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In a Silent Way is a 1969 album by jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 trumpet
Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
er Miles Davis
Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
. Although previous Davis records and live performances had already begun the shift to jazz fusion
Jazz fusion

Fusion or, more specifically, jazz fusion or jazz rock, is a musical genre that merges jazz with elements of other styles of music, particularly funk, Rock and roll, R&B, electronic music, and world music, but also pop music, classical music, and folk music, or sometimes even Heavy metal music, reggae, ska, country music, hip hop...
, In a Silent Way featured a full-blown electric approach. For this and other reasons, it is usually regarded as the first of his fusion recordings. It is also the first recording by Davis that was largely constructed by the editing and arrangement of producer
Record producer

In the music industry, a record producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, Audio mixing and audio mastering processes....
 Teo Macero
Teo Macero

Teo Macero , born Attilio Joseph Macero, was an United States jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years, and most notably produced the Miles Davis album, Kind of Blue, which at #12, is the highest-ranked jazz album on Rolling Stone Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of A...
.






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In a Silent Way is a 1969 album by jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 trumpet
Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
er Miles Davis
Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
. Although previous Davis records and live performances had already begun the shift to jazz fusion
Jazz fusion

Fusion or, more specifically, jazz fusion or jazz rock, is a musical genre that merges jazz with elements of other styles of music, particularly funk, Rock and roll, R&B, electronic music, and world music, but also pop music, classical music, and folk music, or sometimes even Heavy metal music, reggae, ska, country music, hip hop...
, In a Silent Way featured a full-blown electric approach. For this and other reasons, it is usually regarded as the first of his fusion recordings. It is also the first recording by Davis that was largely constructed by the editing and arrangement of producer
Record producer

In the music industry, a record producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, Audio mixing and audio mastering processes....
 Teo Macero
Teo Macero

Teo Macero , born Attilio Joseph Macero, was an United States jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years, and most notably produced the Miles Davis album, Kind of Blue, which at #12, is the highest-ranked jazz album on Rolling Stone Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of A...
. Macero's editing techniques are said to have incorporated elements of classical sonata form
Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
 in Davis' recordings for In a Silent Way. Both of the extended tracks on the album consist of three distinct parts that could be thought of as an exposition
Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
, development
Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
 and recapitulation
Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
. The last six minutes of the first track are actually the first six minutes of the same track repeated in exactly the same form. With this "trick" the track took on a more understandable structure.

The album featured virtuoso guitarist and newcomer John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)

John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an England jazz fusion guitarist and composer. He played with Tony Williams's group The Tony Williams Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his landmark electric jazz-fusion albums In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew. His 1970s electric band, Mahavishnu Orchestra, perfo...
, who had one month prior to the February 18th In a Silent Way session recorded his classic debut album Extrapolation
Extrapolation (album)

Extrapolation is John McLaughlin 's debut solo album. It was recorded at Advision Studios in London on January 18, 1969 and released later that year by Giorgio Gomelsky's Marmalade Records and distributed by Polydor Records....
. At the request of Tony Williams
Tony Williams

Anthony Tillmon "Tony" Williams was an United States Jazz drumming.Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential jazz drummers to come to prominence in the 1960s, Williams first gained fame in the band of trumpeter Miles Davis, and was a pioneer of jazz fusion....
, McLaughlin moved in early February from England to the US to play with The Tony Williams Lifetime
The Tony Williams Lifetime

The Tony Williams Lifetime was a Jazz fusion group led by jazz drummer Tony Williams....
. Williams brought McLaughlin to Davis' house the night before the scheduled session for In a Silent Way. Davis had not heard the guitarist before, but was so impressed that he told him to show up at the studio the next day. McLaughlin would go on to great fame in the 1970s as leader of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Davis' next fusion album, Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew

Bitches Brew is a Studio album double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in June of 1970 on Columbia Records. Recording sessions took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio over the course of three days in August of 1969....
, showed him moving even further into the area that lay between the genres of rock and jazz. The dark, fractured dissonance of Bitches Brew ultimately proved to be instrumental in its success; it far outsold In a Silent Way.

