My Favorites (Jazz): "Straight No Chaser" – Miles Davis
In honor of Miles Davis’ birthday here is a review of
another one of my favorite Miles Davis’ recordings:
When I first started to learn the blues one of the albums I
went to was the Milestones album my
parents had. I listened to “Straight No
Chaser” I don’t know how many times and was blown away by all of the solos on
this recording. Cannonball Adderly
starts out with ridiculous technique in his solo and I realized that at my
early stage of learning that there was no reason for me to even try to learn
his solo. Miles’ solo was more
approachable and there are some real hip and soulful phrases in his
playing. When Coltrane comes in he tears
into his “sheets of sound” and I knew that that solo too was out of reach for
me at that time.
Paul Chamber’s solo is of course a standout as well. He is one of the few bass players of that era
to completely adapt the bebop approach to the bass and you can hear his lines
just like he was playing a horn.
Red Garland’s piano solo however is the one that stood out
for me from this recording. Besides the
ridiculous amount of bounce and swing in his playing, there is something that
he does at the end that sparked my curiosity.
He does his characteristic block chords to end his solo but there was
something else about this solo. I kept
rewinding it back and listening to see where I have heard this before. Then it dawned on me. This was a note for note quote of Miles Davis’
solo on the “Now’s The Time” recording when he was 19 years old playing with
Charlie Parker.
Not only is a complete quotation but Red Garland harmonized
it and put block chords to the solo. I
was needless to say floored at this point.
The level of musicianship that it takes to not only learn the solo, re-harmonize
it, then flawlessly throw it in at that speed, at the end of your solo while in
a recording session, is without question mind-blowing.
Give it a listen and hear for yourself and leave your
comments below.
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