sowhat

Issue #44

Last Update March 2, 2006

Arts So What by David Katz At a recent woodwind quintet concert at the Manhattan School of ;;Music, one of pieces performed was "So What", composed by Miles Davis. In addition to once again confirming my motto that "it ain't jazz if you read it off the page" (I except the quintet's bassoonist from this), the performance of this piece made me want to hear the original. Through the good offices of a friend and colleague, I ended up with two very different versions of this piece, the original Miles Davis recording, with an all-star cast (including John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb), and a newer version by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman.

Although Miles Davis had sketched an outline of "So What" before the recording date, his group encountered it for the first time at the recording studio. The number stands as one of the all-time great improvisational pieces. Davis, a younger contemporary of Dizzy Gillespie and Charley Parker, was uncomfortable with the velocity of these bebop giants and developed a slower, more legato, but equally effective style, of which "So What" is an exemplar. The opening bass lines are almost contemplative, while the main section of trumpet and saxophone solos is an odd but pleasing combination of moderately paced melody and bebop riffs with sustained notes at the end of phrases. There is a clarity and charm to this music that is absent from most bebop.

The Jerry Garcia/David Grisman album “So What” consists of eight cuts: Three different recording of Davis’ “So What”, two recordings of “Bag’s Groove”, two recordings of “Milestones” (also a Miles Davis number), and an original Grisman tune called “16/16". The tempo on the Garcia/Grisman versions of “So What” is at least 30% faster than on the Miles Davis album. The whole thing has a great deal more bounce and snap, but the guitar solos (replacing the Davis trumpet and sax solos) provide a unity and a rolling smoothness absent in the original. The three versions are placed at the beginning, middle and end of the album, but they are not in the chronological order in which they were recorded. The version in first position on the album was actually recorded after the version in the middle position.

Interestingly, the chronological development of the piece in Garcia’s hands forms an arc that points back towards the Miles Davis original. The December, 1990 cut is rapid, bouncy and almost percussive in feeling. The March, 1991 cut, which actually opens the album, is just as rapid, but the percussiveness is gone, leaving a lively, flowing performance. The last cut, June, 1992, is slower than the other two, though not as slow as the Davis original, but still lively and flowing. It’s almost as if Garcia and Grisman, rethinking their approach to this number, came to the conclusion that Miles Davis got it right after all. Of course, the different instrumentation results in a very different sound, but a legitimate and pleasing alternative to the semi-bop Miles Davis recording.

The Miles Davis “So What” was a turning point in jazz style; the Garcia “So What” is a worthy reinterpretation.