In A Silent Way

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Product Details

Artist : Miles Davis
Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0696998655621
Label : Sony Music Canada Inc.
Number of Discs : 1
Product Group : Music
Release Date : 2002-09-10
UPC : 696998655621

ASIN : B00006GO9Q

Track Listings for

Disc-1
1. Shhh/Peaceful
2. In A Silent Way

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Editorial Reviews

From Amazon.com

Miles Davis's famous mid-1960s quintet, featuring saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Herbie Hancock, was intact until just a few weeks before his new, electric ensemble recorded In a Silent Way. Legendary as a kind of line in the sand challenging jazz fans during the ascendance of electric, psychedelic rock, In a Silent Way hinted at the repetitive polyrhythms Davis would employ throughout the early 1970s. It also partook generously of electric piano and bass and rekindled the tonal palette that Davis had explored famously with Kind of Blue. But In a Silent Way remains a clearly electric jazz record, part ambient color exploration, part rock-inflected energy and vibe, and part outright maverick creativity. Davis takes many long, breathy solos, and they glisten in a burnished blue against his new group's strange admixture of musical moods. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Mesmerising (2004-07-15)

Not much happens on this album, no raging solos, no instantly memorizable melodies, no thunderous or mind blowing drumming. So why 5 stars? Because this album has something about it, an ineffable atmosphere of calm beauty that is joyful, trancendant and yet peaceful. Its like a cooling summer rain punctuated by occasional thunder in the distance. Its pastoral, yet electric. "In A Silent Way" is considered Miles first fusion album and the first in which he explored rock rhythms (that's debatable). Its also ironically one of his most tranquil and beautiful. An ambient masterpiece.

short and sweet describes my review, and Miles Davis'... (2004-07-12)

... "In a Silent Way". only two pieces, reaching about forty minutes. called as their favourites by many jazz fans, its certainly not mine nor is it my favoruite Miles Davis album... but its certainly one of the greatest jazz albums in our time.

"In a silent way" is actually more different from other Miles Davis recordings. this is more of a louder and rockier albums... having streaming guitars and drums. theirs two songs, "Shhh/Peaceful" and "In a silent way" starting out with the amazing guitar. both are almost twenty minutes long, so you can easily relax while listening to this masterpeice. normally i would write more about something, but i simply shouldn't have to with this. its loved by many, and you'll love it too.

Not-so-silent masterpiece. (2004-03-03)

1969's In A Silent Way is Miles Davis' first, and in my opinion, best foray into the world of fusion, a world that he hinted at with the prescence of electric piano on Files De Kilimanjaro. Unlike the heavy, brooding, and dissonant B-tches' Brew and the grating, rambling funk-jazz noodling that followed, In A Silent Way is eminently listenable and pleasant while still being far from ambient. Don't let the title mislead you--there's a lot going on in this album.

Basically, a continuation and augmentation of Miles' second quintet (consisting of Wayne Shorter on soprano sax, Tony Williams on drums, Herbie Hancock on piano, and replacing Ron Carter with Dave Holland on bass), this album adds three other notable jazz figures to the band. Joe Zawinul is on organ, Chick Corea teams up with Hancock on electric piano, and the incomparable British guitar deity John McLaughin is here, in one of his most restrained roles.

The sound is a subtle combination of cool jazz, funk, and rock. It's a credit to Miles' compositional ability that the three pianists never crowd things or sound muddy. Everybody knows exactly what to play and when to play it, yet the music has the best qualities of soulful improvisation as well. Despite the soft volume of all the instruments involved, there is much to listen to here. Just listen to the phenomenal interplay between all the musicians on hand, how Zawinul's organ runs perfectly compliment Corea and Hancock's chiming electric pianos and McLaughlin's laidback licks, how Williams' rockish hi-hat rhythms provide the backing, and how Miles blows out one of the best performances of his career. This is the Kind Of Blue of fusion, an album that all later melodic fusion recordings (including some of Miles' own) would be compared to and found wanting.

The only disadvantage to all this tasty music is that it lasts only 38 minutes. You'll want more. Hands-down my favorite Miles album, jazz purists be damned.

Top of the heap... (2004-01-29)

This is one of the best albums ever released. It has a subtle, quiet power that can be overwhelming if heard at the right time. It's good on a rainy day or at night, without other sounds interfering. My favorite aspect of this album is the multiple keyboard arrangements, where the keyboard players almost seem to be conducting a conversation with each other in the background. The guitar work is also very subtle, not overbearing as McLaughlin can sometimes be. It's amazing he'd have the versatility to do this and the work he did in the Tony Williams Lifetime around the same period. In a sense this album is most easily classified as ambient music, and can almost be seen as the genesis of modern downtempo "electronica." However, here we have real musicians playing the various parts, and it shows. There's improvisation as well as structure, personal input from Teo Macero in his excellent mixing work, and that classic shimmering hornwork from Miles. It's my favorite Miles release and one of the best of all time.

One of Miles Davis's best (2003-08-15)

I listen to this Miles Davis record more than most traditional jazz and rock. It is without categorization. You can tell he was listening to a lot of soul, funk, and 60's acid rock type music when this album came out. I would say this album is one of the more unique albums I've ever heard, especially considering it is from the late 60's. You can hear the roots of ambient music (which never has reached these heights) as well as an interesting hybrid of funk, classical, and jazz. The minimalist drums, bass, and guitar of Tony Williams, Dave Holland, and John McLaughlin give this album a restrained, but complex tension that isn't found on any of theirs or Miles's other albums. The end climax of the album is brilliant as Tony Williams peaks with Miles and shows off some of his chops. One of the few psychedelic jazz albums that beats out most of the work of famous rock people from that era. Too bad Miles and Hendrix never got together!

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