Miles Davis vs. John Coltrane

[Snarfyguy]

Two words: Elvin. Jones.

[pcqgod]

Close, but I'd have to go with JC on the basis that he recorded less music that I'm mainly indifferent to, like 'Kind of Blue' and that fusion stuff.

[Davey the Fat Boy]

Nobody “decimates” anyone here. On either side of this equation you’ve got absolute titans of jazz.

Okay to have a preference, but c’mon

[fange]

Hey, hey - let's not get all sensible about things.

[Fonz]

Two words: Elvin. Jones.

Two more words: Tony Williams

[mission]

Two words: Elvin. Jones.

Yesssss.

Motherfucker.

[The Write Profile]

Both are responsible for some of my favourite music, but by the same token, I don't feel particularly qualified to express a preference. What I get out of both differs markedly. For Coltrane, there's a sense of frenzy and big blast of energy to his best work, it has the feeling of almost total commitment on something like A Love Supreme or the Village Vanguard recordings or even My Favourite Things. Just the way he would take a note or theme and wring it dry until you come out of the other side of it utterly exhausted in a good way.

For Miles Davis, my favourite stuff by him, from Kind of Blue to Sketches of Spain to In A Silent Way is the sense of space. The latter, in particular, is almost ambient in the gaps it leaves open for the notes, but it also exists in something like "Flamenco Sketches", where every note just sounds utterly right, like nothing else matters except it. Even something as dense and hard as Jack Johnson has occasional moments of contemplation when it moves away from the (admittedly smoking) main theme.

[BARON CORNY DOG]

Both are responsible for some of my favourite music, but by the same token, I don't feel particularly qualified to express a preference. What I get out of both differs markedly. For Coltrane, there's a sense of frenzy and big blast of energy to his best work, it has the feeling of almost total commitment on something like A Love Supreme or the Village Vanguard recordings or even My Favourite Things. Just the way he would take a note or theme and wring it dry until you come out of the other side of it utterly exhausted in a good way.

For Miles Davis, my favourite stuff by him, from Kind of Blue to Sketches of Spain to In A Silent Way is the sense of space. The latter, in particular, is almost ambient in the gaps it leaves open for the notes, but it also exists in something like "Flamenco Sketches", where every note just sounds utterly right, like nothing else matters except it. Even something as dense and hard as Jack Johnson has occasional moments of contemplation when it moves away from the (admittedly smoking) main theme.

That sums it up!

[BARON CORNY DOG]

Doh!

[fange]

I'm still trying to get over the fact that you don't like the trumpet much!

[BARON CORNY DOG]

I'm still trying to get over the fact that you don't like the trumpet much!

I’ve said it before!

I don’t like it as a lead instrument on all those hard bop/“funky” blue note records. It sounds clipped, with too much attack. I prefer piano or saxophone as the focus. I like Miles’s playing/sound when he’s more muted and chilled out.

[fange]

Clearly I missed that!

[The Modernist]

I like Miles’s playing/sound when he’s more muted and chilled out.

It's that beautiful sadness he has in his tone that I most love.

[mission]

Beautiful sadness, you say?

[The Modernist]

wonderful..I do love Coltrane as well.

[mission]

The thing is, Coltrane is responsible for most of what I love about Miles.

A lot of folk are talking about the breadth of Davis' accomplishment, and giving him the nod on the back of that. He recorded for half a century. Coltrane only got from 55-67, but you want to talk about breadth? You get Elvin Jones dropping his bombs and insane shit all over the place, Coltrane laying down sheets of that heavy metal, with McCoy Tyner comping his fucking arse off and Chambers doing what he can to hold it all down with thick, thick ropes of melody and feeling, and that's one sort of Coltrane that I love - the out-there moments; the almost untrammelled, the ecstatic - and then there's this:



His ballads are the purest form of my idea of jazz.

[clive gash]

I’ve never been able to get into Sketches of Spain or much of the Gil Evans stuff.

For me, something like this seems so much more vital.

[pcqgod]

Close, but I'd have to go with JC on the basis that he recorded less music that I'm mainly indifferent to, like 'Kind of Blue' and that fusion stuff.

But JC did record A Kind of Blue, didn't he?

You know, I had actually forgotten that he played on that.

[fange]

His ballads are the purest form of my idea of jazz.

Not just jazz - music, full stop.

[Quaco]

Alice
Miles
John