MILES DAVIS: THE FUSION YEARS

Miles Davis, who had already moved through bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and his own brand of the avant-garde, wanted to continue evolving. The soul and rock music of James Brown, Sly Stone, and Jimi Hendrix interested him, and by 1968 he was opening up his own music to those outside influences. He encouraged Herbie Hancock to play electric piano and Ron Carter to switch to electric bass. Before the end of the year, Hancock had departed to form his own sextet while Carter became a very busy studio musician; they were replaced by keyboardist Chick Corea and bassist Dave Holland. In early 1969 drummer Tony Williams also departed to form his own Lifetime group and was succeeded by Jack DeJohnette. Shortly before Williams left, Miles Davis’ ensemble, the quintet augmented by the keyboards of Hancock and Joe Zawinul plus guitarist John McLaughlin, recorded the two lengthy medleys that formed In a Silent Way , a moody and groundbreaking electronic album.

In a Silent Way surprised Davis’ longtime fans, but many of them were much more disturbed by its follow-up, Bitches Brew . This six-song double LP essentially launched the fusion movement. Davis was joined by Wayne Shorter on soprano, Corea, Holland, DeJohnette, Bennie Maupin on bass clarinet, Zawinul, electric bassist Harvey Brooks, percussionists Don Alias and Jumma Santos, plus on a few selections drummer Lenny White and Larry Young on electric piano. Most of the performances are very extended with the emphasis on ensembles, though the trumpeter had some solos, and a rock-like sound. The music is quite unpredictable and very different from the ensemble-solos-ensemble format of straight-ahead jazz. While some detractors accused Davis of “selling out,” in reality his new music was not that easy to comprehend and often featured twenty-minute selections that could never catch on as pop hits. “Selling out” for Davis actually would have involved sticking with his 1950s repertoire and repeating the same ideas throughout his career, instead of constantly forging ahead.

From 1970 to 1975 Davis took his music through a lot of phases, utilizing many different players in his expanded groups. In addition to his alumni, such musicians as keyboardist Keith Jarrett, percussionist Airto, and saxophonists Dave Grossman, Gary Bartz, Dave Liebman, and Sonny Fortune spent periods in his group. Among Davis’ recordings of the era were Miles Davis at Fillmore , which has Corea and Jarrett constantly banging their keyboards as if they were trying to destroy them; the excellent Live/Evil; A Tribute to Jack Johnson; On the Corner , by which time Davis was completely distorting his own sound with electronics; Dark Magus , a 1974 set that has the group utilizing three electric guitars; and Agharta and Pangaea , a pair of live concerts that were both recorded February 1, 1975.

After having created such challenging approaches to fusion, with overcrowded ensembles, guitarists emulating Jimi Hendrix, and fiery trumpet solos, Davis surprised everyone by dropping out of music completely in mid-1975. In bad health and burnt out, he did not perform in public until 1981 when he began a comeback, taking about two years to gain back all of his trumpet “chops.” His older fans were disappointed that he did not return to the music of the 1950s and 1960s that had made him famous, but the trumpeter’s music was different in the 1980s than during the first half of the 1970s. The multiple keyboardists were gone, and he only used one guitarist. He no longer distorted his tone, he rediscovered the value of using space, and he showed a greater appreciation for melodies again, even though he looked much more to the pop world than to jazz, with two of his ballad features being Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” and Cyndy Lauper’s “Time after Time.” In addition, one of the highlights of his sets was when he played a lowdown blues. Although by the late 1980s it seemed like Davis was treading water to an extent, he never played it overly safe.

It could also be said that the trumpeter never looked back, except once. At the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival, Davis agreed to revisit some of the Gil Evans arrangements written for his Birth of the Cool, Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess , and Sketches of Spain , projects from earlier decades. Although some of the solo space was given to trumpeter Wallace Roney, who closely emulated Davis, and altoist Kenny Garrett, overall Davis did a good job in interpreting this difficult music, just two months before his death at age sixty-five. During his more than four decades in the spotlight, Davis created enough intriguing music and innovations to last several lifetimes.