Miles Davis - In a Silent Way

Mile's classic 1968 proto-ambient album, famously mixed from 19 minutes worth of music to full album length by studio genius Teo Macero. With a band including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, John Mclaughlin and co-composer of the title tune, Joe Zawinul, this is rightly regarded as one of Davis' key, groundbreaking releases.

The album’s most unconventional idea was its most controversial, at least with some critics. It was hard to miss that In A Silent Way—especially the track “Shhh/Peaceful”—included repeated spliced sections, the same performance looped in post-production. While this idea seemed an anathema in the jazz world of 1969—even overdubbing was frowned on back then—this innovation predicted the present-day, cut-and-paste approach to constructing final recorded product. Teo Macero, Miles’ longtime producer at Columbia, had the edit-room savvy to make it happen. Most significantly, Miles was OK with it.

Genre: Jazz / Experimental

Tracklist: 

1. Shhh/Peaceful

2. In a Silent Way / It's About That Time