The great art of putting together improvised music

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Miles Davis podia ter ficado tocando Kind of Blue o resto da vida mas o nome era curioso e intrépido. Da fase do fim dos anos 60 tenho ouvido muito "Orange Lady" [do tecladista Joe Zawinul], que foi gravada no dia 19 de novembro de 1969 mas só lançada bem depois, no LP Big Fun de 1974:

São esses os instrumentistas:

Miles Davis (trumpete);

Steve Grossman (saxophone soprano);

Bennie Maupin (clarineta baixo);

Herbie Hancock (piano elétrico);

Chick Corea (piano elétrico);

John McLaughlin (guitarra);

Khalil Balakrishna (sítara);

Bihari Sharma (tabla, tamboura);

Ron Carter (baixo);

Harvey Brooks (baixo elétrico);

Billy Cobham (bateria);

Aírto Moreira (percussão).

Aproveito para colocar um trecho interessante de um bom texto sobre as gravações dessa época, que coloca de forma interessante a questão do improviso:

“During this stage in his career Miles appeared almost obsessed with incorporating as many disparate musical influences as possible, seemingly using anything or anyone he could lay his hands on. The question has often been asked whether Miles had a vision for the end result or was just randomly throwing things into his cauldron, and was as surprised by the results as anyone else.
“I think that Miles definitely had a vision,” Dave Holland commented. “But when you put together improvised music, you’re dealing with musicians and their approach and style of playing. One of the things I learnt from Miles is that you don’t come in with a fixed vision. The vision is there, but it is not finished. The composition a classical composer writes is finished, and all musicians do is interpret it. Improvised music is different. Part of your palette is the musicians you’re working with, and so with this group it will come out one way, and with that group it will come out another way. So if you ask me, ‘Did Miles have a vision?’ I’ll say ‘Yes.’ But ask, ‘Did he know what the end result would sound like?’ and I’d have to say ‘No.’ He couldn’t. When he was putting something together, he was listening and selecting what he liked. To me this is the great art of putting together improvised music. Miles worked in the tradition where you create a form that’s clear, but that also has enough room for the musicians to be creative with. Miles was giving us a context for the music, and then we found what we could do within that context.”

Vivemos tempos muito ensaiadinhos, obcecados por "produtos" artísticos "well made" [o termo é usado para scripts que amarram com capricho todas as suas pontas] e é interessante contrastar isso de vez em quando com a espontaneidade e da coragem de outros tempos. Fazia-se muita porcaria também, mas isso fazemos hoje aos montes, deve ser inevitável.