The year was 1996. I had gone through a musical journey from catchy pop tunes, to rock and metal and to blues. At that point, I was listening to classical music and a little bit of jazz music.
During that time, to me, pop was too manufactured, rock and metal music had lots of attitude but lots of anger too, and blues is sometimes just too blue. Classical music is nice, but it is a bit too rigid and structured for my liking. I like the attitude of rock and the free form jamming of blues, but not the anger and melancholy. And then I discovered jazz.
I was mostly listening to vocal jazz music at that time, and read about Miles Davis’ highly acclaimed jazz album, Kind Of Blue. After reading about the positive review, I decided to buy it, and I liked it. I find it amazing that Miles had this kind of sound way back in 1959.
After my good experience with Kind Of Blue, I decided to acquire In A Silent Way. My impression of this album is that it allowed a lot of space to flow in between the notes. Perhaps I should put it in another way, it has notes flowing in between lots of space. It was structured but yet it had that free flow vibe. If this is jazz, I love it!
I decided to get the next album released by Miles, which is Bitches Brew. I had expected it to evolved along the lines of In A Silent Way, but I am in for an unexpected surprise. To my untrained ears and mind, it was a messy orgy of sounds with no structure and melodies. Everyone is playing their own thing and grooving to their own beat. This isn’t the jazz I know of. It has the energy of rock, but it isn’t rock music either. I was confused. An identity crisis.
I put it aside for a while. Undeterred, I was determined to give it a listen again, as I had spent good money on the CD (it was in an era before Youtube and Spotify). With an open mind, I put it into my CD player and turned up the volume.
On second try, I have realised that there is some loose form of structure among all these noise. The bass line has an addictive groove and other instruments are weaving in-and-out, with the percussion section taking the lead. It is totally unlike all the other music that I was familiar with, where the percussion section takes a backseat. Everything is inverted over here, and everyone plays so masterfully! I didn’t know that music can exist in this way, and I was hooked!
Somehow this just opened up my mind, not in a sudden disruptive way, but a very small nudge that helps set things in motion. Over the years, I have gradually learned to disencumbered my mind with preconceived notions and preset bounderies. I’ve learned to broaden my perspectives and stopped thinking in a either-or terms. Looking back, it is kind of strange.
It wasn’t until many years later that I discovered that the term “bitches” is actually used to refer to musicians who are masters of their instruments. Bitches Brew. How apt!