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So What (Miles Davis Composition)
"So What" is the first track on the 1959 album ''Kind of Blue'' by American trumpeter Miles Davis. It is one of the best-known examples of modal jazz, set in the Dorian mode and consisting of 16 bars of D Dorian, followed by eight bars of E Dorian and another eight of D Dorian. This AABA structure puts it in the thirty-two-bar format of American popular song. The piano-and-bass introduction for the piece was written by Gil Evans for Bill Evans (no relation) and Paul Chambers on ''Kind of Blue''. An orchestrated version by Gil Evans of this introduction is later to be found on a television broadcast given by Miles' first quintet (minus Cannonball Adderley who was ill that day) and the Gil Evans Orchestra; the orchestra gave the introduction, after which the quintet played the rest of "So What". The use of the double bass to play the main theme makes the piece unusual. This arrangement was later performed and recorded as part of the album ''Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall''. While ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz. Born in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, Davis left to study at Juilliard in New York City, before dropping out and making his professional debut as a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker's bebop quintet from 1944 to 1948. Shortly after, he recorded the ''Birth of the Cool'' sessions for Capitol Records, which were instrumental to the development of cool jazz. In the early 1950s, Davis recorded some of the earliest hard bop music while on Prestige Records but did so haphazardly due to a heroin addiction. After a widely acclaimed comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, he signed a long-term contract wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Head (music)
In its broadest sense, the head of a piece of music is its main theme, particularly in jazz, where the term takes on a more specific set of innovation. In other types of music, "head" may refer to the first or most prominent section of a song. The term may, though obtusely, be applied to classical music, insofar as classical pieces generally bear similar thematic elements, but the preferred term in this instance is (main) theme or subject. The term "head" is most often used in jazz and may refer to the thematic melody, an instance of it in a performance of the song, or a more abstract compilation of ideas as to what the song is. It may also, though uncommonly, refer to the first section of the melody, or the theme riff in the melody. There is a slightly related musical direction, D.C. or da capo (Italian, ''from head''), which means to go back to the very beginning of the sheet music and play to the end, typically ignoring all repeat signs. What's in a head A ''head'' repre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modal Jazz Standards
Modal may refer to: * Modal (textile), a textile made from spun cellulose fiber * Modal analysis, the study of the dynamic properties of structures under vibrational excitation * Modal bandwidth, in the discipline of telecommunications, refers to the signalling rate per distance unit * Modal haplotype, an ancestral haplotype derived from the DNA test results of a specific group of people * Modal jazz, jazz that uses musical modes rather than chord progressions as a harmonic framework * Modal logic, a type of formal logic that extends the standards of formal logic to include the elements of modality * Modal matrix, used in the diagonalization process involving eigenvalues and eigenvectors * Modal phenomena * Modal administration, used in Federal Agencies to describe sub-offices or "modes" * Modal transportation, used in transit to describe multiple modes of transit available such as bus, trolley, train, ferry * Modal score, used in testing and education for the most common score * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1950s Jazz Standards
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annexed the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establish his head ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1959 Compositions
Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of Earth's Moon, and was also the first spacecraft to be placed in heliocentric orbit. * January 3 ** The three southernmost atolls of the Maldive Islands, Maldive archipelago (Addu Atoll, Huvadhu Atoll and Fuvahmulah island) United Suvadive Republic, declare independence. ** Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state. * January 4 ** In Cuba, rebel troops led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter the city of Havana. ** Léopoldville riots: At least 49 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the ABAKO Party in Kinshasa, Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo. * January 6 ** Fidel Castro arrives in Havana. ** The International Maritime Organization is inaugurated. * January 7 – The United States reco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bar-line Shift
