1975 : la fin d’une intrigue ?

Schaefer Festival in Central Park, New York City, September 5, 1975: Miles Davis quits the stage in his last public appearance with his band. Newport Jazz Festival, City Center, New York City, June 29, 1976: a “Retrospective of The Music of Herbie Hancock.” Former Miles Davis’ sideman presents his band of the time and two earlier groups he played with: his own sextet Mwandishi, active between 1970 and 1972, and the second Miles Davis quintet of which he was the piano player between 1963 and 1968, with Freddie Hubbard replacing Miles Davis. What does link these two events? The name of Miles Davis of course. In both there is a closing and an opening. The former is the end of a certain history of jazz, the latter is the beginning, maybe not of a new history, but of a new age, an age of some form of postmodernism, as it had been said. But talking about postmodernism supposes that we understand the modern and classic ages. I would like first to address this idea by proposing a new periodization of jazz history built around the concept of a common jazz practice.