Miles Davis was a musical chameleon of sorts, not just in terms of how he changed his colors but how many about-faces he did to win over a new audience. Near the end of the sixties, he began tinkering with electronic instrumentation & the rhythms of rock music, & all this before he even put the word "fusion" on the map. Starting with "Circle In The Round" (from 1967), "Stuff" (from his 1968 effort Miles In The Sky), then moving on to Filles De Kilimanjaro and the electrified compositions on Water Babies, one was wondering which direction Miles was going to take with his music. Was it going to be more soulful, along the lines of James Brown? Was it going to be loud & proud like Hendrix? The enigmatic personality that he was, Messr. Davis always got good at leaving both his listeners and critics guessing which route he was going to take his music.
With the 1969 release of In A Silent Way, we would soon find out what direction the man of the hour would take his music. (The "Directions In Music", as indicated on the back cover, sums it up perfectly.) Then & only then did the floodgates of fusion began to open ever so gradually; only then did the rock/funk rhythms he tinkered with to good effect on previous efforts really begin to find their footing, their identity. No doubt, this was the start of something unique, a fresh way of approaching the musical canvas. To be honest, In A Silent Way signals a whole new thing altogether: Miles spreading his musical wings over previously unknown vistas, taking his compositions into unchartered territory & with amazing results.
Even now, listening to this album, calling this masterpiece amazing would be an understatement. In A Silent Way merged these differing musical routes of rock, funk, soul, pop, even classical into breathtaking, beautiful music which defies categorization or pigeonholing of any kind a good four decades later. Seriously, it saw no need to be labeled or tagged under this guise or that; it was, still is beautiful music, plain & simple.
At the same time, this is music which wasn't afraid of risk-taking, accepting challenges. Even the participants on this recording were daring, willing to step outside the box, a vast majority of the musicians leaving their own footprints in the world of fusion: Keyboardist Joe Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter (one of Miles' go-to guys in the composition department in his last great Quintet) went on to form Weather Report; guitarist John McLaughlin would go on to create the Mahavishnu Orchestra; keyboardist Chick Corea would bring on Return To Forever, just to name a few performers on this effort who would go on to bigger & better things. What can be said of the musicians' contributions, especially those aforementioned folks? Not only are they amazing but they are also superb, given the man's ability to get everyone to convene in one room with very little if anything to go on.
In A Silent Way would also signal the emergence of the producer as artist. Miles' right-hand man & longtime producer, Teo Macero, through tinkering around at the recording desk, extensive tape editing, even repeating a section of music twice to get a full-fledged production, made his presence known on this record as well. And credit should be given to Macero for bringing such musical bags of tricks into the spotlight, many of which became a trademark for Miles' future recordings, such as Bitches Brew, On The Corner, and Get On With It. (Namely with tape editing, looping, electronic tinkering.)
But Miles was only getting started on his next musical odyssey. His next release, the aforementioned Bitches Brew would sell like hot cakes; at the same time, it would send fusion's floodgates bursting open for good. It would be at this juncture where Miles threw down his musical gauntlet & let the truth be known to his critics just where he stood at this point in his career. Yet if one wants to know where the whole genre of fusion began in earnest, one needs to look no further than In A Silent Way for proof. It's the best point of reference which came to define a whole musical genre.
With the 1969 release of In A Silent Way, we would soon find out what direction the man of the hour would take his music. (The "Directions In Music", as indicated on the back cover, sums it up perfectly.) Then & only then did the floodgates of fusion began to open ever so gradually; only then did the rock/funk rhythms he tinkered with to good effect on previous efforts really begin to find their footing, their identity. No doubt, this was the start of something unique, a fresh way of approaching the musical canvas. To be honest, In A Silent Way signals a whole new thing altogether: Miles spreading his musical wings over previously unknown vistas, taking his compositions into unchartered territory & with amazing results.
Even now, listening to this album, calling this masterpiece amazing would be an understatement. In A Silent Way merged these differing musical routes of rock, funk, soul, pop, even classical into breathtaking, beautiful music which defies categorization or pigeonholing of any kind a good four decades later. Seriously, it saw no need to be labeled or tagged under this guise or that; it was, still is beautiful music, plain & simple.
At the same time, this is music which wasn't afraid of risk-taking, accepting challenges. Even the participants on this recording were daring, willing to step outside the box, a vast majority of the musicians leaving their own footprints in the world of fusion: Keyboardist Joe Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter (one of Miles' go-to guys in the composition department in his last great Quintet) went on to form Weather Report; guitarist John McLaughlin would go on to create the Mahavishnu Orchestra; keyboardist Chick Corea would bring on Return To Forever, just to name a few performers on this effort who would go on to bigger & better things. What can be said of the musicians' contributions, especially those aforementioned folks? Not only are they amazing but they are also superb, given the man's ability to get everyone to convene in one room with very little if anything to go on.
In A Silent Way would also signal the emergence of the producer as artist. Miles' right-hand man & longtime producer, Teo Macero, through tinkering around at the recording desk, extensive tape editing, even repeating a section of music twice to get a full-fledged production, made his presence known on this record as well. And credit should be given to Macero for bringing such musical bags of tricks into the spotlight, many of which became a trademark for Miles' future recordings, such as Bitches Brew, On The Corner, and Get On With It. (Namely with tape editing, looping, electronic tinkering.)
But Miles was only getting started on his next musical odyssey. His next release, the aforementioned Bitches Brew would sell like hot cakes; at the same time, it would send fusion's floodgates bursting open for good. It would be at this juncture where Miles threw down his musical gauntlet & let the truth be known to his critics just where he stood at this point in his career. Yet if one wants to know where the whole genre of fusion began in earnest, one needs to look no further than In A Silent Way for proof. It's the best point of reference which came to define a whole musical genre.
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