for inspiration and
guidance in how to handle the new forms; the liner notes bear this atypical
personification out. Each track is an audible step in that development, and a
step toward the goal of what would be the first Miles Davis groove album not in
the Blue Note sense of the vernacular -- one of atmosphere and ambience and
texture and drift not of melodies and changes. The package is handsome and
well-illustrated to be sure, but the music alone is worth the package price. In
many ways far more so than the Bitches Brew sessions this is the long-sought key
that unlocks the door to the room that has the answers as to why and how Davis
made such a complete break with his own music on In a Silent Way a music which
he never returned to at least on record. Its the first box set in a long time
thats been worth playing from beginning to end.[/spoiler]

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