Miles Davis: All Blues (1959, modal jazz)

Texture:

• Homophonic
• Frontline instruments play the melodies/improvised solos over harmonic and rhythmic backing

Harmony:

• Based on modified 12 bar blues progression
• Original: G7 | G7 | G7 | G7 |C7|C7| G7 | G7 | D7 | C7 | G7 | G7
• Modified: G7 | G7 | G7 | G7 | Gm7 | Gm7 | G7 | G7 | D7 | D7 | F/G | F/G6

Instrumentation:

• Jazz sextet:
• Trumpet: Miles Davis; Harmon mute (head)
• Alto sax: Julian “Cannonball” Adderley
• Tenor sax: John Coltrane
• Piano: Bill Evans
• Bass: Paul Chambers
• Drums: Jimmy Cobb
• Frontline instruments (bold) all take an improvised solo

Rhythm:

• Notated in 6/4 time signuature
• Described as “jazz waltz”, each bar sounds like 2 bars of ¾
• Swung
• Frequent syncopation and cross rhythms

Melody:

• Head melody is simple, characterised by rising 6th interval and simple movement
• Melody followed by 4 improvised solos
• Trumpet solo: 4 choruses, fragmented and syncopated
• Alto solo: 4 choruses, quicker notes with wider range and more complex
• Tenor solo: 4 choruses, quick, scalic, harmonically complex
• Piano solo: 2 choruses, calmer and simpler approach

Form:

• 12 bar blues progression with link section (into riff) between each repeat
• 5 sections: Into, Head 1, Solos, Head 2, Coda