1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 160. Miles Davis – In A Silent Way (1969)

 

Another old friend from what feels like an age ago now. Okay, let’s talk long tracks. This album has two, originally a side of the record each. Shh/Peaceful on Side One, and In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time on Side Two. Even more so when streaming, they all blend into one piece which I think improves it.

Davis has stripped everything down for this album – gone are the hard-bop styling, this is gossamer thin music with dabs of phrases and super-mellow tunes. Davis brings in Hammond organ and electric piano (played by Chick Corea and one Herbie Hancock (heard of him…)). The bass and drums are still acoustic though, giving the music a fusion sound and very modern, if at times it reminded me of Vince Guaraldi’s work for the Peanuts cartoons.

In some ways, since a lot of the more avant-garde psychedelic albums have approached jazz from the direction of rock, here where Davis approaches rock from the direction of jazz it doesn’t sound too unusual by this stage in the 1001 Albums experience. It is, however, a pleasure to listen to and great relaxation music, and it was good to get some “proper” jazz back for a bit. Yes, I actually wrote that.

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