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- jynweythek, on 09/17/2008, -2/+37wow, an article about Miles actually made it to the FP. digg is finally getting classier
- MisterOh, on 08/16/2008, -1/+32solpisismX you're a complete idiot. your comment requires a separate comment so more people will see it rather than the few who click on your comments replies.
I admit it. You're not going to get cheap thrills in jazz. You'll need pop music for that.
But to say it's not as "technically sound" as classical music? Are you completely retarded?
Just because your simple brain can't really listen to music isn't reason for you to make such groundless remarks.
Jazz music is a huge genre. There's the basic swing variety to the bebop to hard bop to cool jazz to fusion to bossa nova to afro-cuban. Miles Davis experimented with several of these sub-genres and helped pioneer some of them.
While the earlier stuff like swing may lack some of your beloved "complexity," bebop is just as complex as anything you'll find out there. It differentiated itself from earlier brands of jazz with an emphasis on chords rather than melody. Jazz improvisers (or as you call them, noodlers") would improvise over said chords using their understanding of harmony and scales in a manner unparalleled in ANY other sort of music. The endless reptition of minor pentatonic and phyrgian scales in rock music is much better classified as "noodling" to me. The best of the best of the improvisers would utilize complicated but completly understandable tools like tritone substitions, back door progression substitutions, and inserting more turn-arounds to further spice things up. YOU DON'T SEE THAT IN CLASSICAL MUSIC. Nor will you see polyrhythms, antonality, or the other countless "quirks" that make jazz what it is utilized in the way they are.
Get off your ass and listen to some real music. And I mean REALLY listen. If you really can't find great things in jazz, then I really don't know what to say to you. - adambee, on 08/16/2008, -2/+17If you listen to Kind of Blue and don't "get it"...then quite frankly you don't -get- what good music really is.
- marcoponce, on 08/16/2008, -1/+16GOTTA LOVE MILES! (most listened to artist in my iTunes library)
- WarWraith, on 08/16/2008, -0/+15So, what you're saying is "I don't like jazz", but in the most condescending way possible?
- thegodfaughnder, on 08/16/2008, -1/+16The genius of Miles Davis cannot be explained....
- queeg, on 08/16/2008, -2/+12most ignorant thing I've heard today
- rifnet, on 08/16/2008, -1/+11I fell in love with jazz because of Miles Davis.
- Yeknom, on 08/16/2008, -0/+8Try sitting through some late Coletrane Quartet (live at the half note comes to mind) and then go listen to some Mahler. If you don't see the beauty in Coletrane's improv oddysey vs some dead german guy's intricate orchestral arrangements you need a ***** slap to the face.
And if you really think that you are smarter than jazz, go listen to any "Happy Apple" album, that stuff is as intellectually challenging as it gets. THEN we can do some talking. - smashingmonkey, on 08/16/2008, -0/+8So you love modern classical and you'll slum it with pop/rock, but you're above jazz. That about sum it up?
Personally I can't see how a person couldn't love all three of those genres, but then again I've been playing music in all three (and others) for all of my life. Music for me is like women - beautiful in every flavor.
I suspect you're not a musician. If you think jazz is about endless noodling and lacks intellectual challenge, then I doubt you possess more than a rudimentary musical intelligence.
It's OK not to like jazz. My philosophy of music is that you should play what gets you off. But acting like you're above it just reveals that you don't really get it. That doesn't mean there isn't something to be gotten. - sodade, on 08/16/2008, -0/+8This article is incomplete. Talking about the Genius of Miles without a single mention of Bitches Brew is unforgivable. Kind of Blue is amazing and all, but it is not the paradigm shift that he did with BB.
- smashingmonkey, on 08/16/2008, -2/+9No explain. Just listen. In a silent way.
- singingsox, on 08/16/2008, -0/+7There is more musicianship in a single measure of either of those genres than in entire "popular" songs today.
Nothing today is innovative. It's all the same.
And what have jazz and classical music done lately?
They have educated millions of young children in the art of music. They have taught them how to proficiently play instruments, and some have decided that's what they want to do with their life.
They have raised SAT scores, because it shows music enhances your academics.
They have saved the lives of those millions of children by keeping their interests out of gangs, drugs, and violence.
Furthermore, movie soundtracks. Hardly any of the music in movies isn't classical or jazz.
