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In a Silent Way (Music)

 In a Silent Way (Music)
type
 TVTItem
 In a Silent Way (Music)
label
 In a Silent Way (Music)
 In a Silent Way (Music)
page
 InASilentWay
 In a Silent Way (Music)
comment
 In a Silent Way is an album by legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, recorded in a single session date at CBS 30th Street Studio in New York City on February 18, 1969, and released on July 30 of the same year through Columbia Records. Although Miles had employed electric bass, electric guitar, and electric piano on his two previous albums, 1968's Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way is generally regarded as the proper start of his Jazz Fusion period (or, if not the start, then its Growing the Beard moment).While now universally recognised as a classic, In a Silent Way alienated jazz purists at the time, and not merely because it featured electric instrumentation (Record Producer Teo Macero also edited both tracks in the studio after the fact). Each of the album's two lengthy tracks actually consists of at least two performances spliced together: "Shhh" bookends "Peaceful" for the album's first track, while "In a Silent Way" (composed by pianist Joe Zawinul) bookends Davis' composition "It's About That Time" for the second. (Some of these segments were themselves constructed from multiple performances.) The album "seemed near heretical by jazz standards", as The Rolling Stone Album Guide retrospectively put it. In his book Running the Voodoo Down: The Electric Music of Miles Davis, Phil Freeman writes:Nonetheless, it certainly received its share of rapturous acclaim at the time. Famed rock critic Lester Bangs called In a Silent Way "the kind of album that gives you faith in the future of music. It is not rock and roll, but it's nothing stereotyped as jazz either. All at once, it owes almost as much to the techniques developed by rock improvisors in the last four years as to Davis' jazz background. It is part of a transcendental new music which flushes categories away and, while using musical devices from all styles and cultures, is defined mainly by its deep emotion and unaffected originality."In a Silent Way has also retrospectively attracted acclaim as one of Miles' finest musical accomplishments. PopMatters' Chip O'Brien writes, "It is neither jazz nor rock. It isn’t what will eventually become known as fusion, either. It is something altogether different, something universal. There is a beautiful resignation in the sounds of this album, as if Davis is willingly letting go of what has come before, of his early years with Charlie Parker, with John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, of his early ’60s work, and is embracing the future, not only of jazz, but of music itself." Stylus Magazine's Nick Southall writes, "The fresh modes of constructing music that it presented revolutionised the jazz community, and the shifting, ethereal beauty of the actual music contained within has remained beautiful and wonderful, its echoes heard through the last 30 years, touching dance music, electronica, rock, pop, all music."Davis' next album, the two-LP set Bitches Brew, was considerably weirder and far more dissonant — and sold considerably better. Like In a Silent Way, it was controversial at the time, but has since been Vindicated by History.
 In a Silent Way (Music)
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 In a Silent Way (Music)
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 DBTropes
 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_14beeefd
type
 Darker and Edgier
 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_14beeefd
comment
 Darker and Edgier: Compared to his earlier work, it is arguably this due to its more prominent use of electric instruments. However, one of the tracks is still called "Peaceful" for a reason - overall, the album's atmosphere is quite serene, especially compared to his later fusion work.
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 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_1f37a427
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 Face on the Cover
 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_1f37a427
comment
 Face on the Cover: Miles has a rather disgruntled look on the cover - which oddly doesn't fit the album's mood at all.
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 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_4e94d01b
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 Psychedelic Rock
 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_4e94d01b
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 Psychedelic Rock: In a Silent Way isn't itself an example, but the genre is a clear and acknowledged influence on it.
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 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_4f4372e9
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 Early-Installment Weirdness
 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_4f4372e9
comment
 Early-Installment Weirdness: Not for Miles' career overall, but his fusion material. This album lacks the dissonance and/or heavy guitar distortion found in much of his later fusion work (Get Up with It aside) - in fact, you could easily sleep to it. He would shed this on his very next album.
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 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_53224e46
type
 Bookends
 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_53224e46
comment
 Bookends: Each track's opening section is repeated in its entirety at the end of the track.
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 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_5e835a41
type
 Gratuitous Panning
 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_5e835a41
comment
 Gratuitous Panning: Well, it was The '60s, so this would be expected anyway, but it would've been pretty much mandatory regardless of the era, owing to the large number of performers - the panning is necessary to distinguish their parts. The left channel has John McLaughlin's guitar, Corea's Wurlitzer, and Shorter's soprano saxophone; the center channel has Davis' trumpet and Holland's bass; the right channel has Zawinul's Hammond, Hancock's Rhodes, and Williams' drums. The only thing that would probably be different if the album were mixed today is that the drums would be mixed in stereo.
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 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_74149c93
type
 Epic Rocking
 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_74149c93
comment
 Epic Rocking: Both tracks are at least eighteen minutes long and take up an entire album side, although each is also comprised of two compositions spliced together. "Shhh" and "It's About That Time" are respectively above six and eleven minutes in length, though.
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 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_ce6555f0
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 Lighter and Softer
 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_ce6555f0
comment
 Lighter and Softer: Than his later fusion work, by far.
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 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_f0e85546
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 Unbuilt Trope
 In a Silent Way (Music) / int_f0e85546
comment
 Unbuilt Trope: Miles' work served as a bit of a Trope Codifier for jazz fusion, but as this was early in his fusion period (if not his first fusion work outright), it was a lot less distorted and nightmarish than much of his later work. Then again, this album is arguably more influential on the likes of Weather Report than something like Bitches Brew is (and since Weather Report's Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter both perform on this album and Bitches Brew, it really shouldn't be surprising).
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 In a Silent Way (Music)

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 In a Silent Way (Music)
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 In a Silent Way (Music)
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 In a Silent Way (Music)
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 In a Silent Way (Music)
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