Miles Davis - So What (Audio) (Official Audio)
Why Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange recommends it
Music Stack Exchange answerers point people to it as the canonical example of modal jazz and of the quartal "So What chord" voicing played by Bill Evans.
Recommended by 1 people across 1 different months, 2015 to 2023.
What it is
The official audio of "So What" by Miles Davis, the opening track of the 1959 album Kind of Blue, uploaded to the artist's VEVO channel. It runs about nine and a half minutes and features the quartal piano voicings of Bill Evans and the modal, 32-bar form that defined modal jazz.
What people said
Recommends LSM07 · 2019-04 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “How does modal jazz use chord progressions?”
Definition from Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia [LINK] : [...] Chafing against compositions which were stifling with chord changes, [Miles] Davis looked to organize his music around modes -- either the diatonic scales of the European classical heritage [...], or nondiatonic scales of the sort found in flamenco music. [...] [Modal jazz's] main characteristic lies, perhaps, in what it is not: a performance locked into an unyielding grid of a chord progression. A personal, simple definition: Modal playing emphasizes a specific sound or sounds of chords and scales as opposed to the "direction" or overall motion of the harmony. (This is more in line with Mark Gridley's take on what "modal jazz"
Cites Shev · 2015-03 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “Ways to use quartal chords”
A good example is used by Bill Evans on So What: Bill used the kind of chords you mentioned, while adding a third at the end. The theorists have categorized these kind of chords as 'So what chords' [LINK] There are many modal jazz songs that use these kind of voicings; like 'Impressions' by John Coltrane. So, you can feel free to use them on modal jazz
Cites John Belzaguy · 2020-08 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “Should the comping instrument ever double the bass player?”
I agree with the answer and ideas provided by @Tim and would like to add a few of my own. The thing about group accompanying is unless the music is completely arranged you can’t predict what the other person is going to do so how could one play the same notes as the bass player? Held root notes will clash with anything linear the bass might play. The same general principles of composed and arranged music apply to improvised music, try and avoid clashes and adjacent notes in the low register. That being said, there are many times when doubling the bass (or the bass doubling something else) is very desirable and that is mostly within the context of an arrangement or composition. Some examples
Cites Aaron · 2021-01 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “What is this chord (B-E-A-D#-F#)?”
This is known as a "quartal" voicing, which need not be strictly quartal for the designation. If only the D# was a D, it would be the chord and voicing used by Bill Evans on Miles Davis's original "So What" recording [this video] .
Cites Aaron · 2023-01 · Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange · on “Is there a name of the stacked fourths melody which appears frequently in Jazz music?”
Melodies in fourths don't have a particular term, but the recording given shows an example of "quartal harmony". The brass are building a quartal chord one note at a time. Notice that upon each entrance, that player hold the note until all the other entrances are complete. McCoy Tyner was particularly noted for his use of fourth-based chords. Listen to his recording of "Effendi", for example: "Effendi" is quite similar to Miles Davis's "So What", which also involves quartal harmony. The melody is a call and response between the bass and piano, with the piano playing quartal chords (as well as throughout the rest of the piece).