Silent Ways offers an immersive submersion into the depths of “In A Silent Way.” Composed by Joe Zawinul and made famous as the title track of Miles Davis’ first all-electric LP, it’s a song that doesn’t attempt to stop time as much as it attempts control time. Speed it up, slow it down, stretch it out, turn it upside down
Category: Jazz
Wolfgang Muthspiel :: Angular Blues
There’s a particular clarity made possible by the trio format, something guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade make clear on Angular Blues, Muthspiel’s fourth album as bandleader for the storied ECM label. This spacious arrangement makes for magnificent listening.
Journeys In Satchidananda ~~ Versions
In recent years, the smoky, mystical groove of Alice Coltrane’s “Journey In Satchidananda” has emerged as a go-to vehicle for musical travelers of varying stripes. This two-hour mix pulls together a selection of these journeys (along with some offerings from Alice herself). Hey, if you’re going to listen to a single bass line for 120 minutes, I can think of no better candidate than the god-like lope that Cecil McBee originally laid down back in 1970. No matter where these musicians go on their respective journeys, there’s a unifying questing vibe, a desire to tap into the cosmic imagination. Spend some time with them on a higher plane.
Sorcery in the Kingdom | A Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Mixtape
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool—now available on Netflix after a brief theatrical run and as an American Masters feature on PBS—is a beautifully directed film by Stanley Nelson, which guides us through the different changes of Miles’ life, smoothly handling the tale of an artist who refused any complacency throughout a long and undeniably brilliant career.
Abstract Truths: An Evolving Jazz Compendium – Vol 7 / Japanese Jazz
…the golden period from the 1970s into the early 80s when jazz in Japan came into its own identity and sound.
100 minutes of library groovers – dance floor bangers – funky fusion – modal swingers – big band stompers – jazz rock psychedelia and the impeccable sound of TBM are all represented.
Miles Davis :: Antibes, France July 1969
Five days after the first moon landing. Five days prior to the release of In a Silent Way. One month before the recording of Bitches Brew. The Miles Davis quintet at the 1969 Festival Mondial du Jazz d’Antibes, La Pinède, Juan-les-Pins.
John Coltrane :: Joe Brazil Bootleg (Detroit, 1958)
Recorded September 25, 1958 in the basement of Detroit-based saxophonist Joe Brazil, this bootleg finds John Coltrane in a loose, sentimental, and as always, spirited mood, and its dissemination online adds new wrinkles to the folklore of Trane.
And Then One Day: A Guide to the Music of Carla Bley
On the release of Carla Bley’s new album Life Goes On, Winston Cook-Wilson provides an overview of composer, bandleader, and pianist’s multifaceted career, from her pop and funk-inflected ’70s and ’80s work to her more recent “microcosms of a musical personality that is exceptionally difficult to distill.”
Miles Davis :: In A Silent Way
In a year loaded with albums turning fifty, few have retained the genre-defying staying power and influence of In A Silent Way. Recorded during a single three-hour session in July 1969 with producer Teo Macero, the album marked a decisive and definitive turn for both Miles Davis and the future of jazz. Meditative, moody and minimal in approach, this was the calm before the storm as the following year would witness yet another reinvention of Davis with the release of Bitches Brew.
Alice Coltrane :: My Favorite Things
While her late husband’s 1961 modal rendering helped reinvigorate the Rodgers and Hammerstein chestnut, the orchestral presentation Alice put forth a decade later is a beast of an altogether different stripe. Kicking off Coltrane’s sixth lp, World Galaxy, the instantly recognizable melody quickly dissolves amidst a very free, swirling cacophony of sound….something like the aural equivalent of David Bowman’s star gate sequence. High praise, indeed!
Alice Coltrane :: Live At The Berkeley Community Theater 1972
This is a bootleg, make no mistake! But however you hear it, you gotta hear it (perhaps over on YouTube?). A major addition to the Alice Coltrane canon, this soundboard recording features the pioneering musician and her incredible band (Charlie Haden on bass, Ben Riley on drums, Aashish Khan on sarod, Pranesh Khan on tabla and Bobby W. on tamboura and percussion) journeying fearlessly across the astral plane. Four tracks, fours sides! Tons of AC’s intense organ hijinks – how did she get that crazy sound?
John Coltrane :: Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings
Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings compiles every song Coltrane cut as a bandleader in that pivotal year, and captures him at a crucial stage in his journey, his first true attempt to will his sax into new territory.
Deep Into Steve Tibbetts’ Life Of
On Steve Tibbetts’ Life Of, the new age trappings are gone, the subtle accompaniment of piano, “gong cycles,” gamelan influences (based on his travels and study in Bali and Nepal), the still-in-there-someplace Midwestern Kottke vibes, all synthesized so exquisitely. The secret sauce in his playing is partly due to his instrument; an old Martin D-12-20 12-string with worn down frets and dead strings. He describes it as having a “peculiar internal resonance, as though it has a small concert hall inside of it.”
Aquarium Drunkard Guide to ECM Records: The New Millennium
Welcome to the third installment of the Aquarium Drunkard Guide to ECM Records: The New Millenium. Writer James Jackson Toth (Wooden Wand) explores the label’s contemporary output, that of “a boutique label in the guise of a music industry behemoth.”
Nina Simone: Zungo (Village Gate, 1961)
Nina Simone, live at the Village Gate in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, 1961, sashaying between folk, classical, and jazz.