The B H P S Newsletter Aug 95

claims made for Partch's influence

* Artist: Miles Davies / Gil Evans Claim made by: Gene Santoro

Quote: One of Miles' talents was his ability to synthesise the salient points of a seemingly unbounded musical space that included Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Gil Evans, Tadd Dameron, Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Prince, Ravel, Debussy, Harry Partch.... The 1948-49 nonet yielded ... Birth of the Cool (Capitol)...(which) not only slowed down tempos, featured ensemble passages as much or more than solos... (and) became the seedbed for the West Coast "cool" jazz scene ... Miles recalled some of the sources for the concept, "Gil gave me an album by Harry Partch in 1948, where there were drums and keyboards that really sounded like what John Cage was doing..." Ref: The Nation, Nov 11, 1991 v253 n16 p600(4)