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| "So What" | |
|---|---|
| Composition byMiles Davis | |
| from the albumKind of Blue | |
| Released | August 17, 1959 (1959-08-17) |
| Recorded | March 2, 1959 |
| Genre | Modal jazz |
| Length | 9:22 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Composer | Miles Davis |
| Producer | Teo Macero |
"So What" is the first track on the 1959 albumKind of Blue by American trumpeterMiles Davis.
It is one of the best-known examples ofmodal jazz, set in theDorian mode and consisting of 16 bars of D Dorian, followed by eight bars of E♭ Dorian and another eight of D Dorian.[1] ThisAABA structure puts it in thethirty-two-bar format of American popular song.
The piano-and-bass introduction for the piece was written byGil Evans forBill Evans (no relation) andPaul Chambers onKind of Blue. An orchestrated version by Gil Evans of this introduction is later to be found on a television broadcast given byMiles's first quintet (minusCannonball Adderley, who was ill that day) and the Gil Evans Orchestra; the orchestra gave the introduction, after which the quintet played the rest of "So What". The use of the double bass to play the central theme makes the piece unusual. This arrangement was later performed and recorded as part of the albumMiles Davis at Carnegie Hall.
While the track is taken at a very moderate tempo onKind of Blue, it is played at a speedy tempo on later live recordings by the quintet, such asMiles Davis & John Coltrane The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6, and even faster by Miles Davis's second quintet in the mid-1960s, for example onFour & More.
The distinctivevoicing employed by Bill Evans for the chords that interject thehead: from the bottom up, three notes at intervals of aperfect fourth followed by amajor third, has been given the name "So What chord" (shown below) by such theorists asMark Levine.
The same chord structure was later used byJohn Coltrane for his standard "Impressions".[2] Both pieces originate inAhmad Jamal's 1955 cover ofMorton Gould's "Pavanne".[3]
In 2024, "So What" was ranked 492 onRolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[4]
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