There is an up and coming Columbia Legacy box set of the Miles Davis Quintet’s tour of Europe in 1960.
This article gives a bit of background to the creative tensions within the band and certainly whets my appetite for this set.
Are there any sax players out there who can enlighten me to multiphonics? If it’s two notes at the same time, does that mean the two combine to create a third sound or is there some technique that means each note is distinct but is played simultaneously. It is clearly easy to do on a piano or a guitar (or any instrument that has seaparate strings), but I can’t understand how two separate notes can sound on a sax (or any other wind instrument), because that is my reading of the comment in the article.
https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/miles-davis-and-john-coltranes-the-final-tour-reviewed.html
As I understand it, multi-phonics can be achieved by using non-standard fingerings, but it’s highly dependent on the actual instrument as to whether this is possible.
Can`t help you out with `muktiphonics` Carl, I had a mate who most certainly could but he`e out there now playing with Miles & Coltrane if I know him.
One thing I can tell you is I`ll be getting Vol 6 in the Bootleg Series. Two geniuses as one.
It’s already out, Carl. I haven’t listened to it enough yet but it’s not easy. It’s not that the pupil has become the master, more that two supreme talents started at the same modal point and ended up going in opposite directions.
This guy seems to know a thing or two about saxophone multiphonics:
http://everythingsaxophone.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/multiphonics-dissected.html
I’ve been giving this a few listens myself and loving it. One thing puzzles me though – it sounds like the crowd is actually booing at some points. Surely not?
Yes they are. They were expecting a gentle, head-nod, toe-tap to Kind Of Blue. Coltrane’s skronking solos were most unwelcome.
There is a brief interview with him on disc four recorded backstage at Stockholm where he explains why he plays such a torrent of notes. Why are you angry? they ask.
That is what the author of the article I linked to pointed out. The crowd were not happy.
I haven’t heard the album but I’m looking forward to it. I understand in simple terms multiphonics is basically where certain fingerings combine with the blowing technique to create an additional overtone on top of the note played – so you get an extra note, effectively, though it’s not a proper interval like say 2 noted on the piano or guitar, or even very controllable though to masters like Coltrane it was probably an irresistible extra thing to drop in.
It’s talked about a lot, but there aren’t too many recorded examples. It’s a technique more than it’s music. There are many ways to do it; it includes the techniques Twang mentions above (which are pretty much unique to each individual instrument), plus the singing/humming of a vocal note whilst playing the instrument. It happens in classical music probably more than jazz.
Ian Anderson of TMT did the humming thing a lot on flute, inspired by Roland Kirk. I can personally report it works on harmonica too, though harp is properly polyphonic of course.
I’m also a harmonica player, and yes it does (not that anyone cares, sadly…)
Thanks for sharing! Perfect for tomorrow’s breakfast.
The first LP of Miles that I heard was Round About Midnight, the one with the red wash on the cover, making Miles look like a demon. Of course, I was soon listening to the other musicians and Coltrane in particular. Bye Bye Blackbird tells the real story, a seamless blend of Miles’s muted sweetness, Trane’s smattering of notes spilling all over the tune, Red’s slipping of chords into the cracks and the bass and drums quietly adjusting time, while maintaining a lovely swing. I was smitten.
Here, it’s Bye Bye Blackbird that again tells the whole story. This time, Miles sounds less sweet, less cool, more urgent and shrill, straining against the restrictions of the rhythm. Trane almost drowns the tune with a deluge of notes but, somehow, retains a link to the core, He starts smoothly but soon he takes flight. Jimmy Cobb actively eggs him on, impatiently agitating him to go further until Trane’s dissonant rasp draws boos and whistles from the crowd. Kelly cheerfully tidies up at the end.
The narrative is that these two maestros were a world apart in 1960 but they effectively were as early as 1957. Miles’s creative juices were turned on by trying to accommodate Trane’s style into his quintet. These two performances of Bye Bye Blackbird illustrate their wrestle. They were closer than you might think. As a parting gift, Miles gave Trane a soprano saxophone, an instrument with which he would make a commercial mark, almost a signature sound. Miles then started building his second great quintet completed when Wayne Shorter joined. Now, there’s a band that could push envelopes and rejuvenate an older man into playing nimbly at speed.
BTW my favourite disc on this box is the final one, disc four. It’s as though the whole band and the audience have responded to the challenge Trane has set. The set cracks along at a good pace, Kelly’s piano shimmers and shines, Chambers hits some delicious grooves and Cobb is relentless, displaying some nice cymbal work. Trane’s solos are lyrical rather than abrasive and Miles sounds as though he is on the balls of his toes back arched. Tellingly, there are no boos nor whistles. My guess is Miles told them to play fucking loud.
Thats really great writing Tigger. Makes me want to to put it on loud which all good music writing should.
Very amusing and probably true, Tigger.
What impresses me is how very popular Miles was in 1960. On that spring tour he was playing very sizeable venues all over Europe. He did two shows at Konserthuset which, in those pre arena days, was probably the largest venue in town.
In 1960, Miles was at the very top of the Jazz world, easily the most successful commercially with greater success to come. It’s telling, therefore, that this box set is billed as Miles Davies and John Coltrane, not The Miles Davies Quintet as it was known as at the time. Clearly, these days, John Coltrane is seen as an equal draw.