02 Lester Bangs评《In A Silent Way》

Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs（1948.12.14 - 1982.04.30），美国记者、乐评人，对乐评界影响深远。乐评人Jim DeRogatis称他为“美国最杰出的摇滚评家”（America's greatest rock critic）。

本文系Bangs给Miles Davis的专辑《In a Silent Way》 所写的评论，原刊于《滚石》（Rolling Stone, 1969）。原文见：https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/in-a-silent-way-181826/

This is the kind of album that gives you faith in the future of music. It is not rock and roll, but it’s nothing stereotyped as jazz either. All at once, it owes almost as much to the techniques developed by rock improvisors in the last four years as to Davis’ jazz background. It is part of a transcendental new music which flushes categories away and, while using musical devices from all styles and cultures, is defined mainly by its deep emotion and unaffected originality.

这是那种会令你对音乐的未来充满信心的专辑。它并非摇滚乐，但也不能为爵士这个标签所笼统涵盖。它受益于Davis的爵士乐背景，也在同等程度上吸纳了过去四年里那些摇滚乐即兴演奏家所研发的技巧。它是那种将所有流派分类重新洗牌的先验式新音乐的一部分，既起用了来自各种风格、文化的音乐元素，又以深刻的情感和天然的独创性构成其脉络。

Miles has always gone his own way, a musician of strength and dignity who has never made the compromise (so poisonous to jazz now) with “pop” fads. It is a testimony to his authenticity that he has never worried about setting styles either, but continued his deeply felt experiment for two decades now. Albums like Miles Ahead, Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain simply do not get old, and contain some of the most moving experiences that any music has to offer. In his new album, the best he has made in some time, he turns to “space music” and a reverent, timeless realm of pure song, the kind of music which comes along ever so often and stops us momentarily, making us think that this perhaps is the core around which all of our wayward musical highways have revolved, the primal yet futuristic and totally uncontrived sound which gives the deepest, most lasting sustenance to our souls, the living contemporary definition of great art.

Miles向来独辟蹊径，总是以刚强、高贵的音乐家形象示人，从不妥协于各式时尚潮流（这些玩意对目前的爵士乐荼毒颇深）。他也从不为确立风格忧心，这张专辑正可以视作他对此而提交的证言；同时，在Miles迄今已持续二十年的深度实验的道路上，它又是继往开来的一步。《Miles Ahead》、《Kind of Blue》和《Sketches of Spain》这样的专辑，永不会过时；它们承载了一些最为动人的体验，任何种类的音乐中都必须有如此例子。在新专辑里——相当一段时间内，这是他的最佳出品——他转向了“太空音乐”（space music），走向了一个由纯粹的歌曲所构成的虔诚、永恒的王国。那音乐源源不断，骤而打断思绪，令我们不禁思考：这，也许就是我们四周任性地延伸、回转的音乐公路所环抱的核心；完全未经预先谋划的声响，原初却仍具先锋气息，给我们的灵魂输送着最深刻、最持久的食粮；它是伟大艺术这一概念的活灵活现的当代阐释。

The songs are long jams with a minimum of preplanned structure. That they are so cohesive and sustained is a testament to the experience and sensitivity of the musicians involved. Miles’ lines are like shots of distilled passion, the kind of evocative, liberating riffs that decades of strivers build their styles on. Aside from Charles Mingus, there is no other musician alive today who communicates such a yearning, controlled intensity, the transformation of life’s inchoate passions and tensions into aural adventures that find a permanent place in your consciousness and influence your basic definitions of music. And his sidemen also rise to the occasion, most of them playing better than I have ever heard them before. Certainly Herbie Hancock (piano), Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), and Joe Zawinul (organ) have never seemed so transported. The miracle of jazz is that a great leader can bring merely competent musicians to incredible heights of inspiration —; Mingus has always been famous for this, and Miles has increasingly proven himself a master of this incredibly delicate art.

