Compositions
Miles Davis recorded one of the best selling jazz albums of all time in this modal framework. Kind of Blue is an exploration of the possibilities of modal jazz. Included on these sessions was tenor saxophonist John Coltrane who, throughout the 1960s, would explore the possibilities of modal improvisation more deeply than any other jazz artist. The rest of the musicians on the album were alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly (though never on the same piece), bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. (Kelly, Chambers, and Cobb would eventually form the Wynton Kelly Trio.) This record is considered a kind of test album in many conservatories focusing on jazz improvisation. The compositions "So What" and "All Blues" from Kind of Blue are considered contemporary jazz standards. Davis has acknowledged a crucial role for Bill Evans, a former member of George Russell's ensembles, in his transition from hard bop to modal playing.
While Davis' explorations of modal jazz were sporadic throughout the 1960s—he would include several of the tunes from Kind of Blue in the repertoire of his "Second Great Quintet"—Coltrane would take the lead in extensively exploring the limits of modal improvisation and composition with his own classic quartet, featuring Elvin Jones (drums), McCoy Tyner (piano), and Reggie Workman and Jimmy Garrison (bass). Several of Coltrane's albums from the period are recognized as seminal albums in jazz more broadly, but especially modal jazz: Giant Steps, Live! at the Village Vanguard (1961), Crescent (1964), A Love Supreme (1964), and Meditations (1965). Compositions from this period such as "India," "Chasin' the Trane," "Crescent," "Impressions," as well as standards like Richard Rodger's "My Favorite Things", performed by John Coltrane, and "Greensleeves" have entered the jazz repertoire.
Coltrane's modal explorations gave rise to an entire generation of saxophonists (mostly playing tenor saxophone) that would then go on to further explore modal jazz (often in combination with jazz fusion), such as Michael Brecker, David Liebman, Steve Grossman, and Bob Berg.
Another great innovator in the field of modal jazz is pianist Herbie Hancock. He is well known for working in Miles Davis's "Second Great Quintet", Herbie Hancock recorded a number of solo albums, beginning with Maiden Voyage (1965), prior to joining Miles' band. On the title song of this album Hancock has just a few suspended and minor chords that are played throughout the entire piece and played with a very open sound due to Hancock's use of fourths in voicing the chords. The piece's haunting repeating vamps in the rhythm section and the searching feeling of the entire piece has made "Maiden Voyage" one of the most famous modal pieces of all times.
A true precursor to modal jazz was found in the hands of virtuoso jazz pianist, composer and trio innovator Ahmad Jamal whose early use of extended vamps (freezing the advance of the song at some point for repetition or interjecting new song fragments) allowed him to solo for long periods infusing that section of the song with fresh ideas and percussive effects over a repetitive drum and bass figuration. Miles Davis was effusive in his praise for Jamal's influence on him, his playing, and his music: a perfect setup for the modal work that lay in Davis' future.
Read more about this topic: Modal Jazz