Petits machins

Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Miles Davis (trumpet), Herbie Hancock (Fender Rhodes electric piano), Ron Carter (electric bass) and Tony Williams (drums). From the album Filles de Kilimanjaro (1969).

While Davis Quintet continued to play standards in concert, they recorded six albums of original compositions contributed by the band members themselves. Their music was known as “time without changes”, meaning that Davis decided to move away from chord progressions and adopt a more open approach, with the rhythm section responding to the melodies of the soloists. In 1965, Davis had hip surgery, which afflicted him for years, and broke his leg, and in 1966 he spent three months in hospital due to a liver infection.

In Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro, Davis already introduced electric bass, electric piano and electric guitar in some tracks, pointing the way to the jazz fusion period of his career. He also began to experiment with more rock-oriented rhythms. In Filles de Kilimanjaro, pianist Chick Corea and bassist Dave Holland replaced Hancock and Carter on two themes and Davis took over the composition tasks of his musicians.

The theme begins with an insistent phrase and then a concise melody at medium tempo. The first to intervene is Davis making a brave and original solo with very quick phrases in between. Shorter follows calmly, but with a discontinuous and innovative melodic line. Next comes Hancock with an imaginative and interesting discourse sometimes based on bits and pieces, and Davis ends the composition by repeating a sentence several times.