SHHH...Silent, please!!

Miles Davis was tinkering with electronic instrumentation & the rhythms of rock music well before he put the word "fusion" on the map, first on "Circle In The Round" (from 1967), then putting both to good use on "Stuff" (from his 1968 album Miles In The Sky). Then Filles De Kilimanjaro and the electrified compositions from Water Babies. But it wasn't until his 1969 release, In A Silent Way, that the floodgates of fusion began to open ever so gradually & the rock/funk rhythms he experimented with to good effect really began to spread their wings to previously unknown vistas & previously unchartered territory.

And what a piece of beauty In A Silent Way is, even now. This release would mark a merging of differing musical routes, be it funk, soul, pop, rock...yes, even classical. At the same time, it can't easily be categorized as any of the above, can't be tagged down too easily to this era or that. No, it's beautiful music, plain & simple. It's music which takes risks along the same lines as its participants, all of whom would leave their footprints (or marks, if you will) in the world of fusion: keyboardist Joe Zawinul & saxman Wayne Shorter (both of Weather Report), bassist Dave Holland, keyboardist Chick Corea & guitarist John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra) just to name a few. Of course, their contributions (along with Miles' own two cents worth of playing) are superb, given the man's ability to convene all these talented musicians into one room with very little if anything to go on...& still make it such a valuable piece of art.

In A Silent Way would also signal the emergence of the producer, namely Miles' longtime main man, Teo Macero, as artist. With only 27 actual minutes of recorded music in the can, one wonders if Teo was going to leave this album like so without any further rhetoric. But via editing (in fact, repeating a section of music twice in order to get a noteworthy product), he made it into a 38-minute masterpiece which has not lost its ability to wow & amaze the listener. All of this by just some nifty tinkering about at the recording desk...one really has to commend Teo for bringing such wonderful music into the spotlight like he did!!

But Miles was only getting started on his next musical odyssey. The next release he would put out, B****es' Brew, not only sold like hot cakes but also sent the fusion dam bursting wide open once & for all; it would be here that Miles threw down the gauntlet & let his critics know just where he stood. Yet if one wants to know where fusion began in earnest, In A Silent Way is the best place to start.