Miles Davis

“Solar”: Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis

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Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple. -Keith Jarrett Originally attributed to Miles Davis, the tune Solar was written by the jazz guitarist Chuck Wayne. It was first heard at an intimate 1946 jam session in Oklahoma City. Later, Davis included it on his 1954 album, Walkin’. Here is an ecstatic improvisation on Solar by the American pianist, Keith Jarrett. The athletic performance took place in Japan in …

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Remembering Wayne Shorter: “Footprints” in Two Versions

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Wayne Shorter, the legendary American jazz saxophonist and composer, passed away last Thursday. He was 89. Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Wayne Shorter joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1959 and became the band’s music director. In 1964, he became a member of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet. Herbie Hancock remembered Shorter as the group’s “master writer,” and commented, “Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles …

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Chopin’s Berceuse and the Music of Bill Evans

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Listen to Frédéric Chopin’s D-flat major Berceuse, Op. 57, completed in 1844, and you might get the uncanny feeling that you’re hearing a jazz improvisation. As its title suggests, on one level, Chopin’s masterwork is a dreamy, gently rocking lullaby. Until the final cadence, it’s built on a sublime harmonic oscillation made up of just two chords. It begins with a serene melody which seems to anticipate the Gymnopédies of Erik Satie, published …

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Bartók’s Surprising Influence on Jazz

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There are some fascinating connections between jazz and the music of Béla Bartók. Both have a pristine, highly-ordered sense of structure. Both are built on complex rhythmic grooves which grow out of a folk tradition. Jazz pianist Dániel Szabó delves into this subject in a recent article where he writes, Whenever I hear the second movement of Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, the extraordinarily tight rhythm, the shifts in emphasis, inserting 3/8 phrases …

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