In 2001, Columbia Legacy
Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
/Sony Music
Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment is a major global record label controlled by the Sony Corporation of America, being one of the World music market. According to Variety, on October 2, 2008, Sony had completed the acquisition of Bertelsmann's 50% stake in the Sony BMG joint venture, and Sony BMG was renamed Sony Music Entertainment....
 released The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions
The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions

The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions is a three-compact disc box set of music recordings by trumpeter Miles Davis. As well as the CDs it includes essays by Michael Cuscuna and Bob Belden and details of the recording seesions....
, a three-disc
Compact Disc

A Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store Data , originally developed for storing digital audio. The CD, available on the market since October 1982, remains the standard physical medium for sale of commercial Sound recording and reproduction to the present day....
 box set which included the unedited recordings used to produce the original album, In a Silent Way as originally edited, and additional tracks.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz
The Penguin Guide to Jazz

The Penguin Guide to Jazz is a non-fiction book that is an encyclopedic referencing of jazz recordings on compact disc which are currently available in Europe or the United States....
 has included In a Silent Way in its suggested "Core Collection."

Track listing


Original LP side one

  1. "Shhh/Peaceful" (Miles Davis
    Miles Davis

    Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
    ) – 18:16
    1. "Shhh" – 6:14
    2. "Peaceful" – 5:42
    3. "Shhh" – 6:20


Original LP side two

  1. "In a Silent Way/It's About That Time" (Joe Zawinul
    Joe Zawinul

    Josef Erich Zawinul was an Austrians jazz keyboard instrument and composer.First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with elements of Rock music and world music....
    , Miles Davis
    Miles Davis

    Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
    ) – 19:52
    1. "In a Silent Way" (Joe Zawinul) – 4:11
    2. "It's About That Time" (Miles Davis) – 11:27
    3. "In a Silent Way" (Joe Zawinul) – 4:14


Personnel

  • Miles Davis
    Miles Davis

    Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
     – trumpet
    Trumpet

    The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
  • Wayne Shorter
    Wayne Shorter

    Wayne Shorter is an United States jazz composer and saxophone, commonly regarded as one of the most important American jazz saxophonists and composers since the 1960s....
     – soprano saxophone
    Soprano saxophone

    The soprano saxophone was invented in 1840 and is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument. The soprano is the second in size of the saxophone family which consists, as generally accepted, of the sopranino saxophone, soprano, Alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, and contrabass saxophone....
  • John McLaughlin
    John McLaughlin (musician)

    John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an England jazz fusion guitarist and composer. He played with Tony Williams's group The Tony Williams Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his landmark electric jazz-fusion albums In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew. His 1970s electric band, Mahavishnu Orchestra, perfo...
     – electric guitar
    Electric guitar

    An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
  • Chick Corea
    Chick Corea

    Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is a multiple Grammy Award winning American jazz pianist, keyboardist, drummer, and composer.He is known for his work during the 1970s in the genre of jazz fusion....
     – electric piano
    Electric piano

    An electric piano is an electric musical instrument. The popularity of the electric piano began to grow in the late 1960s, reaching its greatest height during the 1970s....
  • Herbie Hancock
    Herbie Hancock

    Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is a jazz pianist and composer. He embraces elements of rock and roll and soul music while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz....
     – electric piano
    Electric piano

    An electric piano is an electric musical instrument. The popularity of the electric piano began to grow in the late 1960s, reaching its greatest height during the 1970s....
  • Joe Zawinul
    Joe Zawinul

    Josef Erich Zawinul was an Austrians jazz keyboard instrument and composer.First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with elements of Rock music and world music....
     – organ
    Organ (music)

    The organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard played either Manual or Pedal clavier. The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments in the European classical music....
  • Dave Holland
    Dave Holland

    Dave Holland is a United Kingdom jazz bassist and composer who is a significant representative of avant-garde jazz....
     – double bass
    Double bass

    The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....
  • Tony Williams
    Tony Williams

    Anthony Tillmon "Tony" Williams was an United States Jazz drumming.Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential jazz drummers to come to prominence in the 1960s, Williams first gained fame in the band of trumpeter Miles Davis, and was a pioneer of jazz fusion....
     – drums
    Drum kit

    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....