Pharaoh Webb-Bryant

It is not uncommon for artists to go through change. Painters may change the style they

paint in. They might go from realistic, detailed figures to vague shapes, expressions. Musicians go

through this as well, changing their entire sound. They incorporate new instruments, new styles of

composing, or they just change genres all together. Even the most famous musicians change their

sound. This usually results in some controversy, with one half of the fanbase praising the artist for taking

the leap and changing, and the other half disliking, even hating the artist for changing the sound they

had grown comfortable with. Miles Davis is one such example of this. I will be looking at two essays

discussing Miles’ most experimental album at the time, “On the Corner,” and explaining why I agree

with Greg Tate, and disagree with Stanley Crouch. I believe Miles Davis was not a sellout.

Stanley Crouch talks about how Miles’ “fall,” came around during In a Silent Way, and how he

should have sticked to the sound in albums like Nefertiti and Filles de Kilimanjaro. On page 286 on

Considering Genius, he calls “Mademoiselle Mabry,” one of the album’s songs, “An innovation in jazz

rhythm, it is an appropriation and an extension of Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary,” and proof of what

Davis might have done had he kept control of his popular sources, rather than succumbed to them.” I

feel like Stanley Crouch is trying to say that Miles wouldn’t have gone further if he didn’t sell out, which I

think is wrong. Whenever Miles develops a new style, he always tests the waters first. When he first

tried modal jazz on the album Milestones, the only song that employed it was the title track. He

experiments a bit, then he takes the plunge. He treats jazz fusion the same way. In a Silent Way was not

an artist finally selling himself out, it was an artist taking his final steps before plunging headfirst into a

new sound. It isn’t the strange soundscapes of Bitches Brew, it isn’t the rock-riff madness of Jack

Johnson, and it isn’t the looping, funky rhythms of On the Corner. It is much more subdued, like modal

Miles with an electrical injection.

Stanley crouch also talks about how Miles changed himself to appear hip with the kids. On page 287, he

states “Miles’s music became progressively trendy and dismal, as did his attire...” I don’t think Miles
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changed his music and appearance for the soul purpose of being trendy and marketable. He’s always

kept an ear out for new sounds, and finding ways to modify them to suit him. When he couldn’t play as

fast as Dizzy Gillespie, he intentionally kept his sound slow. When he first heard about modal jazz, he

played it in the way that he liked. His incorporation of rock into his music is the same. It’s less about

what was popular, and more about what sounds he could make. Rock music was very close to him as

well. His wife at the time, Betty Davis, was very into popular music at the time. She introduced him to

many of the artists that she listened to, like Jimi Hendrix. Why wouldn’t Miles incorporate a sound that

was all around him?

Greg Tate is very much for Miles’s electric period. He talks a lot about how Miles takes references from

rock and funk at the time, bringing up names like Funkadelic, Zappa, and Hendrix. You can really hear

the influences in On the Corner and Jack Johnson. The first song on Jack Johnson, “Right Off,” is

aggressively rock inspired. The crashing symbols, the shifting electric bassline, and John McLaughlin’s

superb guitar playing. Miles uses his trumpet almost like a second guitar, adding on to McLaughlin’s own

strumming. On the album On the Corner, Miles digs deep into funk, making the sound a bit looser and

free. The basslines are more pronounced. He adds sound effects like clapping. He even uses a wah-wah

pedal on his horn, something I’ve never even thought of before. You can really hear how he takes the

funk and rock sounds and morphs them into something more, making new sounds and rhythms.

Greg Tate also theorizes on why Miles left the post-bop scene. He thinks, “I think Miles left post-bop

modernism for the funk because he was bored fiddling with quantum mechanics and just wanted to play

the blues again.’ I agree with this. The main reason why Miles changed from bebop to modal was

because it was freer. Instead of having to keep his solos contained in a certain set of bars, he just had to

keep it on the same scale. The music he makes in his electric period is even freer than that. Bitches Brew

sounds like one mass improvisation. The only things that feel really consistent are the drums and the
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bass. Everything else is variable, always shifting. It feels like this for many of his other, future albums as

well. Everything is looser.

I feel like the mark of a truly great artist is not to make one good sound, but to constantly shift their

sounds and still have them sound good. Miles Davis is a great example of this. Throughout his entire

career he is always moving, always finding a new sound. He never stays in one place, and he is always

pushing himself further out. That is one of the reasons I admire him so much. And that is why I think he

is not a sellout.