Miles Davis "Summertime" (1958)

3.28 min. | 4.956435 user rating | 2879977 views




"Summertime" is a track from the album "Porgy and Bess" by jazz trumpet musician Miles Davis, released in 1958 on Columbia Records. The album features arrangements by Davis and collaborator Gil Evans from George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess. The album was recorded in four sessions on July 22, July 29, August 4 and August 18 in 1958 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City. It is the second collaboration between Davis and Evans and has garnered much critical acclaim since its release, being acknowledged by music critics as the best of their collaborations. For many jazz critics, Porgy and Bess is regarded as historic. In 1958, Davis was one of many jazz musicians growing dissatisfied with bebop, seeing its increasingly complex chord changes as hindering creativity. Five years earlier, in 1953, pianist George Russell published his Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, which offered an alternative to the practice of improvisation based on chords. Abandoning the traditional major and minor key relationships of Western music, Russell developed a new formulation using scales or a series of scales for improvisations. Russell's approach to improvisation came to be known as modal in jazz. Davis saw Russell's methods of composition as a means of getting away from the dense chord-laden compositions of his time, which Davis had labeled "thick". Modal composition, with its reliance on scales and modes, represented, as Davis put it, "A return to melody". In a 1958 interview with Nat Hentoff of The Jazz Review, Davis remarked on the modal approach: When Gil wrote the arrangement of "I Loves You, Porgy," he only wrote a scale for me. No chords... gives you a lot more freedom and space to hear things... there will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them. Classical composers have been writing this way for years, but jazz musicians seldom have. —Miles Davis In early 1958, Miles Davis began using with this approach and his sextet. Influenced by Russell's ideas, Davis implemented his first modal composition with the title track of his 1958 album Milestones, which was based on two modes, recorded in April of that year. Instead of soloing in the straight, conventional, melodic way, Daviss new style of improvisation featured rapid mode and scale changes played against sparse chord changes. Davis' second collaboration with Gil Evans on Porgy and Bess gave him more room for experimentation with Russell's concept and with third stream playing, as Evans' compositions for Davis featured this modal approach. Musicians Miles Davis - trumpet, flugelhorn Ernie Royal, Bernie Glow, Johnny Coles and Louis Mucci - trumpet Dick Hixon, Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland and Joe Bennett - trombone Willie Ruff, Julius Watkins and Gunther Schuller - horn Bill Barber - tuba Phil Bodner, Jerome Richardson and Romeo Penque - flute, alto flute & clarinet Cannonball Adderley - alto saxophone Danny Bank - alto flute & bass clarinet Paul Chambers - bass Jimmy Cobb - drums (except tracks 3,4, 9, & 15) Philly Joe Jones - drums (tracks 3,4, 9, & 15) Gil Evans - arranger & conductor

awesome music wanna play in my orchestra :) Classic dumb much>! You are very deep and insightful. HA! Just kidding; you're a cunt. The rise and fall of things Escalation and danger Suspension Risk Neutrality Finding, Awakening Yet underneath, it is all protected Man, Miles can surely tell a story. I dont know why listen this make me think about all my human ugliness feeling me good about it.This song is totally confortable. i had never quite appreciated the sheer genius of miles davis. the things he does with gershwin's great tune are extraordinary.\. the creativity and the ability to resolve the most obscure tonal leaps is awesome. I'd pick this. But then again, it's probably what's playing in the reception area on 'the other side' What song would you want to be the last one you ever hear? T quite Mil faces de Summertime. My two passions have always been basketball and writing. But I've never seen or heard something so great up until hearing this song that made me want to take up the subject. I think we can safely say that he could play the trumpet. :) The music travels you... Nope. It's the kind of song you listen to with a joint in hand after you had the best blow job of your life. and in New York, in a residential neighborhood oft-depicted in film, like Sunnyside, Queens. This man is using magic or something beacause it is fantastic music. WoW. Such a talented man... Nope. It's the kind of song you listen to when walking home at night with someone special's hand in your hand, just soaking up the moonlight after a long hard day. (I like my senerio better:) Great track! great piece of trumpet playing which shows his skills on the magic of sound. Swing along to that Stardust. brilliant..... just brilliant it's sooo fantastic for cotton mouth though. fuck sophistication. if you consider disliking chocolate milk at age 10 or higher sophisticated... Talisker, dos hielos, vaso facetado, sillón, media luz, musica bien alta folks have been smoking weed and listening to jazz long before you were born.