Miles Davis - In A Silent Way

Joe Zawinul - Zawinul

(this is zawinul post-miles, pre-weather report....this album has a lot of the same players, very similar feel

also has zawinul's arrangement of the song "in a silent way" apparently more like how he envisioned it..

this basically is the sister album to in a silent way in a lot of ways

good recs there, Deep Listening is amazing but I have never heard the Zawinul album

lineup on zawinul speaks for itself:

Joe Zawinul – acoustic and electric piano
Herbie Hancock – electric piano
George Davis (tracks 1-3 & 5), Hubert Laws (track 4) – flute
Woody Shaw (tracks 1, 2, 4 & 5), Jimmy Owens (track 3) – trumpet
Earl Turbinton (tracks 1-3 & 5), Wayne Shorter (track 4) – soprano saxophone
Miroslav Vitouš, Walter Booker – bass
Billy Hart, David Lee, Joe Chambers – percussion
Jack DeJohnette – melodica (track 3), percussion (track 4)

(not as much crossover as i remember except shorter and hancock)

This is the thread mentioned by blank upthread btw:

In A Similarly Silent Way

i think i actually listened to too many things in this vein because of that thread, haha

amazing how (a) fresh (and even forward-thinking) in a silent way still sounds today; and (b) many fresh (and even forward-thinking) modern acts seem inspired by in a silent way. maybe my favorite album ever.

it really is something (and maybe even stands outside of miles' later electric work). hard to imagine what it was like to hear this record in 1969 for the first time.

i was a big tortoise fan and hearing in a silent way finally was a kind of crazy "oooo shit this is where they got it"....not unlike when teenage fugazi fan me finally heard gang of four and other post punk stuff

Yeah I had that kind of moment vis a vis Future Days and Laughing Stock when I finally heard IASW.

I actually have yet to listen to the IASW box because I just want those great long edit suites, I don't want to hear it exploded into sessions...

i heard from ppl that it's sort of underwhelming and i know teo hate those box sets

teo's name should always be said in a dry barely audible miles croak

complete in a silent way box set is pretty happening, i really love this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GehX6bRy1yk

the box is good but i haven't listened to any of it in years, nor wanted to

because this record never ever gets old and there are no substitutes for it

^ that's the way i feel about these threads recommending other records, none of them stack up (though lots of them are great on their own)

I found the box utterly fascinating, partly from the standpoint of hearing how it was constructed (e.g., "Holy shit, Teo heard that organ chord 15 minutes in and realized, 'Yep, we'll use that for the beginning'!"), and partly because the haunting atmosphere of the finished product is still present (and, at times, overwhelming) on the unedited pieces. The box demystifies and mystifies simultaneously.

Spot on about ´Zawinul´. But what about John Surman´s ´Way Back When´? It´s in the same class as IASW.

don't know that one, will investigate

The edit of IASW/Shh Peaceful and It's About That Time on Panthalassa is worth checking out.

Harold Budd's Pavilion of Dreams and Eberhard Weber's The Following Morning both share an IASW-esque nocturnal ambient fusion vibe.

think i mention this every time IASW sound-alikes come up, but this really is the closest thing i know to ssssh/peaceful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv7zSbmQt1o

What about Afternoon of a Georgia Faun, is that relevant here? I've always wanted to hear that based on its title alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqYkosktnmg

What about Afternoon of a Georgia Faun, is that relevant here? I've always wanted to hear that based on its title alone

it's a great rec, but it's not especially like IASW (guess the closest point of comparison wld be like a less zany art ensemble)

Surman is really good, thanks

To me Afternoon of a Georgia Faun really sounds like Americans binging on the already emergent Euro improv aesthetic, particularly that of the John Stevens/SME variety.

Shuggie Otis' Freedom Flight sounds a huge lot like IASW (the quieter sections from side two + a couple bluesy licks, basically)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rL-pE0xNC4

this been posted yet? apologies if I missed it.

