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.
Washington D.C
Date and Time: Sunday February 17th 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Venue
Songbyrd, 2477 18th st NW, Washington, DC 20009
Tickets
$7.42 – $9.48 in advance
Presenter
Katea Stitt (Program Director at DC jazz radio station WPFW and daughter of jazz legend Sonny Stitt)
Audio Menu provided by Audioism.
REGA Planar 3 turntable with Elys MM Cartridge, REGA Fono MM Phono Preamp, Audioism MicroZOTL Preamp (David Berning Design), Audioism Venue-Class Playback System, Xcilica HD System Processor, Audioism ZOTL Amplifiers (David Berning Design), Class AB Hybrid Amplification for Subs, WyWires Audio Interconnects
