two huge influences on Miles

I couldn't quite decide which of the following albums to post next, so I decided just to post both today.


Betty Davis - 1974 - They Say I'm Different
Born Betty Mabry, she started off as a model, originally, appearing in photo spreads in the magazines of Seventeen, Ebony, and Glamour. While working in New York, she met and became close to a lot of musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. She married Miles Davis in 1968 (his second wife), and although they were only married for a year, Davis readily admitted her great influence on him, especially by laying the seeds that would lead him down the path of jazz-fusion by introducing him to rock, funk, and psychedelic music (she even appears on the cover of Miles' Filles de Kilimanjaro, and is reportedly the inspiration in the title for Miles' fusion classic Bitches Brew).

After her divorce to Miles, she moved to London to continue more of her modeling career, but while there she started to write her own music. She moved back to America to record her own material, and released three stunning funk albums (full of grit, and with no horns to get in the way of the hard funk). None of them were commercial successes as her open sexual attitudes were far too controversial for the time. She retired from music, and has since become a cult figure within funk music, beloved by those in the know.


Bill Evans Trio - 1959 - Portrait in Jazz
No one disputes that Bill Evans is the most influential pianist in jazz music, bar none. Evans spent years upon years of his early life woodshedding before he hit the scene, spending his time trying to do something unique and entirely his own within jazz piano. His style is probably most famous for incorporating the ambiguous voicings and harmonies of classical impressionism, such as that of Ravel and Debussy, into a jazz format (as well as his emphasis on playing in modes). Nowadays everyone is used to hearing chords and voicings in jazz like those played by Bill Evans (remember, I said the dude was highly influential), but at the time they were strictly avant-garde to everyone's ears.

Bill Evans made several notable albums as a sideman during the mid-1950s (such as Charles Mingus' introspective East Coasting), eventually joining Miles Davis' group in 1958. The story goes that Miles was looking for a new pianist and George Russell recommended Bill Evans to Miles.
"Is he white?" asked Miles.
"Yeah," Russell answered.
"Does he wear glasses?"
"Yeah."
"I know that motherfucker. I heard him at Birdland--he can play his ass off..."

While his time was brief in Miles' group, Evans' lyrical playing, ambiguous and impressionistic voicings, and emphasis on modes had a deep impact on Miles' own music. Miles had to kick out Evans because of Evans' extreme heroin use--and you know if Miles kicked you out of his group because he thought you did too much heroin, than seriously, you did too much heroin.

After his time with Miles, he started to lead his own dates. This is his second album, and his first with his most famous trio, featuring the bass playing of Scott LaFaro and the drumming of Paul Motian. This group has since become one of the most acclaimed piano trios, and jazz bands in general, of all time. With this group, Evans' put an added emphasis on interplay among the band members that often bordered on collective improvisation and blurred the line between soloist and accompanist (especially between Evans and LaFaro... listen to their version of the song "Autumn Leaves," on this album, for an outstanding example of this).

Sadly this classic trio would only get to record two studio albums and a live recording which would be split into two more albums, before Scott LaFaro would die in a car crash at the young age of 25--sending Evans into a deep depression, and creating a hole that was never properly filled within Evans music in ever the same way again.