Miles Davis Kind Of Blue Analysis
All blues commentry
Introduction
The piece "all blues" is from the album Kind of Blue, the composer is Miles Davis and it was composed in 1959. the style of the piece is Jazz and another example of Jazz is Louis Armstrong (trumpet/cornet/voice) Terrible Blues with his band the Red Onion Jazz Babies.
Background
Miles Davis was born in Illinois in May 1926. He knew from a very young early age that he wanted to be a musician. He started learning the trumpet at a young age, looking up to his heroes Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Charlie Parker, eventually took Davis on as his ‘sideman’, mentoring him and introducing him to the other big names in jazz music at the time. For a short time, Miles Davis attended the Julliard School of Music in NY but …show more content…
Tempo
The time signature is 6/4 throughout, This means that there are 6 crotchets,1 beat notes per bar. The piece is a jazz Waltz at the start, this tells the performers that it should be played with emphasis on the first of each 3 beats (1,2,3 4,5,6).
Ornamentation
To add an ornament to a note is to decorate it. Different ornaments are used in this piece. there are trills in the intro played by the piano and bass. There are also mordents, here they have written it out as they would be played, but are sometimes written as a zig-zag line over the note. There are also acciaccaturas which are short ‘grace note’ before the note, it is easy to spot as it is a smaller note than normal and has a line through the tail.
Instrumentation
The drums (Snare) are played with brushes rather than sticks this will give music more effect. Also the trumpet uses a mute ‘ a harmon mute with the stem taken out’ so it can build up to its solo. This piece, being in a jazz style, uses jazz harmony, this means there are plenty of 7ths and 9ths
Introduction
The piece "all blues" is from the album Kind of Blue, the composer is Miles Davis and it was composed in 1959. the style of the piece is Jazz and another example of Jazz is Louis Armstrong (trumpet/cornet/voice) Terrible Blues with his band the Red Onion Jazz Babies.
Background
Miles Davis was born in Illinois in May 1926. He knew from a very young early age that he wanted to be a musician. He started learning the trumpet at a young age, looking up to his heroes Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Charlie Parker, eventually took Davis on as his ‘sideman’, mentoring him and introducing him to the other big names in jazz music at the time. For a short time, Miles Davis attended the Julliard School of Music in NY but …show more content…
Tempo
The time signature is 6/4 throughout, This means that there are 6 crotchets,1 beat notes per bar. The piece is a jazz Waltz at the start, this tells the performers that it should be played with emphasis on the first of each 3 beats (1,2,3 4,5,6).
Ornamentation
To add an ornament to a note is to decorate it. Different ornaments are used in this piece. there are trills in the intro played by the piano and bass. There are also mordents, here they have written it out as they would be played, but are sometimes written as a zig-zag line over the note. There are also acciaccaturas which are short ‘grace note’ before the note, it is easy to spot as it is a smaller note than normal and has a line through the tail.
Instrumentation
The drums (Snare) are played with brushes rather than sticks this will give music more effect. Also the trumpet uses a mute ‘ a harmon mute with the stem taken out’ so it can build up to its solo. This piece, being in a jazz style, uses jazz harmony, this means there are plenty of 7ths and 9ths