Do you want silent movies? No? Then maybe if you paid attention you'd see that symphonic groups and big bands are used in movies.
It is not a dead art form.
How can you call any art form dead just because it's not "mainstream"?
Is painting dead because that's not popular?
Sculpting?
Would you call THOSE art forms dead? I don't think so.
Get your head out of your ass. - jynweythek, on 09/17/2008, -0/+6thank you, i'm happy to see someone respond to such ignorance with such eloquence.
- thorstrongstone, on 08/16/2008, -0/+6Miles was so cool that he could have gotten away with changing his middle name to "*****."
"Man, who is that cat?"
"That's Miles ***** Davis."
"That ***** is smooth." - jynweythek, on 09/17/2008, -2/+8i'm 20 and i own five of his CDs. real copies too, not pirated
- benitojuarez, on 08/16/2008, -3/+8If peeing your pants is cool then call me Miles Davis!
- geffo, on 08/16/2008, -0/+4to understand Miles Davis read his autobiography, the man had diverse tastes and was influenced by other artists just as much as he was influential himself.
- thorstrongstone, on 08/16/2008, -0/+4Someone has to say it? Why? Does everyone, like you, have to prove themselves to be tone-deaf?
- tumples, on 08/16/2008, -1/+5Miles Davis is a god. I'm 18 by the way.
- GGzah, on 08/16/2008, -0/+4Herbie Hancock just won 2008 Album of the Year Grammy Award for "River: The Joni Letters"
So, yeah, there's that. - mroberts, on 08/16/2008, -0/+4Kind of Blue is one of the top 3 Jazz records of all time!
- Vitamin, on 08/16/2008, -0/+4Classical music has polyrhythms too - you find a lot of 3 against 2 patterns in Debussy.
- jazzstage, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3Didn't bother reading because of the authors lack of knowledge that surfaced in the first paragraph. First: Hot jazz was a style that was being used around the time of Louis Armstrongs Hot 5, 7's etc. It was used for older jazz. Not bebop. Bebop was the sound of jazz on the east coast and cool was the sound on the west coast. Also, most people consider the turning point in jazz to be Bird and Diz. Miles was a stylistic revolutionary. As great as he was, he did not change the vocabulary of jazz in the way Charlie Parker did.
Nevertheless, I dugg this up because it is about one of my favorite musicians of all time. If anyone takes the time to discover the music because of this article the world will be a better place. - DestroyPoseurs, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3"YOU DON'T SEE THAT IN CLASSICAL MUSIC. Nor will you see polyrhythms, antonality, or the other countless "quirks" that make jazz what it is utilized in the way they are."
For whatever its worth atonality has been used in classical music since the end of the common practice period. - GoingPostal, on 08/16/2008, -1/+4Miles Davis has to be the strangest concert I have ever been to. The music was great, but he played with his back to the audience and didn't say one word to the crowd. He also introduced his band using big cue cards.
- GoingPostal, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3Let me guess. You think Vanilla Ice is underrated.
- VyRuZ, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3Sarcasm, guys, sarcasm!
- jcroweall7, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3I believe it's "Jimi"... That's a fail right there.
- inactive, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3Bitches Brew wasn't the only thing they missed. Where's "A Tribute to Jack Johnson"? That was my first Miles record, and damn does it kick ass. It takes the jazz-rock dynamic from Bitches Brew and, as the liner notes put it, turned it into rock-jazz.
- carlosfm, on 08/16/2008, -0/+2I am as shocked as you are. Now when Duke or Monk make it then i will be blown away
- mroo3, on 08/16/2008, -2/+4I saw this article 5 minutes after I put this record on!
Like all good music it takes time to adapt and understand it, but once you do you can't imagine hearing it any other way. - MACady, on 08/16/2008, -0/+2So What?
- shephrd, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2Great article! That "Round Midnight" YouTube clip slayed me!
However, there was just one small typo:
"Miles was a quick study, but after a year touring as a rising star in Charlie Parker’s band, he dropped out in 1958."
Miles actually left Parker's band in 1948:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_davis
"By 1948, he had served his apprenticeship as a sideman, both on stage and record, and was beginning to blossom as a solo artist. Davis began to work with a nonet that featured then-unusual instrumentation such as the French horn and tuba. The nonet featured a young Gerry Mulligan and Lee Konitz. After some gigs at New York's Royal Roost, the nonet was signed by Capitol Records. Several singles were released in 1949 and 1950, featuring arrangements by Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and John Lewis. This began Davis' collaboration with Evans, with whom he would partner on many of his major works over the next 20 years. The sides saw only limited release until 1957, when 11 of the 12 were released as the album Birth of the Cool (more recent issues collect all 12 sides).
