​Musical Links Investigation

Miles Davis was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Born in 1926, he is considered one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. His records varied widely with the different types of jazz. His music and developments include traditional jazz, cool jazz, modal jazz and many more. In this website, we will investigate an example of his modal jazz.

 

His 1959 album Kind of Blue includes a variety of examples of modal jazz. The entire album was composed as a series of modal sketches, in which each performer was given a set of scales that defined the parameters of their improvisation and style. This style was in contrast to more typical means of composing, such as providing musicians with a complete score or, as was more common for improvisational jazz, providing the musicians with a chord progression or series of harmonies(2).

 

The first track of Kind of Blue is 'So What'. The long track, being 9 minutes and 22 seconds, uses the trumpet as the main instrument of performance. Regarding modal jazz, the track makes use of the Dorian mode, in D and half a step up to Eb. The texture includes a wide range of homophony. This can be seen in the links provided in the website.