The record that changed my life: Interviews I did for Musician Magazine
Herbie Hancock reveals his pick
Miles Ahead: The first thing was my emotional reaction, the record is so beautiful. I’m pretty sure I saw it in a record shop; I remember the original cover and it looked the least like a jazz record. I wondered what it would sound like. I put it on, and I heard this 19-piece group playing stuff that sounded like stuff I’d dreamed — things you don’t hear big bands play, using instruments that are unlike a big band, playing counterlines…. my mouth dropped open.
Here was a big band improvising like a horn player might. At one point, a tune builds to a tremendous peak, and as Miles hits the highest note, the other instruments drop out and there’s only a tuba on the bottom! It sent chills down my spine. The ballads are so beautiful. There were concepts that were familiar to me, but there were totally new things that I never heard before. I thought, how did he (Gil Evans) do that? I learned later on that a lot of things he did had horizontal strength; harmonically, you think of vertical strength. I learned a lot from that album and I think some of it came through on my album, Speak Like A Child. Miles Ahead was a mark of perfection that I had never experienced before. Every time I heard it, it brings tears to my eyes.
Karen Bennett © 1994; 2022
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