In 1949, Davis visited Europe for the first time and performed at that year's Paris Jazz Festival in May. The response to modern jazz musicians in Paris was enthusiastic and they had become something of a cult in the French capital. Davis dated his problems with narcotics from this point. Playing in the jazz clubs of New York, Davis was in frequent contact with people who used and sold drugs. By 1950, like many of his contemporaries, he had developed a heroin addiction." - haleym, on 08/16/2008, -0/+2Solid article, and a nice introduction to Davis and his work - but it really, *really* oversimplifies his body of work post-"Kind of Blue". To not even mention "Sketches of Spain" or "Bitches' Brew" (and to show that really crappy 80's video as the only example of his post-KOB work) really discredits the innovation he continued to display throughout the rest of his career. It's hard to argue with the fact that "Kind of Blue" is his signature work, but he had plenty left in the tank after that, and I hope folks who are newly discovering him here won't be deterred from checking out his later stuff.
- t4stringer, on 08/16/2008, -0/+2As much as I love miles i'm still more of a coltrane guy
- kinglevel, on 08/16/2008, -0/+2Damn.. wish i could see him live once... :,(
R I P Miles, a true legend - JivePode, on 08/16/2008, -0/+2I love jazz; I don't like Kind of Blue that much. Sorry, boyo.
- pitdog, on 08/16/2008, -0/+2Miles Davis - he was the man.
- crashbang, on 08/16/2008, -0/+2 You might want to listen to these three Miles records:
Bitches Brew
Live Evil
On the Corner
Listen to them a couple of times before you call it "noodling." They may just blow your rock and roll socks off. - CRCulver, on 08/16/2008, -0/+2I find "Kind of Blue" is more a record for those already versed somewhat in jazz who are looking for a peak listening experience. However, I think it makes a poor introduction to the genre, and I'm sad to see it marketed that way nowadays. For the popular music listener looking to get into jazz through Miles, I think "In a Silent Way" or "Bitches Brew" meet them halfway.
- vkiperman, on 08/16/2008, -0/+1Art.
- Sparky9292, on 08/16/2008, -0/+1Miles Davis Complete Discography can be downloaded here:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3578281/Miles_Davi ... - coltraning, on 08/16/2008, -0/+1Miles and Coltrane were both awesome. If you really want to understand some of the behind the scenes stuff that was going on in their heads when they were improvising or writing, check out George Russell's book called The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. It was originally written in the 1950s and heavily influenced the innovators of the time, including Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
- singingsox, on 08/16/2008, -0/+1Technically sound?
Do you know how hard it is to play jazz?
I think you've been listening to the wrong jazz. Listen to big band, then tell me it's not technically challenging.
The endless syncopation and extreme dynamics, the crazy articulations and rhythms that you need technical precision on to sound good.
Try it. It's hard. - jazzstage, on 08/16/2008, -0/+1Sad, you are two ignorant to ever learn to understand the vocabulary. But you must be right. Right?
At least be intelligent enough to say that you don't understand it. - SolipsismX, on 08/16/2008, -0/+1No, that's just your opinion. I explained mine, but I never said everybody has to agree. Taste in art is subjective.
- singingsox, on 08/16/2008, -1/+217 and yes, I listen to him, because I listen actual music.
Just because something isn't "popular" doesn't mean it doesn't have fans.
Of course he's not going to be popular, he has talent. He isn't rapping about ghetto bootys, and he isn't pretending he can sing. He doesn't play the guitar, drums, or bass, which are apparently the only three instruments that exist in "popular" music. He plays the trumpet, and he plays it beautifully. The trumpet is a lot harder to play than the guitar or bass. - jonnyamsterdam, on 08/17/2008, -0/+1Just to clarify some things...
Jazz and classical have developed in their own ways over the last century. Just because you aren't aware of one having some aspect of the other doesn't mean it doesn't exist. These two genres have actually converged a lot lately. I would suggest exploring them more before making such ignorant comments. - SolipsismX, on 08/16/2008, -0/+1Yeah, because if I don't like Jazz, it's got to be about race right?
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