Jazz Guitar Licks : Miles Davis

Writing a short introduction to Miles Davis is not an easy task, it's like trying to summarize the history of jazz from the 40's to the 90's.

Miles Davis' professional career spans 50 years during which he was on top of almost every important innovation in jazz. He played his trumpet in a melodic and introspective way, often employing a mute.

Miles Davis impressed by his performance, recordings but also by his choice of sidemen.
Getting picked to play in a Miles Davis band was like putting a dose of steroids in your musical career.  The list of guitarists who played with him speaks for itself:  John Scofield,  Mike Stern, John McLaughlin and Robben Ford.

Miles began playing the trumpet when he was 13 and had his first professional gig when he was 17.  He was 19 when he played in Charlie Parker's band and at 23 he made his first influential album as a bandleader:   'Birth of the Cool'.

The list of following influential albums is simply too big to produce here.

Recommended listening: 'Kind of Blue'

1)  This lick is the theme of 'So What' from the Miles Davis album 'Kind of Blue'.

This first-take, unrehearsed Miles Davis session from 1959 is a true masterpiece. It was the key recording of what became modal jazz, a music free of fixed harmonies and forms.

The band itself is extraordinary (proof of Miles Davis's masterful casting skills), listing John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on saxophones, Bill Evans (or, on "Freddie Freeloader," Wynton Kelly) on piano, and the crack rhythm unit of Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums.

If 'Kind of Blue' is not part of your CD collection yet, don't hesitate and BUY it, it's classic jazz's best selling album ever.

Also a very interesting read: 'Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece '.

'So What' is based on a D dorian scale. The composition itself alternates between D and Eb minor. A chorus looks like this : 2x 8 bars D minor, 1x 8 bars of Eb minor and 1x 8 bars of D minor.

Here are a few jazz guitarists and their version of 'So What': George Benson, Larry Carlton, Grant Green and Ronny Jordan.

The Play-A-Long book and CD set 'Jamey Aebersold (Vol. 50) The Magic of Miles ' has four tunes coming out of 'Kind of Blue', including 'So What'. The Aebersold CD's are are excellent backing tracks to practice your improvisations on (of course not as good as Band in a Box).