In jazz, a bar-line shift is a technique in which, during improvisation, one plays the chord from the measure before or after the given chord either intentionally or as an "accident." Coker, Jerry (1997). ''Elements of the Jazz Language for the Developing Improvisor'', p.83. . Bar-line shifts may be caused by a novice having lost their place in the chord progression, but is most often attributable to: "(1)...harmonic generalization, as in the case of playing a II to V7 (+5, +9) progression I-V-I turnaroundas only a V7 (+5, +9); or (2) the player ''wanted'' to play the previous chord (though it has already transpired), but was either pausing momentarily (as in taking a breath), and decides to adopt the 'better later than never' attitude." An example of a "very intentional" bar-line shift may be found on Cannonball Adderley's solo on "So What," "in which he deliberately enters and exits the bridge early, causing considerable tension, since the chord of the A section (D-) is on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring survey compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2004 in a special issue of the magazine, issue number 963, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' published a revised edition, drawing on the original and a later survey of songs released up until the early 2000s. Another updated edition of the list was published in 2021, with more than half the entries not having appeared on either of the two previous editions; it was based on a new survey and does not factor in the surveys that were conducted for the previous lists. The 2021 list was based on a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, producers, critics, journalists and industry figures. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and ''Rolling Stone'' tabula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morton Gould
Morton Gould (December 10, 1913February 21, 1996) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist. Biography Morton Gould was born in Richmond Hill, New York, United States. He was recognized early as a child prodigy with abilities in improvisation and composition. His first composition was published at age six. Gould studied at the Institute of Musical Art in New York. His most important teachers were Abby Whiteside and Vincent Jones. During the Depression, Gould, while a teenager, worked in New York City playing piano in movie theaters, as well as with vaudeville acts. When Radio City Music Hall opened, Gould was hired as the staff pianist. By 1935, he was conducting and arranging orchestral programs for New York's WOR radio station, where he reached a national audience via the Mutual Broadcasting System, combining popular programming with classical music. In 1936, Gould married Shirley Uzin, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1943. In the following year, Go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell Jones, July 2, 1930) is an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and educator. For six decades, he has been one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz. Biography Early life Jamal was born Frederick Russell Jones in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1930. He began playing piano at the age of three, when his uncle Lawrence challenged him to duplicate what he was doing on the piano. Jamal began formal piano training at the age of seven with Mary Cardwell Dawson, whom he describes as greatly influencing him. His Pittsburgh roots have remained an important part of his identity ("Pittsburgh meant everything to me and it still does," he said in 2001) and it was there that he was immersed in the influence of jazz artists such as Earl Hines, Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner. Jamal also studied with pianist James Miller and began playing piano professionally at the age of fourteen, at which point he was recogniz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impressions (composition)
"Impressions" is a jazz standard composed by John Coltrane. While Coltrane only recorded the composition twice in the studio—on June 20, 1962 and March 6, 1963, released on the posthumous '' Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album''—he recorded it many times live, beginning with his 1961 engagement at the Village Vanguard. These performances produced the third track on the 1963 album of the same name, as well as two further renditions available on ''The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings''. At least a dozen further live performances exist on various live albums up to 1965. Its chord sequence is identical to that of Miles Davis' " So What" (16 bars of D Dorian, 8 bars of E Dorian, and 8 bars of D Dorian). Both pieces originate in Ahmad Jamal's 1955 cover of Morton Gould's "Pavanne" Michael Brecker won the 1996 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for his performance on this piece, as recorded for the Grammy-winning jazz album by McCoy Tyner, '' Infinity''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ..., bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and raised in North Carolina, Coltrane moved to Philadelphia after graduating high school, where he studied music. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of Modal jazz, modes and was one of the players at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions and appeared on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. Over the course of his career, Coltrane's music t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Levine (musician)
Mark Jay Levine (October 4, 1938 – January 27, 2022) was an American jazz pianist, trombonist, composer, author and educator. Early life Levine was born in Concord, New Hampshire, on October 4, 1938. He began playing the piano at the age of five and started trombone in his early teens. He attended Boston University, and graduated with a degree in music in 1960. He also studied privately with Jaki Byard, Hall Overton, and Herb Pomeroy. Career After graduating, Levine moved to New York, where he freelanced and then played with musicians including Houston Person (1966), Mongo Santamaría (1969–70), and Willie Bobo (1971–74). Levine then moved to San Francisco, and played there with Woody Shaw in 1975–76. Levine made his first recording as a leader for Catalyst Records in 1976. He also played with the Blue Mitchell/Harold Land Quintet (1975–79), Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Bobby Hutcherson, Luis Gasca, and Cal Tjader (1979–83). From 1980 to 1983, he concentrated on v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
