Miles Davis 'All Blues'- Kind of Blue

made up of a sextet (group of 6 players)

FRONTLINE

Miles Davis (trumpet)

Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley (alto sax)

John Coltrane (tenor sax)

RHYTHM SECTION

Bill Evans (piano)

Paul Chambers (bass)

Jimmy Cobb (drums)

play main melody & prominent solos

provides the harmonic & rhythmic backing

album recording had no rehearsal & no score

basic information given was overall structure / basic chord sequence / main melodic idea / mode/scale to improvise on

STRUCTURE

based on 12 bar blues progression (12 bar chord sequence which returns throughout)

one statement is called a chorus

main melody is called the head (played by the muted trumpet & lasts for 12 bars - heard at the start & end of the piece)

sections separated by a simple 4 bar riff in parallel 3rds

broken into 5 sections (called head arrangement)

INTRO - opening 4 bars played by the rhythm section followed by the riff

HEAD 1 - head melody, played twice & followed by the riff

SOLOS - trumpet, alto/tenor sax & piano, each followed by the riff

HEAD 2 - head melody, played twice & followed by the riff

CODA - solo for muted trumpet

MELODY

head melody is simple & is characterised by rising 6ths (interval D - B)

four improvised solos follow

TRUMPET SOLO - for 4 choruses, made of short syncopated motifs

ALTO SAX SOLO - for 4 choruses, quicker & wider range of notes & is more virtuosic

TENOR SAX SOLO - for 4 choruses, uses fast scales & quicker runs & is very virtuosic

PIANO SOLO - for 2 choruses, calmer & a simple melody with parallel chords