I rewrote this post using the up-goer five text editor. Enjoy.
How does cool music work? Rather than attempting the hard job of explaining how everything in cool music works, I will pick a usual song and talk you through it: “One Day My Son Of An Important Person Will Come” by Miles Davis, from the 1961 black round music thing by the same name.
First of all, here is the first time someone played the song, from Little Ice Pieces White.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0niwn2pOEno
Once you have the song in your head, listen to Miles Davis play it.
The song begins with a long part where Paul Chambers plays the same note over and over on the low-sound wood box. When he does this, it makes you feel like time is not going by. Jimmy Cobb plays on the round beat boxes with his brushes: one-and-two-and-three-and, one-and-two-and-three-and. (Most cool music songs are in four-four time, so each bar would be one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and.) Wynton Kelly plays some made-up figures right then and there on the big black music box, using note-groups but with the notes played one at a time.
At 0:40, Miles Davis plays the song as written down by pushing air through his hard round music thing, with a smaller hard round thing inside it. Miles changes the song’s timing as he feels like it, and he adds and takes away parts of it too. Still, you should have no trouble saying the words of the song along with him. This part of the song is called the head. (Here is the head written down, if you know how to read music.) The head is two times two times two times two times two bars long, and each bar lasts as long as it takes for you to say “one-and-two-and-three-and.” Most cool music heads are this long.
At 1:17, Miles begins to make up his own song over the same note-groups form of the head. He plays the notes that he feels like, but he still has to play them so that they make sense against the note-groups as they go by. You can keep track of the form by continuing to say the words. As you do, hear how the new Miles song is the same as and different from the written-down song.
Miles is well known for his dark and serious way of playing, and for not hurrying. He plays fewer notes than the other people in his band, using many silences. You can hear him sometimes telling you about the song as written down, and sometimes using notes in new ways that sound different and strange. Sometimes the notes do not even fit exactly over the note groups, but that is okay. Miles is a perfect going-in point for cool music — his lines are simple enough to follow and understand, but you can think about them for a long time very hard and feel a lot of different ways about them.
Each pass through the two times two times two times two times bar length of the song is called a song form. Miles plays three song forms — you can say the words three times over his new song. At 2:26, Miles ends his second song form by playing one note over and over. At 3:05, the end of the third song form, he plays this one-note thing again longer, allowing it to go over past the end of the form. This kind of cool move is how Miles often plays.
At 3:11, there is a more exciting feeling in the round beat boxes as Jimmy Cobb changes from the soft-sounding brushes to the louder and harder sticks. This is where Hank Mobley begins his new song on his long hard music thing. Hank is a world-class music person, but this is not one of his strongest songs. He was new to Miles’ band, and did not yet have his feet under him. Also, his softer song way is not as cool as Miles’ tone. If you want to hear Hank at his best, check out his own very good black round music things.
After two song forms, you can hear Hank pause at around 4:18, not strong like Miles, but because he is not sure what to play next. He finishes his song with some not-so-strong music. This kind of moment makes us remember that making up songs is hard and gives you fear. If you make up songs right then and there, you might not do it well, so you do not feel safe. That is exactly what makes cool music the exciting art form that it is.
Next comes Wynton Kelly’s song on the big black music box, at 4:26. As he did at the beginning, Wynton plays a lot of note groups, but with the notes played one at a time, with short songs that call and respond to each other. Wynton sounds a lot more relaxed and on his game than Hank Mobley. It is no surprise; Wynton had played with Miles Davis for a long time. Wynton gets one and a half song forms, and at 5:24, Miles takes over, playing the second half of the old song. Then there is a short pause, using the same one note over and over as in the beginning. It is not usual to do this in a cool music song. Miles is making you get ready for the most exciting part, when John Coltrane comes in.
A little back story is good here. Coltrane had played the long hard music thing in Miles’ group on and off through the second half of the 1950s. Together, the two of them made some of the best and most round black music things in all of cool music, like Round About The Middle Of The Night and Kind Of Blue. (Go buy them! You will be happy about it.) At the time of the “Son Of An Important Person” music making time, Coltrane had left Miles to lead his own very great band. But he happened to be visiting the music-making room that day, so Miles asked him to sit in.
What you hear at 5:52 is Coltrane making up a song without getting ready first, just sight-reading the piece of paper with the note groups on it. That may sound hard, but it is actually usual for cool music people. The surprise for you is how Coltrane sounds like making a new song full of power is easy. His song builds, until by the start of the second song form, he is playing two notes when you expect one note. His song goes forward and turns back and is not simple at all.
Coltrane played very fast and not simple, but that is not why we think he is so great. He is so great because even when he plays fast, he uses notes that all make sense and that make you feel good. If you slow a Coltrane song down, it becomes a simple song that all people can like. Any kid coming out of music school can play a lot of notes fast. It is a lot less usual to have all those notes tell a strong story that makes you feel different ways. No one tells stories like Coltrane. The “Son Of An Important Person” song is just a piece of his many very good ideas. It is sad that he died just six years after this black round music thing was made.
After a short pause, Miles plays the head out, the final time through the written-down song. Usually the head out is the same as the head, but in this case, Miles just plays the first half of the form. Then there is an ending, much the same as the beginning, over the one note over and over again. Wynton Kelly plays more free than he did in the beginning, using darker and more serious note groups to match Coltrane’s song. Finally, the music winds down to a close. You can hear that Jimmy Cobb does not quite land in the same spot as everyone else, he carries over a few too many beats. Then someone in the room makes a strange “pop” sound with their mouth, and the music is over.
Most cool music songs follow this same form of the head, then new songs made up at the time, then the head out. The band plays the song as it was written down. Then each person makes up their own song over the form. Finally, the whole band plays the song as written down again, there is some sort of ending, and the music ends. There are different ways to change this way of making songs. You can understand them just by listening to different times that people played of “One Day My Son Of An Important Person Will Come,” which has been played many times by cool music people over the years. Miles himself got the idea from by Dave Brubeck’s 1957 black round music thing, which is faster and does not have the parts with one note being played over and over.
I talked about this song because you probably know it, at least a little bit. Cool music was a lot easier to understand back in its day, because it grew out of well-known pop songs. If you went to hear Miles’ band play, you would have recognized almost every song they played. You would have been able to enjoy how Miles changed the written-down songs into his own songs. It is harder to listen to cool music now. You probably do not know all the old written-down songs that the cool music people are turning into new songs. No wonder people find cool music too hard or boring.
The cool music people think that they are brighter than people who like pop music. But we need to remember that in its day, cool music was pop music. A lot of normal people liked Miles Davis’ own songs when he made them, even though now we think they are high art (which they are!) Cool music people in the 1950s wanted to make art, but they also wanted to make songs that you would like and be able to remember. Miles’ own songs, like “So What” and “All Blues,” are about as easy to like and remember as music gets.
If you want to listen to cool music now, and you do not know a lot of old pop songs, then the cool music that comes from the old pop songs will just sound like any old notes. I had a much easier time getting into the music through cool music songs like “So What” than through old pop songs. The best way to approach the music now is to start with something you know, or that you can learn quickly. Find a song you know and like, and check out how different people approach it. Miles and Coltrane are great for this, because they liked playing pop songs that are still well known, and because their playing is so great. Happy listening!
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