In February Classic Album Sundays celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Miles Davis’ brilliant, divisive and game-changing masterpiece.
In A Silent Way, released in 1969, marked a transitional moment, not only in Davis’s career but in the future development of jazz as a whole. Considered by many to be the first fusion recording, it also commenced the composer’s most divisive phase – commonly referred to as his “Electric Period”. This groundbreaking album would test latent tensions surrounding the future identity of jazz, its relationship with new technology, and the questions of authenticity which these contentious issues would draw into focus.
Whilst Davis was no longer the young, hip savant that he once was, his new relationship with the youthful singer Betty Maybry had renewed the composer’s interest in the contemporary pop landscape. Introducing Davis to the likes of The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Sly Stone, Maybry (alongside recommendations from drummer Tony Williams) would unknowingly guide the musician into one of the most distinctive and contentious eras of his work. Nonetheless, Davis’s transition towards this new palette was methodically considered, a culmination of ideas absorbed from collaborators and developed particularly through a new style of performance, which saw his band blend each separate compositions into one meandering flow of continuous music – a style stuck to rigorously until at least 1975.
Join us to experience the album as never before.
Canterbury
Time and Date: Sunday 24th February 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Venue
Vinylstore Jr, 20 Castle Street, Canterbury, CT1 2QJ
Tickets
Presenter
Jack Hues and Gina Lapsley
Audio Menu
Rega Elys 2 moving magnet cartridge, Rega Planar 3 turntable, Rega Elex-R amplifier, Chord Signature speaker cables, Bowers and Wilkins 607 speakers.
Listen: Miles Davis ‘Kind of Blue’ Musical Lead-Up Playlist
