From Roots to Fusion —Episode 10

Fast-forward to the '60s, but not before introducing two sons of bop: saxophonist John Coltrane and trumpeter Miles Davis, who revolutionized jazz with modal lines rather than tonal improvisation. That technical and radical development of the genre was recorded, for the first time, on the album Kind of Blue, whose title delved into the spiritual and musical legacy of early blues singers.

Modal jazz was not “easy to listen to”. It was, and still is, somewhat disturbing. In this tenth episode we not only witness the birth of this compositional concept, but we also review the social traumas that surrounded daily life in the United States in the 1960s, almost a century since Abraham Lincoln legislated the abolition of slavery throughout the Union.