The music that would become In a Silent Way was recorded in its entirety on February 18th, 1969. Guitarist John McLaughlin had only been in the United States for two weeks and his participation on the album was a fortuitous afterthought by Miles Davis; McLaughlin had come to the U.S. to join Lifetime, a jazz-rock band being formed by Davis' recently-departed drummer, Tony Williams. Williams informally introduced McLaughlin to Davis, who invited the British guitarist to the February 18th session without having previously heard him play.I think that In a Silent Way is a great album and it is undeniably a watershed moment for Miles Davis and for the history of jazz in general. In this respect, I would disagree with G&S reviewer Heather MacKenzie, who characterized In a Silent Way as a "twin" of Davis' previous album, Filles Des Kilimanjaro. While Kilimanjaro — an excellent album in its own right — sometimes hints at the methods Davis would employ and the sound that he would create on In a Silent Way (especially on that album's title track and on "Tout de Suite"), Kilimanjaro is still rooted in the post-bop vein of Davis' earlier work, the solos in particular. In a Silent Way is something else entirely. An awareness of this is likely what led Davis to attempt to re-create the spontaneous atmosphere that produced another one of Davis' watershed moments ten years earlier: Kind of Blue. "To keep things fresh," as he said, Davis augmented 4/5 of his current working band (himself, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Wayne Shorter; drummer Jack DeJohnette was not used) with former Quintet members Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams and short-notice invitees John McLaughlin and Joe Zawinul. Zawinul, in fact, was requested by Davis the night before the recording and was told to "bring music." The instrumentation for In a Silent Way, therefore, was: trumpet, soprano sax, electric guitar, acoustic bass, drums and three electric keyboards.
In a Silent Way was the first of Miles Davis' "fusion" experiments. Although it is far more graceful and ambient than any of Davis' 1970s studio sessions, its methods of construction were similar. In the case of In a Silent Way, simple — almost static — drum and bass patterns were established and the rest of the players were allowed ample freedom to improvise upon the melodic sketches shown to them by Davis just before recording. Tapes rolled throughout the session, capturing everything. Then, in post-production, the album was created by finding the most desireable portions and editing them together. On In a Silent Way, over two hours of music was cut down to 80 minutes by producer Teo Macero; he and Miles together then reduced that 80 minutes to a mere 27. The album's longer running time was achieved by repeating two chunks of music verbatim, at the end of the album's two pieces. Rather than being padding, the repetition turned out to be an ingenious touch and the repeated music blends seamlessly with the rest of the material. Additionally, the repetition enhances the album's character of timelessness and weightlessness. I should also mention that Miles Davis takes a greater interest in playing his trumpet here than on recent albums and the relatively hushed background provided by his band allows the listener to clearly hear some of Davis' most extraordinary phrasing.
Both tracks are, in my opinion, masterworks of conception, execution, and post-production. "Shhh/Peaceful" is basically a jam, but a jam of the sort that I doubt had ever previously been recorded: the bass and the drums are essentially forced to run in place and the leader — the only musician in the band who had a clear idea of where the piece was supposed to go — handled the theme on his trumpet. The three keyboardists, the guitarist and the sax player are the improvisers and they collectively weave a beautiful harmonic tapestry against the structure provided by the rest of the band. It's a brilliant exercise in contrasts, yet the ultimate result is not appealing because of striking juxtapositions, but because of the unlikely unity that is created. It is the synergy of all the elements that enables it to have such grace and such a presence that it really does seem to stop time. Only musicians of an extremely high caliber could have pulled this off so successfully and one can appreciate how truly perfect the LP rendering of "Shhh/Peaceful" is by hearing the related material on the Complete In A Silent Way multi-CD set.
"In A Silent Way/It's About That Time" patches together two different pieces of music. "In A Silent Way" was written by Joe Zawinul and although Zawinul later carped about not receiving enough credit for his contributions, it is undisputed that the track as recorded for the album is much different from the tune as it was originally conceived by Zawinul. Miles liked the melody but thought that the song itself was too busy ("too many chords") for his purposes. Stripped to its barest of essentials, the elegantly unwinding album version is an excellent example of the "everybody solos/nobody solos" concept that Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter later brought to the early music of Weather Report. A much different version of the song can be heard on Complete In a Silent Way. "It's About That Time" follows and it's easily the bluesiest tune on the record. It's also the only place on the album where we get to hear Tony Williams hit something other than a high-hat. While the music's steady groove and catchy theme give the piece a strong identity, it is actually a significantly edited piece of work. At the conclusion of "It's About That Time," "In A Silent Way" is repeated in its entirety, providing for a deeply meditative finale.
Miles Davis' subsequent work from his first electric phase (1969-1975) would be heavier and funkier, but fans of those records should not overlook the impressionistic masterpiece that is In a Silent Way.
review by Matt P. — 1-12-06 —
