“Kind of Blue” (1959) is the corner stone in Miles Davis' career. Miles was coming out of a traditional jazz era. However, just a bit less Jazzy than the “Birth of the cool”. One can see the progression of the hip or the pulse of the Mindset of the World through Miles. This is when Miles was working with Gil Evans (1957 -63). Things were starting to change. The change happened when Miles moved into the Bossa Nova –Spanish flavor, like the great “Sketches of Spain” (1960). Jazz started to come out of the “elevator music” style. However, after Kind of Blue, Miles still made six more albums that were still traditional Jazz albums. Then came “Files De Kilimanjaro” (1968) where, the piano is now electric.
One year later, then came “In a Silent Way” (1969). This is when Miles transforms into the best musician in the 20th Century. This is when he compares to Beethoven and Mozart. In my opinion, We have pivotal moments in human history, such as Homo Erectus creating Fire, Neanderthal creating Art and burying the dead, Modern Human using the Bow and getting away from hand to hand combat with large game with Spears, the domestication of the Dog, we also know of people navigating the seas’ of Oceania for the last 30,000 years all the way through the largest and most vast stretch of Ocean to Easter Island, the Mesopotamians invention of Cuneiform, and sedentary living, actually being the first civilization on this planet as humans were no longer nomadic, The Egyptian’s Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza, The Maya, Aztec, Inca, who were at the same time inventing civilization and the understanding of complex cosmology and astrology and the afterlife, Akhenaton and his creation of the ideology of One Supreme God, The Greeks and philosophy and architecture, Moses and the Ten commandments, the domestication of the Horse, Roman water aqueducts, The Coliseum, Siddhartha, Jesus, Ben Franklin’s Kite experiment and harnessing of lightening, the European Explorers like Columbus, Pizarro, traveling to unknown lands etc, Mozart, Beethoven, Michelangelo, Edison and Electricity, the railroad, Slave music which progressed into the Blues, Ford with the Automobile, invention of Steel, Gandhi, Gaudy and architecture of Barcelona, Anais Nin and the importance for women and feminism, Hoffman (1943) inventing LSD, Jazz and the quintet and marijuana, Bauhaus and all the artists that were in the Famed German School of modern thought, Humans going to The Moon and the beginning of leaving this Planet.
At this point in history, there can be many turns on whom or what was important: What came first – the chicken or the egg? In the history of the world according to Joshua Finley, it is this way… The Urantia Book, Les Paul inventing the Electric guitar, Bob Dylan introducing Marijuana to the Beatles, Rock n Roll, The introduction of LSD, from Leary and Alpert, this exacerbated the already growing or expanding mindset of humanity. Civil Rights. Dali, The Hippy movement, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley and reggae and all this is going on when Miles did “In a Silent Way” in 1969. Later that year, Miles got together with Herbie Hancock, and John McLaughlin to do the Voodoo Jazz album “Bitches Brew”. “Bitches Brew” was the combination of Jazz and Rock n Roll. This combination became known as Fusion. Miles toured a bunch and didn’t record until 1972 “On the Corner” it is definitely another master piece and was the last released album that was not a live album with Columbia. However, Miles made five albums with Columbia which were not released, such as “Big Fun” (1974), “Get up with it” (1974), “Water babies” (1976), “Circle in the Round” (1979), “Directions” (1981). The Columbia Years were now over for Miles and the World. Miles took a five-year retirement and later made ten more albums with Warner Brothers, until 1992.
One may argue about the best album of all time, needless to say, a masterpiece album is one where you press play and when it is done, you know it was perfect! There are very few of them! But by far in my opinion, “In a Silent Way” is the best album of the 20th Century… and it is up their with all of Humanities greatest accomplishments!
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