IN A SILENT WAY

Like many other prog fans, I've been familiar with this album and Bitches Brew for ages. I love them a lot, but never ventured much beyond them to discover what this Miles Davis phenomenon is really all about. So I can't judge these albums in the context of Davis' career and certainly not within the jazz scene from which it emanated.

But going by what my ears tell me this sure is an amazing album. It's not the wild and rocking style of jazz-rock as it would be popularized by Mahavishnu Orchestra and others in the 70's. Instead it still has the subdued mood of traditional jazz, a delicate balance of melancholy, energizing rhythms and vivacious musical performances. The bass guitar is rather prominent but the drums are still very much in the back. The clean electric guitars and keyboards bring the sound slightly closer to rock.

In A Silent Way is one of the first albums of a traditional jazz artist integrating elements of rock music. In this case 'rock' means undistorted electric guitar and electric keyboards. But still it gives this soft mood music an extra dimension and makes it sound a more appealing to rock audiences then traditional jazz.