7. On the Corner - Miles Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbbCZaI313A Grandiose and Miles Davis dont seem to go together. I mean, he created cool jazz with Birth of the Cool. And after cool jazz turned towards the overly-complex, he revolutionized the art form again with stripped-down modal improvisations of Kind of Blue. On the Corner, however, is grandiose (although other, harsher, terms have been directed towards it). This album accelerated Miles push past jazz conventions, which he began with the early fusion works of the late 1960s. But On the Corner went beyond even the abstract, electronic riffing of Bitches Brew. Its long songs have simple, almost hypnotic drum-bass-and-guitar beats, over which are laid random-seeming runs by saxophones and trumpets. Sometimes a playfully simple melody develops over the rocking rhythm, or the whole thing breaks down before picking back up again. The album is an ingenious synthesis of minimalist music and then-popular funk and dance rhythms. While Ive listened to a lot of out-there jazz that came after Miles, Im not sure anyone could pull this off again. The backlash to experimental jazz that people like Wynton Marsalis ledsome of which was provoked by Miles 1970s workwould make it difficult for something like On the Corner to come together. Interestingly enough, Miles vision had its strongest impact on some of the more complex electronic music that came out in recent decades.