I went back and started listening to bebop,
and I couldn't tell if I liked it or was fooling myself
into liking it.

I mean, it was cool hearing the runs and the off
kilter rhythm sections, but... and I know this
must have been obvious to everyone but me...

Jazz doesn't resolve.

Pop is the opposite of that.
Pop songs are geared towards reslolving.
Good pop doesn't reslove exactly how you'd expect it to...
but your ear can subconsciously predict where it goes.

All this time I thought folks listening to charlie parker
had a jazz ear that could predict his choices and
sense where he was going with his solos.

And maybe they can to a degree.

But the appeal of bebob to me s least is that you CAN'T
predict the solos, and it doesn't resolve, yet something makes you listen. It can't be all peer pressure.
Charlie parker solos make me want to listen to them.

But I still couldn't identify a wrong note.
Not even if you put a gun to my head.
Maybe that's the point. Maybe there ain't no wrong notes, not really.


Which brings me to miles in the 70s.

These songs resolve even less. You can't play it on piano.
You certainly can't hum it. (Or at least I can't.)

And I can see how some would say that's a cop out...
But what makes it any less indecipherable than bebop?
There's just SOMETHING there. the challenge is to find what that something is.

When ppl say miles sold out, I think that's unfair.
He wanted to be modern.

George clinton said once that your music has to hit the frequencies kids listen to. You can play how you want, but if uou don't put your work in the context of sounds that somewhat resemble what kids like, ppl won't dig it.

So if miles didn't want to stay still... he HAD to
addresss the fact that rock sounds were a thing. He also had to address funk.

So his 70s albums have traces of those sounds, even though it it could be confused for rock or funk.

I mean, I still can't tell if he's ever playing a wrong note...but it's intriguing music.

Even an album like tutu gets me.
It's taking sounds from the 80s,
and playing his trumpet in that context.


Is it good?

Maybe nobody will ever know for sure. I'm starting to think it doesn't matter.