Modal Jazz

The current modal jazz developed in the Années 1960. The main actors of this variation of the Jazz are without any doubt Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock with pieces like So what or Cantaloupe Island .

The Modal Jazz was born from a certain disinterest towards the harmonic grids complex and enriched by the currents Bop, and drew from the ideas of the Eastern and exotic musics: a piece of Modal Jazz often contains three or four agreements, seldom more, from where its name (modal: who are connected with the modes - standard of characteristic ranges), which allows an extraordinary freedom of expression the improviser and a play “out” often very appreciated.

With the mounting of new tracks of improvisation, some musicians ventured beyond the major and minor traditional ranges. They took as a starting point the modes of the medieval Sacred music, which used intervals deteriorated between the usual tonalities, or (and especially) of the modes known as " grecs" (Ionian, dorien, Phrygian, Lydian, mixolydien, wind, locrien), which makes of it the modal music by opposition with the tonal music.

In 1959, the Trompettiste Miles Davis records off Kind Blue (disc of jazz more sold in the world since its publication) with inter alia the Pianiste Bill Evans.

In 1960, John Coltrane records My Favorite Things with in particular the pianist McCoy Tyner.

The type-setter George Russell, author of the Lydian Concept of tonal organization, is one of the first clearers of the modal jazz, with his work The Lydian Chromatic Concept Off Tonal Organization For Improvisation , published in 1959.

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