mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON) (12/05/84)
> Before the "Birth of the Cool" Sessions, Miles was a Shorty Rogers/ > Chet Baker clone Chet Baker did not make a significant impact on the jazz scene until the Mulligan quartet of 1952, two years later. As for "Bitches Brew" being the brainchild of Corea and others, it is well documented that Hancock and Williams were most reluctant to shift to, respectively, the electric piano and simpler, rock-based rhythms. This ever gradual change can be heard clearly from "Miles in the sky" to "Filles of Kilimanjaro" to "In a silent way" to "Bitches Brew", where Miles pulled all the stops. During that time, Corea was making avant-garde jazz with Woody Shaw (an excellent LP called "Tones for Joan's Bones" bears this out), Zawinul was playing with Ben Webster, etc. In general though, I agree with you. I think we differ on a matter of degree. If you look at Miles' history differently, you could say that his own restlessness led him to seek players that could follow him whereever he wished to explore. The majority of these players were quite young and not well known. Miles has often quoted Coleman Hawkins ("Never have any old m..f..rs in the band becasue they'll never change") So, I think we are saying the same thing, but that we disagree on just who was leading whom (there is no question that Bill Evans had a profound effect on "Kind of Blue" and by extension on all modal jazz) Marcel Simon mhuxr!mfs