Opening measures of Miles Davis's composition "So What" of 1959. ( Listen)

"So What" is the first track on the 1959 Miles Davis album Kind of Blue and is often credited as one of his best works. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1245x624, 5 KB) opening sequence of Miles Davis composition Â»So What« (1959), Music Publisher 5 file by the author File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Quartal and... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1245x624, 5 KB) opening sequence of Miles Davis composition Â»So What« (1959), Music Publisher 5 file by the author File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Quartal and... Image File history File links Loudspeaker. ... Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was one of the most distinguished jazz musicians of the latter half of the 20th century. ... Kind of Blue is a jazz album by musician Miles Davis, released on August 17, 1959. ...

It is one of the most well-known examples of modal jazz, set in the Dorian mode and consisting of 16 bars of D minor⁷, followed by eight bars of Eb minor⁷ and another eight of D minor⁷. This AABA structure puts it in the format of popular song structure. Modal jazz is jazz played using musical modes rather than chord progressions. ... Due to historical confusion, Dorian mode can refer to two very different musical modes or diatonic scales. ... Generally speaking, a minor chord is any chord which has a minor third above its root, as opposed to a major chord which has a major third. ... A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chords root. ...

The piano and bass introduction for the piece was written by Gil Evans for Bill Evans and Paul Chambers on Kind of Blue. An orchestrated version by Gil Evans of this introduction is later to be found on a television broadcast given by Miles' Quintet (minus Cannonball Adderly who was ill that day) and the Gil Evans Orchestra; the orchestra gave the introduction after which the quintet produced a rendition of the rest of "So What". Gil Evans  (*13 May 1912 at Toronto, Canada  â€  20 March 1988 at Cuernavaca, Mexico); jazz musician and important innovator of big band jazz in the United States as an arranger, composer, bandleader, and pianist; cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, jazz rock. ... William John Evans, (better known as Bill Evans) (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was one of the most famous jazz pianists of the 20th century; he remains one of the major influences on post-1950s jazz piano. ... Paul Chambers Paul Laurence Dunbar Chambers, Jr. ... Kind of Blue is a jazz album by musician Miles Davis, released on August 17, 1959. ... Gil Evans  (*13 May 1912 at Toronto, Canada  â€  20 March 1988 at Cuernavaca, Mexico); jazz musician and important innovator of big band jazz in the United States as an arranger, composer, bandleader, and pianist; cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, jazz rock. ... Julian Edwin Cannonball Adderley (September 15, 1928 - August 8, 1975), originally from Tampa, Florida was a jazz saxophonist of the small combo era of the 1950s and 1960s. ...

The distinctive voicing employed by Bill Evans for the chords that interject the head, from the bottom up three perfect fourths followed by a major third, has been given the name "So What chord" by such theorists as Mark Levine. William John Evans, (better known as Bill Evans) (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was one of the most famous jazz pianists of the 20th century; he remains one of the major influences on post-1950s jazz piano. ... In music—particularly jazz—the head is the main melody of a piece and is usually played at the beginning and end of a performance and sometimes in-between. ... The perfect fourth or diatessaron, abbreviated P4, is one of two musical intervals that span four diatonic scale degrees; the other being the augmented fourth, which is one semitone larger. ... A major third is the larger of two commonly occuring musical intervals that span three diatonic scale degrees. ... Opening measures of Miles Daviss composition So What of 1959. ... Mark LeVine is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. ...

While the track is taken at a very moderate tempo on Kind Of Blue, it is played at an extremely fast tempo on later live recordings by the Quintet, such as Four and More.

The same chord structure was later used by John Coltrane for his standard "Impressions". John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967), nicknamed Trane, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. ... Impressions is a Jazz standard composed by John Coltrane, appearing on the 1963 album of the same name. ...

The song was featured on The Weather Channel's local forecast segments. See Playlists For the Australian Weather Channel with the same name, see The Weather Channel, Australia The Weather Channel (TWC) is a cable and satellite television network that broadcasts weather and weather-related news 24 hours a day. ...