Modal jazz

Modal jazz is a special kind of jazz that uses something called musical modes. Instead of using just one main note sound, or "tonal center," throughout a song, modal jazz moves between different modes to go with the chords. This gives the music a unique and changing feel.

Modal jazz became very popular in the 1950s and 1960s. One reason for this was the big success of Miles Davis’s famous pieces like his 1958 composition “Milestones” and his 1959 album Kind of Blue. Another important artist was John Coltrane, whose group from 1960 to 1965 helped shape this style.

Many talented musicians played modal jazz. Some of them are Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Pharoah Sanders, Woody Shaw, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, and Larry Young. These artists each brought their own ideas and skills to modal jazz, making it an exciting and ever-changing part of jazz history.

History

In bebop and hard bop, jazz musicians used chords to create a background for solos. The music would start with a theme that introduced a series of chords, and these chords would repeat while the soloists improvised new melodies. By the 1950s, this style of improvising over chords became very popular.

During this time, some musicians began to experiment with a new approach called modal jazz. Instead of using many changing chords, they used musical modes. Famous pieces like "So What" by Miles Davis and "Impressions" by John Coltrane used modes to create their sound. Albums such as Davis's Kind of Blue and several of Coltrane's works from the early 1960s are great examples of modal jazz.