All Blues - Miles Davis Flashcards
What style/genre?
Modal jazz
Written in what year?
1959
What album is this piece from?
Kind of Blue
The metre and tempo of the piece?
6/4 and the tempo is described as a jazz waltz because the 6/4 bars sound like a pair of 3/4 bars.
The rhythm of the piece
Frequent syncopation
Played with swing quavers (the first quaver is played slightly longer than the second)
Instrumental techniques of the: Snare drum Bass Trumpet Piano
Snare drum is played with wire brushes at start then switches to sticks
Bass plays pizzicato throughout
The trumpet is played with a Harmon Mute
Piano plays a tremolo at start
What basic information is given to musician before recording?
The overall structure
The basic chord sequence
The main melodic idea
Which mode or scale to improvise on
What is the 12-bar blues sequence that all blues is based on?
G7 G7 G7 G7 Gm7 Gm7 G7 G7 D7 Eb7/D7 F/G F/G6
What’s the key of the piece?
G major with a flattened 7th (a blue note)
Structure of the piece
- Introduction (rhythm section)
- Head 1 (the head melody, followed by the riff, is played twice)
- Solos (for trumpet, alto sax, tenor sax and piano)
- Head 2
- Coda (solo for muted trumpet)
