Miles Davis All Blues from Kind of Blue Written in: Recorded in 1959, taken from the album

Kind of Blue. Stereo sound had only just started to appear on records at this time so the album was released in both mono and stereo versions. Instrumentation: A sextet. Miles Davis Trumpet, Julian Cannonball Adderley Alto Sax, John Coltrane Tenor sax, Bill Evans Piano, Paul Chambers Bass, Jimmy Cobb - Drums Stylistic features Exploring the concept of Modal Jazz. Improvised solos The track was recorded with minimal rehearsal time Based on 12 bar blues format Use of Blue notes Unusually used notes in lower register Structure and Tonality All Blues is based around a 12 bar blues sequence with a 4 bar linking riff in between each section. The main melody, or the Head, usually played at the beginning of the song, and the solos are all played over the 12 bar sequence / the changes. The 12 bar sequence is repeated 19 times. There are two sections, the introduction followed by the head. Bar 1 G7 5 C7 or Gm7 9 D7#9 Changes for All Blues 2 G7 I 6 C7 or Iv or Gm7 Im7 10 Eb7#9 bVi D7#9 V7 : Head / solos 3 G7 I 7 G7 I 11 G7 4 G7 8 G7 12 G7

I Iv or Im7 V7

I I

Texture Largely homophonic Melody and chords Modal Jazz Modal Jazz is a style in which the soloists base their solos on modes rather than the chord changes. Modes are old style scales used before the major and minor scale system. Usually a modal scale is not major or minor. For example, playing the white

notes on a piano from G to G is called the Mixolydian mode. It is different to G major as the 7th note is not F# it is an F natural. In 1940s Miles got fed up with bebop and constantly changing chords that improvised solos were based on. So he began composing Music with fewer chords. This meant the soloist chord develop their melody before the chord changed. Daviss solos changed the way jazz was played. He used tuneful melodies when he improvised so you could sing along. He often played in the lower register too. Although he was capable of technically demanding music, he preferred a simple approach.
Section Intro Head 32 bars Improvised solo sections Description 8 bars long. 4 bars of rhythm section and tremolo piano. Next 4 bars alto and tenor sax enter in 3rds Muted trumpet plays 12 bar theme with saxes in 3rds in the background. This is repeated including the intro riff. 4 solo sections each feature a different instrument trumpet, alto sax, tenor sax and piano. All solos are improvised. Trumpet solos and both sax solos last for 48 bars. Piano solo lasts for 24. After each solo the intro 2 is played but piano plays riff rather than saxes unless it is after the piano solo when the saxes will play. The head returns again. The twelve bar blues followed by intro 2. This is played twice. This finishes with a 12 bar outro, which fades out. The saxes are playing the intro riff again, the trumpet introduces a new riff played as ghost notes notes that are hinted at rather than played.

Head 32 bars Outro

Key Vocabulary Sextet group of six musicians Ragtime, New Orleans, Bebop, Bigband, Swing, and Free Jazz types of Jazz Changes chord sequence in a Jazz song Head the main melody of a Jazz song, generally played at the beginning Modal Jazz Style in which soloists base their solos on modes instead of the changes Frontline Instruments that solo Comping Accompanying Mordent Ornament Note written, note above and note written played Voicing Term used to describe various ways of ordering notes in a chord Progression Chord pattern Blue Notes Bent note usually flattened