Miles Davis
Miles Davis, from his beginnings as a nineteen-year-old kid in 1945 New York City, to his final days in the early 1990's, is to be considers one of the jazz's best. The 1996 album entitled, Bluing: Miles Davis Plays the Blues, the engineers at Prestige Records bring Miles Davis back to life. Packed with over 73 minutes and of 12 bar blues, Bluing brings nine great tunes of Davis' together on one disk. Having been originally recorded in the 1950's, these nine cuts take the listener through a decade of music and a decade of Davis' life. On the opening track, entitled "Bluing", we hear nearly ten minutes of Davis on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto sax, Sonny Rollins on tenor, Walter Bishop, Jr. on piano, Tommy Porter on bass, and Art Blakey playing the drums. Bishop provides the intro of the song on the piano, with Blakey coming in soon after. Nearly a minute in, Davis begins and is soon softly accompanied by the saxes. Through the first five or so mi
nutes of the tune, Davis enjoys a solo. He is then followed by the tenor and alto sax, respectively. I enjoy this track mostly for the tone Davis achieves and the moderate tempo. However, during Rollins' tenor solo and then again for the last minute or so of the song, Davis and the rest of the group pick up the pace and begin double-timing. In the end, for me, this track is made classic by a botched ending on the part of Art Blakey. If you listen closely you can hear Davis' instant reaction: "We'll have to play it again then, man. You know the arrangement." Obviously enough, Blakey doesn't contribute to any of the other songs on the album. Another cut that I enjoyed on this album is "Bags' Groove". Originally issued on Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants: Bags' Groove, this song opens with Milt Jackson on vibraharp and also has a great vibraharp solo about three minutes in to the over nine minute tune. Track five has come to be my favorite on the album Bluing.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 652
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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