Paraphernalia

Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Miles Davis (trumpet), Gerge Benson (electric guitar), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums). From the album Miles in the Sky (1968).

The skill of Davis’ rhythm section was due to his intuition in selecting his members, who had still been in New York for a relatively short time. From the age of 7 Herbie Hancock studied classical music and was considered a child prodigy. As a teenager he accompanied visiting musicians, such as Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins, and performed with his own groups in his hometown of Chicago. After graduating in 1960 he moved to New York with Donald Byrd’s band and in 1962 recorded for Blue Note Records Takin’ Off, his first album as a leader.

It included the theme “Watermelon Man”, whose version of Mongo Santamaría was a bestseller. But most importantly, this work attracted the attention of Davis, who hired him in 1963. Ron Carter appears in more than two thousand recording sessions, being the most recorded jazz double bass player in history. He began studying the cello at the age of ten, but racial prejudices prevented him from embarking on a symphonic career, so he switched to double bass, but still focused on classical music.

The rhythm section with Benson play a very basic motif that they repeat throughout the theme and then Shorter and Davis join in playing in unison. Afterwards, Davis enters with a risky and impulsive speech, interrupted from time to time by Hancock and Williams, who plays with considerable strength. Next comes Shorter, who uses short phrases, but with a lot of inventiveness, while Williams makes the drums sound as if he were doing the solo himself. Anyway, Shorter ends with a more continuous and congruent melodic line. He is followed by Benson in a measured manner until Shorter and Davis intervene, and then Hancock and Williams. Then Hancock comes in with energy playing cat and mouse with the melodies. At last, the group re-exposes the theme.