Nardis (composition)
"Nardis" is a composition by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It was written in 1958, during Davis's modal period, to be played by Cannonball Adderley for the album Portrait of Cannonball.[1] The piece has come to be associated with pianist Bill Evans, who performed and recorded it many times.
Composition
From 1955 to 1958, Miles Davis was leading what would come to be called his
Coltrane's return to Davis’s group in 1958 coincided with the "modal phase" albums: Milestones (1958) and Kind of Blue (1959) are both considered essential examples of 1950s modern jazz. Davis at this point was experimenting with modes—i.e. scale patterns other than major and minor.[3]
In mid-1958, Bill Evans replaced Garland on piano and Jimmy Cobb replaced Jones on drums, but Evans too left after eight months, replaced by Wynton Kelly in late 1958.[4][5] This group backing Davis, Coltrane, and Adderley, with Evans returning for the recording sessions, would make Kind of Blue, often considered the greatest jazz album of all time.[6][7][8][9] Adderley left the band in September 1959 to pursue his career, returning the line-up to a quintet.[10]
In July 1958, Evans appeared as a sideman in Adderley's album Portrait of Cannonball, that featured the first performance of "Nardis", specially written by Davis for the session. While Davis was not very satisfied with the performance, he said that from then on, Evans was the only one to play it in the way he wanted. The piece would come to be associated with Evans's future trios, which played it frequently.[1]
[We're gonna] finish up featuring everyone in the trio with a Miles Davis number that's come to be associated with our group, because no one else seemed to pick up on it after it was written for a Cannonball date I did with Cannonball in 1958—he asked Miles to write a tune for the date [the album Portrait of Cannonball], and Miles came up with this tune; and it was kind of a new type of sound to contend with. It was a very modal sound. And I picked up on it, but nobody else did... The tune is called "Nardis."
— Interview at Ilkka Kuusisto's home, ca.1970, Bill Evans[11]
The use of the
Davis never recorded "Nardis", and Adderley only did once.
Bill Evans
Unlike in the cases of Davis and Adderley, "Nardis" was an important part of Bill Evans's repertoire, as it appears on many of his albums:
Form
Nardis makes use harmonically and melodically of the
Section | Harmony | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A (mm.1-8) | Em7 | Em7 Fmaj7 | B7 | Cmaj7 | Am7 | Fmaj7 | Emaj7 | Em7 |
A (Mm.9-16) | Em7 | Em7 Fmaj7 | B7 | Cmaj7 | Am7 | Fmaj7 | Emaj7 | Em7 |
B (Mm.17-24) | Am6 | Fmaj7 | Am6 | Fmaj7 | Dm7 | Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 | Fmaj7 |
A (Mm.25-32) | Em7 | Em7 Fmaj7 | B7 | Cmaj7 | Am7 | Fmaj7 | Emaj7 Em7 | (B7) |
Other notable recordings
- Neal Ardley's New Jazz Orchestra included an arrangement by Ian Carr on the British jazz album Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (1969).[14]
- Marc Johnson included the composition in his 2022 album Overpass.[15][16]
References
- ^ a b Pettinger 2002.
- ISBN 978-0-19-532266-8, pp. 44-45.
- ^ Milestones – Encyclopædia Britannica Online
- ^ Cook, pp. 93-95, 110.
- ^ Miles Davis and Bill Evans: Miles and Bill in Black & White, Sept. 2001, Ashley Kahn, JazzTimes.
- ^ The All-TIME 100 Albums. Time.com. Retrieved on August 19, 2008.
- ^ The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Archived 2008-06-23 at the Wayback Machine. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on August 19, 2008.
- ^ Rateyourmusic's 'Top Albums of All-Time'. Rate Your Music. Retrieved on August 19, 2008.
- ^ Tower.com – Kind of Blue review notes Archived 2012-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. Tower.com. Retrieved on August 19, 2008.
- ^ Cook, p. 123.
- ^ "- YouTube". YouTube.
- ^ Evans explicitly deems the work as very "modal", see quote.
- ^ Among others: London (19/March/1965); Oslo (1966), Helsinki (1970); Umbria Jazz (1978); Jazz Manteniance Shop (1980).
- ^ Alyn Shipton. 'The New Jazz Orchestra: Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe', review in JazzWise
- ^ "Overpass - Marc Johnson | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
- ^ Jarrett, Nigel (15 November 2021). "Marc Johnson: Overpass". Jazz Journal. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
Books
- Pettinger, Peter (2002) [1999]. Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings (New ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09727-1.