Why Music?

Music therapy may sometimes look like entertainment, but it is so much more. Although it is certainly true that engaging in music and music making can be fun, the essence of music therapy is deeper. Exploring our relationships to music (what it means to us and why) helps us learn about who we are as people. When we know ourselves better, we can express ourselves better and form stronger connections with others. 

This important work of exploring meaningful music is not just for music therapy clients. Music therapists must do their own personal work outside of sessions. How can we help others develop deep musical relationships if we don’t have our own? 

The following is my personal account of how I fell in love with Miles Davis last year. I’m not sharing it to convince you to love him too but to offer a glimpse into my personal musical journey and to encourage you to follow your own! Go get obsessed!

Miles writes, “I never thought there was nothing nobody could say about an album of mine, I just want everyone to listen to the music, and make up their own minds. I never did like no one writing about what I played on an album, trying to explain what I was trying to do. The music speaks for itself”(Miles, p. 252).

Skip to the music (Disc 1, Disc 2, and Bonus Disc), and let it speak for itself. Or, if you want to read on, I add a little extra below. Not to explain what Miles was trying to do, but because art is contextual and extra context for his music may help as you experience it. 

Over the last several months, I have felt addicted to music. It has been euphoric, though uncomfortable at times. Occasionally I have a hard time concentrating, and I have felt an obsessive need to collect and consume certain records as quickly as possible. 

It was Mahavishnu Orchestra’s (MO) debut album from 1971 that recently got me hooked. I had never heard such furious virtuosity or unusual winding melodies among rock and roll music, and I was captivated. As I feverishly combed my local record stores for a vinyl copy, I was surprised to learn that MO can’t be found in the rock section. It is considered jazz (jazz (rock) fusion). In some stores there is no MO section, they are simply filed under John McLaughlin (the band leader and guitarist). As I learned more about jazz fusion and John McLaughlin, I found that John played on the first jazz fusion album ever recorded: Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way 1969. 

I found a copy of In a Silent Way at the library and puzzled over its bare, haunting, and unusual structure in my car for a couple of weeks. Then I listened to Bitches Brew for the first time on a long flight to Alaska and then again on the way back. I revisited Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain which I had loved so much more than a decade ago. I tried out Milestones and Birth of the Cool again and music by other famous jazz musicians that I hadn’t listened to since high school. I was (and am still) obsessed with the beauty, emotion, creativity, and raw power of good jazz. 

How can jazz be good if there are no wrong notes? Isn’t it supposed to sound like a giant mess that no one can understand? Do we simply pretend that jazz is good when critics say so, even though it all sounds the same? Is popular jazz just garbage cocktail music for the masses? Trust your own ears while remembering, it often takes a few active listens to hear and feel the cosmic grammar. 

Why should you even care about “good” jazz? Because!!! When you hear and connect to the feeling of good music, you learn something true about what it means to be human. This is why Art matters. It teaches us about ourselves and connects us. 

Why am I rambling? Am I trying to get you hooked on Miles, jazz, or music? No, I am transfigured, and I want to share the good news. I am an Art Evangelist. I point you towards the prophet, Miles Davis.

What makes me qualified to introduce you to Miles Davis through a 2-disc compilation plus a bonus disc? Nothing. I am not a jazz expert. This is just what I love.

Speaking of love, you might be asking yourself, “Hey! Isn’t he bad or something? Should I really be trying to get into his music?” Claire Dederer takes up this larger question about how we should enjoy art made by monstrous people in her book Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma. Dederer writes that the answer to this question is personal and usually depends on a few factors: 1) the importance or perfection of the work, 2) the extent of the stain and attempts to take responsibility and repair, and 3) our own love of the work. In her last chapter, The Beloveds, Dederer specifically discusses Davis, and it is worth reading if you are feeling hung up on the stain. I have read Davis’s autobiography. He writes openly of pimping women, physically abusing romantic partners, and generally being a jerk to musicians and friends in his life (though often with regret and some attempt to give context to his actions without excuses). I don’t condone or dismiss his harmful actions. But I love his music too much to cancel it. I don’t say the stain doesn’t matter, but for me, the work is too important to leave behind. Yes, and….

Are you listening to the playlists yet? Maybe you are curious about whether I listened to his entire discography in preparation for making this list? I didn’t. It is a long discography, and I wasn’t interested in all of it. If you are curious, here is a list of what I culled through (and my thoughts):

1955 Workin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet (Excellent First Great Quintet album on the Prestige label)

1957 Birth of the Cool (not included because it sounds too old fashioned for me)

1957 ‘Round About Midnight (pre-modal jazz that did not grip me. I prefer Monk’s solo version.)

1958 Milestones (great modal album with Cannonball Adderley)

1959 Kind of Blue (the ultra classic best selling jazz album of all time)

1960ish Best of Gil Evans compilation (Evans’s arrangements are a little too tight and lack expression for me so I skipped out on all his records except for Sketches of Spain)

1960 Sketches of Spain (excellent, a dry jazz/classical joint)

1965 Selections from Live at the Plugged Nickel (Wild performances from the explosive second great quintet)

1966 Miles Smiles (the most accessible Second Great Quintet album)

1967 Nefertiti (the most advanced Second Great Quintet album)

1969 The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions (the first jazz fusion album, the original release is sufficient)

1970 Bitches Brew (Outsold Kind of Blue for several years. A good, trippy listen)

1970 Live Evil (pretty out there, but cool to hear a mix of live and studio fusion)

1971 The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (my favorite complete sessions album, great attitude, not lost in space)

1972 The Complete On the Corner Sessions (hard-hitting minimalistic fusion, includes Get Up With It 1973)

In 1975 Miles proclaimed jazz “dead”. He took a five year hiatus and, by his own account, did not play or listen to music. The slew of records that he made from 1980 until he died in 1991 are referred to as his “Comeback” period. I listened to a few tracks from these albums but did not connect with his sound. Nothing from the comeback period appears on my lists.  

 TLDR:  Are you interested in jazz/Miles Davis/Really Good Music but do not feel equipped to wade through a hundred hours of material? Entrust me with this sacred task! I am only one listener, but I love a tune that bops.

Here are my picks for a two CD (plus one bonus CD) introduction to Miles Davis:

Disc One (55-63 First Great Quintet transitions to Second Great Quintet plus Concerto De Aranjuez)

1. It Never Entered My Mind

2. So What

3. Milestones

4. Joshua

5. Two Bass Hit

6. Seven Steps to Heaven

7. Billy Boy*

8. Flamenco Sketches

9. Concerto De Aranjuez 

Disc Two (66-73 Second Great Quintet and 70s Electric Period)

1. Right Off

2. Freedom Jazz Dance

3. Pinocchio

4. Masqualero

5. Little Church (take 10)

6. Black Satin

7. Maiysha

Bonus Disc (69-75 More Electric)

1. Minnie

2. Willie Nelson (insert 1)

3. Willie Nelson (insert 2)

4. John McLaughlin

5. Bitches Brew

6. In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time

   
   

   *Billy Boy features a trio without Davis and Coltrane which I included from Milestones to demonstrate the explosive power of the First Great Quintet’s rhythm section.