Topic > Miles Davis in Jazz Fusion: The Reform and Development

Among all musical genres, jazz plays a significant role in the history of art. American jazz critic Ted Gioia states that “jazz has always been a fusion music. 'Nothing from New Orleans is ever pure' - so goes the old throwaway phrase." If we talk about the entire course of the development of jazz, its history is long. Jazz is the result of traditional black African folk music and European classical fusion music. They clashed with each other in the 19th century. Impure at its birth, jazz is divided into myriad genres. And jazz fusion is a hybrid derivative based on the evolution of jazz music. Refers to a specific type of jazz influenced by rock from the 1970s to 1980s. To assimilate deeper knowledge on the evolution of jazz, this essay will adopt an omnidirectional view on the history of jazz fusion on the formation and development, and there is an outstanding master influenced a lot in the history of jazz-rock: Davis Miles and his band. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay After the American Civil War, African slaves gained their freedom but still lived in poverty. Most of them were uneducated. So they could only entertain themselves with the music cultivated in their hometown. This is the process that brought jazz to the African-American community of New Orleans in the late 19th century. It started from scratch and became the most distinguished Native American musical art genre in a century. It doesn't matter Blues, Ragtime, March or Swing, each of them stands out from the others and has its own unique characteristics. To this day each category is active on stage with different interpretations of jazz. Strong and lasting vitality broke geographical, racial and national boundaries. Whenever a musical style becomes rigid, a more appealing one will be generated to satisfy people's appetites. Jazz fusion is one of the branches of jazz and a typical form of musical expression. At the end of the 60s, jazz entered a crisis: rock music came to the stage and the young audience preferred rock music, the old audience was no longer obsessed with abstract and simple jazz. So, musicians have realized that if they want to win back the hearts of the audience, they have to add and combine different musical elements to create a unique and new one that can attract the attention of the audience. Since the city's population was diverse, music also interacted with others. Jazz fusion has absorbed different musical styles from different cultures, inherited the traditional jazz of New Orleans, and today gradually forms a variety of fusion music. The author of Genre of Popular Music Fabian also demonstrates that “this fusion appealed especially to the younger generations, but not to specialists with solid foundations in tradition. Commercial interests among producers were strong because a musical fusion with popular styles has the potential to cross and thus reach a large market." The charisma of the fusion is that it highlights contemporary electric bass instead of using acoustic bass, electronic synthesizer instead of piano, etc. It also adds more integration with classic and rock styles to make it more modern and bold. Any musical element can be used as a recipe for cooking jazz feast, which is refreshing and jazz-colored and is loved by more people. Compared to traditional jazz, fusion is a major reform in the history of jazz. Since the 20th century, crossover music has spread throughout the world. How did the merger come about? To delve deeper into the existence of the merger, there is one man who should be named: Miles Davis. MilesDavis was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Throughout his life he conducted extensive research into many styles of jazz music. More importantly, he is the grandfather of Jazz Fusion. He studied at the Juilliard School in New York, left school and began performing in the bar on 52nd Street. In 1964, when the Beatles spread to the world, Davis found that traditional rock music matched the potential market of jazz, and created Jazz Rock, later known as Fusion, which attracted many rock fans to join the jazz market. He was known for his slow, resentful and singular tastes. He liked to imitate the train, the voices of old people and the sound of electric guitars. The author of Miles Davis: A New Revolution in Sound assesses that “A main feature of Davis's playing was a new and different way of phrasing in which a greater emphasis and focus on the relationship between space, time and melody (and the intervals between notes) became the hallmark of his style. In the process, Davis dramatically redefined and expanded the expressive and creative range of the trumpet's tonal palette and instrumental timbre." Kofi's appreciation accurately describes Mile Davis' work. Since his songs came out, they have become a cult object for musicians to follow. He is a musician who always maintains a learning mood to observe new objects every day and be willing to accept new ideas. His obsession with jazz and his self-subversive attitude persisted for many years and determined his success. Miles Davis is a true revolutionary, he broke himself and the entire history of music. Miles Davis' fusion transformation involves his second impressive quintet. He brought a wider variety of musical visions to his band. His group moved and changed for several years in the early 1960s. Eventually he settled for a classical quintet for four years. The band consists of Miles Davis on trumpet, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams. Davis took over the rhythm section of Hancock, Carter and Williams in 1963, and Shorter joined the group until September 1964. The group interacted at a high level in the history of jazz and later developed jazz-rock. The band incorporated electric bass, guitar and keyboards into their sound. Wayne Shorter became the band's primary composer and they released six studio recordings from 1964 to 1968. Miles Davis even took on the duties of composer and composed one of his masterpieces: In a Silent Way. While collaborating with Miles Davis, the quintet explored a number of improvisation and accompaniment techniques that deviated from standard practice. The artists collaborated with unique strategies and formed their own jazz performance style. In the book The Studio Recordings of Miles Davis, 1965-1968, author Waters states that “They (Quintet) also explored a number of improvisational and accompaniment techniques that deviated from standard hard bop practice. Musicians have redefined spontaneous small-group interaction, particularly working through techniques of harmonic substitution and overlay, metric conflict, and metric modulation. In works that used the repeated structure of the chorus during improvisation, these techniques had important implications for musical form as they could function to both delineate and mask important formal junctures. Using these techniques, the quintet did not follow the normal way of cooperation, what they did was add more extraordinary techniques to make the brand stand out. During the four years, the band released six recordings together:=679598