Forms/Structure on Miles Davis' Nefertiti CD

[jalbah]

Upon listening to the tracks on Miles Davis' CD Nefertiti, I noticed that on some of the solos, Wayne and Miles and Herbie were not following the harmonic structure that was present during the melody. On Pinocchio it is very evident. At one point, Wayne sounds like he is improvising in some Major tonality for about 8 bars and I know that there wasn't any 8-bar Major tonality section during the melody. What were they doing here? I've heard Herbie Hancock refer to the music from this period as "structured freedom", were they creating their own harmonic progression during the solos (freedom) but in and of itself it was tonal (structure)? So, did they just say go wherever you want with the solos? If so, what did Ron Carter do for changes? Was it up to him to follow where the soloist was going and maybe taking the lead and going somewhere himself at times? I notice a lot of Cycle of 4ths in his bass line. Thanks.

[hearsay]

I think you've described the basic idea of the music, although they do follow the form on the first two tunes. On Pinnochio you can hear that there is some element of the tunes harmony in the improvisations and they keep returning to the theme, but it's pretty much open. Ron Carter has amazing ears, and a lot of knowledge about harmony. I think that when there's little recognizable harmony from the soloist he tries to keep it moving using different techniques, cycle of fourths being a common one.

[Bruce Lindfield]

This is the same band that did "Live at the Plugged Nickel" and you can hear quite clearly from that, that they did just go where they wanted - with no reference to the changes necessarily.

It was the fact of having a regular quintet that played together so much that they could follow where they were going and hear what the others were doing and go with it! Plus they were all such good musicians, of course!!

That's one of the reasons that quintet was so influential and so many bands do this kind of thing now, that I almost take it for granted that that's what Jazz is all about - but back then, it must have been truly amazing and shocking, to see them live!!