Miles Davis Quintet ‘Four’

About Davis Lived from 1926 to 1991 Regarded as the lead figure in American jazz through the 2 nd half of the 20 th century Worked with the saxophonist Charlie Parker when he was younger to develop the ‘Bebop’ style of jazz

In the late 50s help develop the ‘Cool Jazz’ style with relaxed tempos and modal harmonies In the 60s (which this recording is taken from) he changed to a more extreme version of the ‘Bebop’ style using faster tempos and a new free style of improvisation Kind of Blue. The best selling jazz album of all time.

Performing Forces How would you describe the playing style of the Double Bass? Walking Bass (scalic figure using continuous crotchets) played pizzicato. What about the Piano? Chordal accompaniment, know as ‘ comping ’ Drums? Jazz swing rhythm on the ride cymbal. Plays occasional fills on the snare, incorporating ‘ rimshots ’

Trumpet techniques! In your score find an example of the following techniques: High register playing Fall offs Ghost notes Pitch bending

Trumpet techniques! - Answers High register playing Third chorus (bar. 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 etc.) Fall offs – Like a glissando (fall off the note to nothing) First chorus (bar. 1.15) Ghost notes – very quiet note not always on a certain pitch Second chorus (bar. 2.1) Pitch bending – using the lips to alter the pitch First chorus (bars – 1.20)

Structure ‘ Head ’ arrangement – statement of the main melody. Head is 32 bars A set of improvised solos occur after the ‘Head’ which are known as ‘ Choruses ’. They are also 32 bars in length. The same chord changes are used in both sections

Tonality What is the key at the beginning of the piece? E-flat Major How would you describe the tonality choruses? Unclear. The style in the chorus is so chromatic that the tonality isn’t always evident.

Harmony Because this piece derives from the BeBop style, the harmony is complex and dissonant. Every chord is an extended chord. The concentration of the upper extensions of the chords is an important feature of the BeBop style What type of chords are these: E-flat 9 (bar. 8) E-flat Major 9 F# (bar. H1) F# diminished 7 th How does the Double Bass part play over the first four chords? Rises Chromatically

Harmony cont. Find an example of a circle of 5 th ’s progression (*Hint – the progression moves down in 5 th ’s) First Chorus (bars 1.26 – 1.29) There is frequent use of chord substitutions in this piece. What is a chord subsitution?

Harmony cont. What do you notice about the chord used every 4 bars in the Head? Moves to a Minor 7 th chord Look at bars H What would Fm 7 and B b7 be in Roman numerals in the given key? ii 7 – V 7 Where have you seen these two chords before? Two chords before the I chord in a perfect cadence ii 7 – V 7 is the ‘turnaround’ progression in Jazz harmony used to lead back to the beginning.

Melody Head Melody – Three note, scalic phrases, repeated and then inverted The melody in the next four bars is a sequence of the first four bars down a …? Perfect 5 th (B b to E b )

Melody cont. Describe the range of the Head melody Narrow (D-F minor 10 th ) In the break and choruses the scalic idea of the Head is retained The improvisations are based on the chords of the head rather than the head melody All the Trumpet techniques mentioned in performing forces have an effect of the melody.

Melody cont. What melodic technique is a feature in the 3 rd chorus ? Repeated notes? No! Feature of the 4 th chorus Low Register? No! Feature in the 2 nd chorus Wide Leaps? Yes! Bars

Texture What is the general texture of the piece? Melody Dominated Homophony Describe how the Trumpet and Tenor Sax play in the Head Tenor Sax plays the octave below Where is in the extract does the texture change to Monophonic ? Break (two bars before 1.1) The Piano is sometimes silent at the beginning of the choruses leaving a two-part texture of Trumpet, Double Bass and Drum Kit accompaniment.

Rhythm & Metre The quavers tend to be slightly swung Where are longer note values played in the Trumpet part? Example – Bar Why does he use longer note values here? To make use of Trumpet techniques like fall offs Other than quavers, what other types of notes values do you find in the choruses? Triplet quavers (Bars )

Rhythm & Metre cont. The head is heavily syncopated. The first beat of the bar is usually avoided. Almost every Piano chord is ‘ pushed ’. What does this mean? Pushed – played before the beat. The main rhythm used in the piece is continuous groups of quavers, sometimes playing for three straight bars.

E b Major

High Register playing

ii 7 – V 7

Kind of Blue

Ghost Note

Comping

Break

Repeating Notes

Circle of 5 th ’s

Chord Extension