"So What" is the first track on the 1959 album ''

Kind of Blue ''Kind of Blue'' is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released on August17,1959, by Columbia Records. For this album, Davis led a sextet featuring saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianist Bill Ev ...

'' by American trumpeter

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

. It is one of the best-known examples of

modal jazz Modal jazz is jazz that makes use of musical modes, often modulating among them to accompany the chords instead of relying on one tonal center used across the piece. Though exerting influence to the present, modal jazz was most popular in th ...

, set in the

Dorian mode The Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different but interrelated subjects: one of the Ancient Greek music, Ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' (characteristic melodic behaviour, or the scale structure associated with it); one of the mediev ...

and consisting of 16 bars of D Dorian, followed by eight bars of E Dorian and another eight of D Dorian. This AABA structure puts it in the

thirty-two-bar form The 32-bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the 20th century. Th ...

at of American popular song. The piano-and-bass introduction for the piece was written by

Gil Evans Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian Americans, Canadian–American jazz pianist, Music arranger, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators i ...

for

Bill Evans William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, a ...

(no relation) and

Paul Chambers Paul Laurence Dunbar Chambers Jr. (April 22, 1935 – January 4, 1969) was an American jazz double bassist. A fixture of rhythm sections during the 1950s and 1960s, he has become one of the most widely-known jazz bassists of the hard bop er ...

on ''Kind of Blue''. An orchestrated version by Gil Evans of this introduction is later to be found on a television broadcast given by Miles' first quintet (minus

Cannonball Adderley Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928August 8, 1975) was an American jazz Alto saxophone, alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is perhaps best remembered by the general public for the 1966 soul ...

, who was ill that day) and the Gil Evans Orchestra; the orchestra gave the introduction, after which the quintet played the rest of "So What". The use of the double bass to play the central theme makes the piece unusual. This arrangement was later performed and recorded as part of the album ''

Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall ''Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall: The Legendary Performances of May 19, 1961'' is a live album by American jazz musician Miles Davis originally released by Columbia in 1962. In 1987, a follow up with more recordings from the concert was released ...

''. While the track is taken at a very moderate tempo on ''Kind of Blue'', it is played at a speedy tempo on later live recordings by the quintet, such as '' Miles Davis & John Coltrane The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6'', and even faster by Miles Davis's second quintet in the mid-1960s, for example on ''

Four & More Four' & More: Recorded Live in Concert'' is a live album by Miles Davis. It was recorded at the Philharmonic Hall of Lincoln Center on February 12, 1964 and released two years later. Two albums were assembled from the concert recording: the up-t ...

''. The distinctive voicing employed by Bill Evans for the chords that interject the

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

: from the bottom up, three notes at intervals of a

perfect fourth A fourth is a interval (music), musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending int ...

followed by a

major third In music theory, a third is a Interval (music), musical interval encompassing three staff positions (see Interval (music)#Number, Interval number for more details), and the major third () is a third spanning four Semitone, half steps or two ...

, has been given the name "

So What chord In jazz harmony, a So What chord is a particular 5-note chord voicing. From the bottom note upwards, it consists of three perfect fourth intervals followed by a major third interval. It was employed by Bill Evans in the "'amen' response figure" t ...

" (shown below) by such theorists as

Mark Levine Mark Andrew LeVine is an American historian, musician, writer, and professor. He is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. Education LeVine received his B.A. in comparative religion and biblical studies from Hunter ...

. The same chord structure was later used by

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...

for his standard "

Impressions An impression is the overall effect of something. Impression or impressions may also refer to: Biology * Colic impression, a feature of the gall bladder * Duodenal impression, medial to the renal impression * Gastric impression, a feature of th ...

". Both pieces originate in

Ahmad Jamal Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell Jones; July 2, 1930 – April 16, 2023) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator. For six decades, he was one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz. He was a NEA Jazz Ma ...

's 1955 cover of

Morton Gould Morton Gould (December 10, 1913February 21, 1996) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist. Biography Morton Gould was born in Richmond Hill, New York, United States. He was of Austrian-Jewish heritage. He was recognized ear ...

's "Pavanne". In 2024, "So What" was ranked 492 on ''Rolling Stone''s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

References

External links

*"So What" a
jazzstandards.com
{{Authority control 1959 compositions 1950s jazz standards Modal jazz standards Jazz compositions Compositions by Miles Davis Jazz compositions in D minor Real Book Song

See also

References

External links