CHAPTER 14: Modality: Miles Davis and John Coltrane
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Why is Miles Davis considered the most important figure in postwar jazz?
a.
He had a great capacity for change.
b.
He was the most vocal advocate of Civil Rights.
c.
He was the most consistent in his musical output over two decades.
d.
He invented the theory behind modal jazz.
e.
He was a traditionalist who maintained jazz style in the face of new forms of popular
music.
2. Throughout his career, Miles Davis relentlessly experimented with each of the following elements
EXCEPT:
a.
harmony
b.
melody
c.
intonation
d.
rhythm
e.
instrumentation
3. At age nineteen Miles Davis was hired by which bebop figure?
a.
Dizzy Gillespie
b.
Kenny Clarke
c.
Thelonious Monk
d.
Charlie Parker
e.
Max Roach
4. Which of the following describes Miles Davis’s playing style in the late 1940s?
a.
focused on timbre
b.
preferred the middle register
c.
played fewer notes than other trumpet players
d.
focused on melody
e.
all of the above
5. Miles Davis’s 1949 trip to which city gave him new confidence in his approach?
a.
London
b.
Paris
c.
Chicago
d.
Moscow
e.
Berlin
6. Which of the following is NOT the title of an album recorded by Miles Davis’s first great quintet
and released on the independent Prestige label?
a.
Cookin’
b.
Workin’
c.
Relaxin’
d.
Jammin’
e.
Steamin’
7. What was unusual about the repertoire of Miles Davis’s first great quintet?
a.
It included many tunes taken from non-Western cultures.
b.
It included 1920s pop songs and Broadway showtunes.
c.
It included modal compositions by Bill Evans.
d.
It embraced the freedom of the avant-garde.
e.
It featured only original new tunes.
8. Miles Davis and Gil Evans conceived of Miles Ahead as an extension and expansion of which
earlier recording?
a.
The Birth of the Cool
b.
Workin’
c.
Brilliant Corners
d.
“West End Blues”
e.
“Mood Indigo”
9. Why did Miles Davis refuse to share the scores for Kind of Blue with his musicians until the date
of the recording?
a.
The scores were composed at the last minute.
b.
Davis’s copyists were correcting the complex parts for months.
c.
He wanted the band to have a fresh, unclichéd take on the music.
d.
He wanted them to be unprepared so that he would sound better in comparison.
e.
He was too busy working on his orchestral suites with Gil Evans.
10. In the late 1950s, which of the following musicians was NOT working to move jazz style “beyond
chord changes”?
a.
Charles Mingus
b.
Dizzy Gillespie
c.
Dave Brubeck
d.
George Russell
e.
Miles Davis
11. All of the following are true of the Bill Evans trio that recorded Portrait in Jazz EXCEPT:
a.
worked together for only two years
b.
displayed Evans’s original approach to chord voicings
c.
made use of a strikingly different approach than Bud Powell’s piano trios of the 1940s
d.
bassist Scott LaFaro interacted melodically with Evans rather than keeping strict time
e.
drummer Jimmy Cobb supported Evans with soft and sensitive punctuations
12. Which Bill Evans composition, featured on Kind of Blue, makes use of a ten-measure chord
sequence with no obvious beginning or ending?
a.
“Peri’s Scope”
b.
“Very Early”
c.
“Freddie Freeloader”
d.
“Blue in Green”
e.
“So What”
13. Which composer orchestrated Miles Davis’s solo on “So What,” presenting Davis’s improvisation
as a composition?
a.
George Russell
b.
Gil Evans
c.
Eddie Jefferson
d.
Charles Mingus
e.
Bill Evans
14. Which of the following albums is NOT commonly used to justify the claim that 1959 was the jazz
tradition’s greatest year on record?
a.
Dave Brubeck’s Time Out
b.
Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue
c.
John Coltrane’s Blue Trane
d.
Charles Mingus’s Mingus Ah Um
e.
Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come
15. John Coltrane’s long engagement with which musician in 1957 was part of Coltrane’s musical and
spiritual rebirth after overcoming addiction?
a.
Jimmy Heath
b.
Thelonious Monk
c.
George Russell
d.
Ornette Coleman
e.
Miles Davis
16. Which John Coltrane composition is considered a test pattern for music students attempting to
master fast-moving harmonies?
a.
“Blue Trane”
b.
