So What (jazz track)

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So What (German: Na und? ) Is a jazz composition by Miles Davis from 1959. The first version was published on the album Kind of Blue . The “easy-to-play” song became “the epitome of modal jazz ” and a jazz standard that “amateur bands like to play”.

The composition

So What is one of the best known examples of modal jazz, set in the Doric mode . It is very simple: “A riff-like melody from the double bass is answered by wind players and piano with two chords - a total of sixteen times.” The wind chords can be interpreted as a call and response . The composition has no continuity harmonies, but has standing scales (modes); it consists of 16 bars in D-Doric, eight bars in Es-Doric and eight bars in D-Doric. With its song form AABA and its thirty-two bars , it corresponds formally to the structure of the American popular song.

The piano and bass introduction for the piece was written by Gil Evans for Bill Evans and Paul Chambers for Kind of Blue . The distinctive intonation of Bill Evans for the chords, a five-note chord with three stacked fourths and a third above, was referred to by the theoretician Mark Levine as the "So-What-Chord".

John Coltrane later used the same chord structure for his Standard Impressions .

More shots

Davis recorded the composition several times, in 1961 with Gil Evans' orchestra and in 1964 with George Coleman . While the piece is played at a very moderate pace on Kind of Blue , it was played much faster on later live recordings like Four and More . Numerous trumpeters followed Davis and recorded the piece. Bill Evans played it with his trio. George Russell dropped the subject in 1987 and based his composure on Davis' solo.

In 1991 saxophonist Candy Dulfer recorded the song for her debut album, Saxuality . In 1992 guitarist Ronny Jordan released an acid jazz version of So What with his debut album The Antidote . In 2005, the Larry Coryell Trio recorded the song for the album Electric . The drummer Jimmy Cobb founded the So What band in 2009 for the fifty-year recording of Kind of Blue , with whom he also went on tour.

Versions with text

The singer Frank Minion recorded the piece in January 1960 with the rhythm section of the first recording. On the bass line he sang the text “If I should choose to sing the blues”, he replied in the multitrack process with “So what?”. For Eddie Jefferson, Chris Hall texted the trumpet solo of the original version for a vocalese ; this is about Davis and his habit of leaving the stage during his teammates' solos.

reception

Thomas Ward wrote on allmusic: “ So What opens the album, and it's arguably it's most distinctive piece. With a long introduction from bassist Paul Chambers culminating in Davis' quintessential modal, minimalist solo, So What has become something of a blue print for all modal jazz… The rhythmic style is very free, and although the structure is simple, it reveals new complexities and subtleties in each listen. "(German:" So What opens the album, and it is probably the most distinctive piece. With the long introduction by Paul Chambers, which culminates in Davis' minimalist solo, So What is a blueprint for all pieces of the modal jazz ... The rhythmic style is very free, and although the structure is simple, every time it opens up new complexity and subtleties. ")

Prince called So What one of 55 songs that inspired him musically.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ It was recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio in New York City on March 2, 1959 with Cannonball Adderley , John Coltrane , Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb .
  2. ↑ a b H.-J. Schaal Jazz Standards , p. 436 f.
  3. ↑ This corresponds to a C major scale over the root note d.
  4. ↑ This scale is half a tone higher, i.e. the notes of the C sharp major scale with the root D flat .
  5. ^ Steve Khan: Miles Davis Jazz Trumpet Solo Transcription and Analysis . Retrieved October 11, 2010.
  6. ^ Mark Levine: The Jazz Piano Book . Sher Music Co., Petaluma, CA 1989, ISBN 0-9614701-5-1 .
  7. ^ Richard Lawn, Jeffrey L. Hellmer: Jazz - Theory and Practice . Wadsworth Publishing, 1993. ISBN 0-534-19596-2 .
  8. ↑ Eric Nisenson: Ascension: John Coltrane and his quest. Da Capo Press, 1995, ISBN 0-306-80644-4 , p. 126.
  9. ↑ Review of the album Saxuality at allmusic
  10. ↑ Ronny Jordan - So What. In: Discogs.com. Retrieved July 3, 2014 .
  11. ^ Electric. Review by Thom Jurek at Allmusic (English)
  12. ^ The Official Jimmy Cobb Website
  13. ↑ So What. Song Review by Thomas Ward at Allmusic (English)