这些曲目都是在极少的事前谋划下录制的长段即兴演奏。它们如此富有凝聚力、持久力，皆是参与录音的音乐家的丰富经验和高度敏感之有力证明。Miles的乐句，好像一杯杯蒸馏而出的热情之浓酿；那样引人共鸣、奔放自由的连复段（riffs），正是数十年来为音乐而奋斗者赖以建立自我风格的基础。除Charles Mingus以外，没有另外哪位还在世的音乐家用音乐传递出这样饱含向往又精准控制的强度，将生命最初的激情和张力转换成一趟听觉历险，直达你意识中的永恒之地、影响你对音乐这个词的基本定义。他的音乐伙伴也应对自如，他们中的大多数，都在此献上了好于我曾听到过的任何表现。当然，Herbie Hancock（钢琴）、Wayne Shorter（次中音萨克斯）和Joe Zawinul（风琴）都到达了不曾涉足的境界。爵士乐的奇迹在于，一个伟大的乐队领袖可以将堪堪合格的乐手引导至令人难以置信的灵感高度；Mingus向来以此闻名，而Miles也正逐步证明自己也是这门极致精妙的艺术的大师。

The first side is taken up by a long jam called “Shhh/Peaceful.” Tony Williams’ cymbal-and-brush work and the subtle arabesques of Zawinul’s organ set a space trip, a mood of suspended time and infinite interior vistas. But when Miles enters, the humanity and tenderness of his trumpet’s soft cries are enough to bring you tears. I’ve heard that when he was making this album, Miles had been listening to Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone, but the feeling here is closer to something like “2000 Light Years From Home” by the Stones. It is space music, but with an overwhelmingly human component that makes it much more moving and enduring than most of its rock counterparts.

唱片的第一面是一首名叫《Shhh/Peaceful》的长即兴曲目。Tony Williams用鼓刷撩动钹片，Zawinul的风琴演奏精准如芭蕾舞姿；一段太空旅行由此启航，时间被悬置，视界无穷延伸。但当Miles切进其中，人性和柔情就从他的小号里和缓流出，足以让你落泪。我听闻，制作这张专辑期间，Miles曾认真聆听Jimi Hendrix和Sly and the Family Stone的音乐；但是，此处的听感更接近于the Rolling Stones的《2000 Light Years From Home》。它是太空音乐，却又蕴含不可抵挡的人性味道；这令它比同期的大多数摇滚乐作品更为动人、耐听。

Side two opens and closes with the best song on the album, a timeless trumpet prayer called “In a Silent Way.” There has always been something eternal and pure in Miles’ music, and this piece captures that quality as well as anything he’s ever recorded. If, as I believe, Miles is an artist for the ages, then this piece will be among those that stand through those vast tracks of time to remind future generations of the oneness of human experience.

唱片第二面，始于也终于专辑中最好的歌曲，一首永恒的小号祷文——《In a Silent Way》。Miles的音乐中向来存在永恒、纯净的元素，而一如他此前录制过的音乐，这首歌曲正抓取了这种特质。若如我所确信，Miles是一名永恒的艺术家，那么这首作品定是在时间大河里屹立不倒的一员，提醒后来者：人类的体验是相通的。

Between the two takes of “Silent Way” lies “It’s About That Time,” a terse, restrained space jam somewhat reminiscent of the one on the first side but a bit sharper, allowing more of Miles’ fierce blues ethos to burn through. This is the one that might be connected to Miles’ interest in Hendrix and Sly.

落在两段《Silent way》之间的是《It’s About That Time》，一段简洁、克制的太空即兴，多少令人想起唱片第一面的曲目，但又比之更为锋利一些，足以让Miles身上强烈的蓝调气质发散得淋漓尽致。这也许就是那首与Miles对Hendrix和Sly的兴趣有所关联的曲目。

They say that jazz has become menopausal, and there is much truth in the statement. Rock too seems to have suffered under a numbing plethora of standardized Sounds. But I believe there is a new music in the air, a total art which knows no boundaries or categories, a new school run by geniuses indifferent to fashion. And I also believe that the ineluctable power and honesty of their music shall prevail. Miles Davis is one of those geniuses.

人们说，爵士乐已经进入了更年期；很多事实能够佐证这种说法。摇滚也同病相怜，似乎已被困在标准化声响的木然的过剩之下。但我坚信新的音乐正在酝酿，一种摆脱边界、类别之狭隘的全面艺术，一个由天才引领的、冷眼以待潮流的新派别。我同样相信，他们音乐中的不可阻挡的力量与诚实，终将在乐坛里占据上风。Miles Davis正是其中一位天才。