Modal jazz

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Genre

Modal jazz · In modal jazz the musicians do not improvise over a fast series of chords, but for a long time over a single mode: a scale with a character of its own, such as Dorian. That gives more room to think melodically. In 1953 the composer George Russell described the idea in his theory book on the Lydian concept. Miles Davis applied it on Milestones (1958) and on Kind of Blue, recorded in March and April 1959 in the Columbia studio on 30th Street in New York. The opening piece, So What, has sixteen bars in D Dorian, eight bars a semitone higher and eight again in D. Kind of Blue became the best-selling jazz album ever. In the 1960s John Coltrane, the pianist McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock built on the modal approach.

Listening

• 
  So What · Miles Davis, 1959
• 
  Impressions (live in de Village Vanguard) · John Coltrane, 1961
• 
  Maiden Voyage · Herbie Hancock, 1965

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Jazz Map^NL Map
• Mixtape 5^NL Reader
• Mixtape 5: Jazz Festival^NL Reader
• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 4^NL Reader

See also

• Cannonball Adderley
• Bill Evans
• Paul Chambers
• Wayne Shorter
• Ron Carter
• Tony Williams
• Elvin Jones
• Alice Coltrane
• Chick Corea
• Joe Henderson
• Ahmad Jamal
• Charles Lloyd
• Hard bop
• Cool Jazz and modal jazz
• Spiritual jazz
• ECM sound
• Ethio-jazz
• The new piano trio