Hard to believe now, to listen to this inkling and insistently groovy suite, that it was once thought so controversial to jazz listeners. I‘m speaking of Miles Davis‘ 1969 masterpiece „In A Silent Way“, mapping out a new space by stripping away most of the things normally looked at as being essential.
There‘s an overall airy feel to the two long pieces that feels weightier and lighter than its single ingrediences. It is a record that pushes the boundaries of studio possibilities, artist-producer relationships, and rock-jazz chasms. All fuelled by modal improvisation, an ambient flair of sounds flying by, and a fine sense of suspense in a zone where nothing much seemed to happen at all.
Some days ago, a guy called razorball sent me the 2002-Sacd-Sony-5:1-version of the album, and believe me, that surround experience is something to hold on, too. In my not so humble opinion, nothing, no dead quiet vinyl, no beautifully remastered cd, no stream with highest resolution data, can come close to the 2002 surround version of IASW.
Nighttime and velvet candles: When i listened to this Sacd (a collector‘s item that costed me 50 euros), a memory flooded my mind: Peter, Petra, Sylvia and I were sitting on a big couch and leather chairs in an Italian restaurant in Dortmund in 1971 or 1972, and we loved talking musics and books and movies and eating the best and largest pizzas in town and drinking cheap Italian wine. There were only two records running while we were there, Weather Report‘s „Sweetnighter“, and Miles‘ „In A Silent Way“.
I remember the dimmed lights there. Whatever we talked about, more than once we were nearly sumultaneously helding our breath, and just listened, listened, talked a while, and listened again. Peter was drumming on his legs, the girls were lovely, the corners dark, the sound warming. We were sweet sixteen, the background music turned to the foreground, and back again. As I said, nothing much happened, and everything (in a silent way).