Ray Moore (mixing and editing engineer): The mixing and editing took place between September 22 to October 24, although I did not work on the project exclusively. What was unusual was that Miles came in five times during this period. The first time on September 24. He didn’t say very much, but wanted certain things taken out. He was unhappy with Harvey Brooks’ solos. At one point he said to me, ‘I want all the C’s taken out.’ I looked at him and said, ‘You have to tell me which C’s and how to do it without breaking the phrases.’ He also wanted me to cut the tape at a certain point, and then specified another place where he wanted me to come in again. I said to him, ‘Miles, if you do that, there will be a ¾ measure, instead of 4/4. He looked at me, a bit taken aback, and then said, ‘Cut the fucking tape! Who is going to know?’

http://www.miles-beyond.com/iaswbitchesbrew.htm

wow @ teo:

Teo Macero: Miles would record his stuff, and then he’d just leave. He would sometimes say, ‘I like this or that,’ and then I’d say: ‘I’ll listen to it and I’ll put it together. If you like it, fine, if not, we’ll change it.’ So I was the one with the vision. Miles also had a vision, but he wasn’t really a composer, he didn’t compose in an organized way. It was happenstance. He played with these great musicians, and when they had played enough, I was able to cut out the stuff that wasn’t good, and piece something together from the rest. When we began editing In A Silent Way we had two huge stacks of 2” tape, 40-something reels in total. They were recorded over a longer period. It was one of the rare times Miles came to an editing session, because I’d told him, ‘This is a big job, you want to get your ass down here.’ So Miles said, ‘We’ll do it together.’ And we did. We cut things down to 8 ½ minutes on one LP side, and 9 ½ on the other, and then he said to me, “That’s my record.’ I said, ‘Go to hell!’ because it wasn’t enough music for an album. So I ended up creating repeats to make it longer. A lot of the stuff we cut was bullshit, and some of it is put out on this new boxed set. I raised hell at Columbia the other day and told them it was ridiculous they’re putting this bullshit out.

lol 'repeats to make it longer' somewhere stanley crouch is just sooooo vindicated, he thinks

brb gonna go remove all the C's from some records

the 18 minute version would probably be amazing.

well since the repeats were added it should be easy to recreate

loooool

while we were standing in the hallway John came over and whispered to me, ‘Can I ask you a question? I answered, ‘Sure’. He then said, ‘Herbie, I can’t tell... was that any good what we did? I mean, what did we do? I can’t tell what’s going on!’

In A Short Sweet Way xp

The Down Beat review (by Martin Williams, iirc) took the repetition to be a sloppily-overlooked technical error.

so he noticed that it was verbatim, that's sharp

Gleefully anticipating the Sony Legacy 60th anniversary "Miles' Cut" Silent Way 7" already.

followed by the box set of bill laswell remix 7"s

slightly off-topic: Bobby Previte put together an orchestra that plays Miles' electric stuff. A clip:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrEwbgzSeog

Miles At The Fillmore - Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 4CD Box Set To Be Released March 25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrEwbgzSeog

so intensely, maniacly focused on such minimal material

jon l otm

and then he said to me, “That’s my record.’

^^

because this record never ever gets old and there are no substitutes for it

― j., Wednesday, February 5, 2014 11:12 AM (9 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

^^^^

^^^^
x3

Not sure it's been mentioned in the thread but there was an excellent article on Stereogum by phil freeman about the best and worst of Miles Davis in which he mentions how part of the album is just the first part repeated - literally replayed. I can get my head around the studio work, but I find the idea of repeating the same section just really hard to parse. What was the decision behind that? How do others justify it?

wow @ teo:

Teo Macero: Miles would record his stuff, and then he’d just leave. He would sometimes say, ‘I like this or that,’ and then I’d say: ‘I’ll listen to it and I’ll put it together. If you like it, fine, if not, we’ll change it.’ So I was the one with the vision. Miles also had a vision, but he wasn’t really a composer, he didn’t compose in an organized way. It was happenstance. He played with these great musicians, and when they had played enough, I was able to cut out the stuff that wasn’t good, and piece something together from the rest. When we began editing In A Silent Way we had two huge stacks of 2” tape, 40-something reels in total. They were recorded over a longer period. It was one of the rare times Miles came to an editing session, because I’d told him, ‘This is a big job, you want to get your ass down here.’ So Miles said, ‘We’ll do it together.’ And we did. We cut things down to 8 ½ minutes on one LP side, and 9 ½ on the other, and then he said to me, “That’s my record.’ I said, ‘Go to hell!’ because it wasn’t enough music for an album. So I ended up creating repeats to make it longer. A lot of the stuff we cut was bullshit, and some of it is put out on this new boxed set. I raised hell at Columbia the other day and told them it was ridiculous they’re putting this bullshit out.

― festival culture (Jordan), Tuesday, 18 February 2014 20:50 (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

How do others justify it?

because it sounds fucking amazing!