“Moment’s Notice”
c.
“Mr. P.C.”
d.
“Ascension”
e.
“Giant Steps”
17. Which is NOT true of John Coltrane’s version of “My Favorite Things”?
a.
It runs for fifteen minutes.
b.
The modal piano vamp is a distinctive aspect of the tune.
c.
Coltrane’s arrangement reduced the tune’s harmonies to two scales.
d.
It failed to attract the public’s attention.
e.
It was the first recording to feature members of Coltrane’s classic quartet.
18. Which of the following is true of Elvin Jones’s contributions to the John Coltrane quartet?
a.
performed elaborate polyrhythms
b.
would instigate volatile improvisational “duels” with Coltrane
c.
played so aggressively that sometime the group’s pianist would simply stop playing
d.
regularly asserted rhythmic patterns that contradicted the pulse of the rest of the band
e.
all of the above
19. Which element of A Love Supreme is NOT a culmination of John Coltrane’s music of the early
1960s?
a.
pedal points
b.
vocal chant
c.
multiphonics
d.
free improvisation
e.
shifting rhythms
20. According to the authors, which John Coltrane album is considered his most extreme avant-garde
work?
a.
Ballads
b.
A Love Supreme
c.
Ascension
d.
Impressions
e.
Blue Trane
21. Which musician served as a primary composer within Miles Davis’s second great quintet?
a.
Wayne Shorter
b.
Gil Evans
c.
John Coltrane
d.
Bill Evans
e.
Tony Williams
22. All of the following are core elements of postbop EXCEPT:
a.
radical loosening of the rhythm section
b.
harmonic ambiguity
c.
original composition with new harmonies
d.
flexible interactions that allow musicians to temporarily abandon the form, harmony, or
meter of the tune
e.
reharmonizations of Tin Pan Alley songs
1. Miles Davis’s “new directions” altered the landscape of jazz at least six times in his career.
2. Miles Davis grew up in poverty in the black ghetto of East St. Louis.
3. Miles Davis’s first great quintet paved the way for cool jazz.
4. Philly Joe Jones was the drummer in Miles Davis’s first great quintet.
5. For his first album on Columbia Records, Miles Davis chose to record an unaccompanied, fully
improvised film score.
6. Despite its importance among jazz musicians, Kind of Blue never found a broad public audience.
7. On Kind of Blue, Miles Davis replaced drummer Philly Joe Jones with hard bop drummer Jimmy
Cobb.
8. On a piano keyboard, the D Dorian mode includes all of the white keys from D to D.
9. The musicians in John Coltrane’s band struggled with the harmonic complexity of “Giant Steps.”
10. John Coltrane’s performance on “Chasin’ the Trane” is a model of efficiency, packing a wealth of
ideas into a very brief improvisation.
11. Miles Davis’s E.S.P. and other work by the second quintet attracted a much smaller following than
his earlier works such as Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain.
SHORT ANSWER
1. When Miles Davis arrived in New York, it was to study at the _____________.
2. In 1954, Miles Davis began experimenting with a _______________, giving his trumpet a thin,
vulnerable humming sound.
3. Based on his success at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival, Miles Davis signed a recording contract
with the major label ______________________.
4. ______________ is a genre featuring improvisation based on scales rather than chords.
5. _________ harmonies are built on fourths instead of thirds.
6. On “Chasin’ the Trane” and throughout his later output, John Coltrane demonstrates his mastery of
_____________, chords that are played on an instrument meant to play only one note at a time.
MATCHING
Match each musician to the correct ensemble led by Miles Davis or John Coltrane.
a.
Red Garland
d.
Pharoah Sanders
b.
Wynton Kelly
e.
Jimmy Garrison
c.
Ron Carter
1. Coltrane’s classic quartet
2. Davis’s second great quintet
3. Davis’s Kind of Blue sextet
4. John Coltrane’s Ascension ensemble
5. Davis’s first great quintet
ESSAY
1. Compare and contrast the work of Miles Davis’s first and second great quintets. Discuss their
similarities and differences in the ways that each group approached melody, harmony, texture, and
form.
2. Explain the critical reaction to John Coltrane’s work, especially that of the final two years of his
life. What arguments did critics make about Coltrane “abandoning” core elements of jazz practice?
Do you agree or disagree with those critical assessments, and why?