Miles Davis, All Blues

Frontline:

• Trumpet
• Alto saxophone
• Tenor saxophone

They play the main melody and prominent solos

Rhythm section:

• Piano
  
• Bass
• Drums

They provide the harmonic and rhythmic backing

The album was recorded with almost no rehearsal, the musicians just had to know these things:

• The overall structure
• The basic chord sequence
• The main melodic idea
• Which mode/scale to improvise on
  

• Based on 12 bar blues progression
• Main melody = head and played by the muted trumpet
• Simple 4 bar riff seperating each section in parallel 3rds
• Head arrangement

INTRO- 4 bars, rhythm section

RIFF

HEAD 1- Head melody, played twice

RIFF

SOLOS- Trumpet, alto & tenor sax, piano, EACH FOLLOWED BY A RIFF

HEAD 2- Head melody, played twice

RIFF

CODA- Solo for muted trumpet

The head melody is simple and consists of rising 6ths. This is followed by 4 improvised solos:

• TRUMPET SOLO: 4 choruses, short syncopated motifs
• ALTO SAX SOLO: 4 choruses, quicker notes, wider range, more virtuosic
• TENOR SAX SOLO: 4 choruses, fast scales, quick runs, very virtuosic
• PIANO SOLO: 2 choruses, calmer, simple melody, parallel chords
  

• Based on 12 bar blues sequence, which is repeated throughout the piece
• Jazz musicians call a chord sequence the 'changes'
• In G major with a flattened 7th (flattened 7th in jazz is called a blue note)
• Mixolydian mode, so All Blues is an example of modal jazz
  

• It is in 6/4
• Tempo = jazz waltz because each 6/4 bar sounds like a pair of bars in 3/4 time
• Performed with swing quavers (each pair of quavers is played with the first a little longer than the second)
• Frequent syncopation
  

• Snare drum is played with wire brushes at the start
• The bass plays pizzacato throughout
• The trumpet plays with a harmon mute for the head
• The piano plays a tremelo at the start and then begins comping (accompaying with chords and short melodic ideas)
  

• All blues comes from the album, 'Kind of blue' released in 1959
• The band on this album is a sextet (group of 6 players)
• It is an example of modal jazz (laid back and uncomplicated with improvisations based on modes)
• Jazz first originated from South America during the early 20th century
• Miles Davis is one of the best known jazz trumpeters
  

MILES DAVIS

ALL BLUES

AREA STUDY 3 (POPULAR MUSIC IN CONTEXT)