Miles Davies "All Blues"

Based on a 12 bar blues pattern in which G gets repeated throughout the piece. The chords are a bit fancier than the standard 12 bar blues, as they use augmented 9ths and 7ths and substitution chords (substituting a typical chard for a more unusual one).

We can think of the piece as being in G major but with a flattened 7th - this is the same as the mixolydian mode.

This is the chord structure for all blues:

G7  G7  G7  G7  C7  C7  G7  G7  D79#  Eb#9D7#9  G7  G7

All instruments keep to their middle and lower registers.

Miles Davies uses mutes, ghost notes (notes that are hinted at rather than played) and rests in his solo to make it more mellow.

There are two main riffs.

The piece statrs with drums played with brushes, the bass playing Riff 1 and the piano playing a trill in 3rds. At bar 5 the alto and tenor saxophones join in with riff 2.

A breathy tone is used in the saxes.

The trumpet is played with a harmon mute for the head.

The piano plays a tremolo at the start, and then is comping (accompanying with chords and short melodic ideas)

 The piece uses a very simple texture - wind instruments play in 3rds and 4ths, while the piano and double bass play a simple riff and chords. The drum keeps a steady beat.

Dynamics are mostly subdued - most of it's moderately loud, except for a few louder trumpet.

The time signature is 6/4, which is unusual for most jazz pieces of the time.

Tempo is marked as 'jazz Waltz' which means that it should be played at a moderate pace.

It has a swung rhythm and syncopation is often used.

Intro - Head - Improvised solo sections (trumpet, alto sax, tenor sax, piano) - head - outro. After each of the solos, intro 2 is played.

4 Bar riff in parallel 3rds in between each section.

The overall structure and who is doing each solo.

Basic chord sequence.

Main melodic idea.

Which mode or scale to improvise on.

The time signature.