so what if miles davis never wrote lyrics?

(bass intro, then bass plays melody line, with words over, with all instruments playing the ‘so what’ instead of the words)

Come and listen to the show, so what
Come and listen to the show now, so what
We’ve got everybody here, so what
All life represented, so what
There’s the great, the good, the bad, so what
No one missing here you know that, so what
And we’ll play those tunes for you, so what
The ones you have remembered, so what
We’ll do it so you might love jazz, so what
We’ll do it just to entertain you, so what
And though you might decide to laugh, so what
What the hell if you do now, so what
So it’s coming to the time, so what
When we offer up our spirit, so what
To the night, the deep dark night, so what
Here we go then, let’s play it

(walking bass, with other instruments comping,
words follow the Miles Davis trumpet solo)

Well my friends, Davis wrote this tune now
Though you may not get the meaning
I’ll fill you in so that you can say that,
you have learned something ‘bout so what as a tune now
When Davis wrote the melody he was the greatest
Playing it pure, breathin’ the rhythm,
drinkin’ it, feelin’ it down deep now,
and we all sat and listened to the sound he produced
cos he really swung now
He really swung yeah
Bebop was a force to reckon with
Bebop was on the lips of everyone - Bebop
He knew the time had come
to create something invincible
Something really way out
And he took it, blended it and bent it
so it changed the way we…
thought about the way that we played our jazz now
Just giving it new strength, new meaning
And some said so what,
So what if Miles plays like a god
So what
But still we loved it
when he sang through the notes he played for us.

(instrumental solos – then back to head)

There we’ve come to the end, so what
The end you know of the beginning, so what
We’ve got everybody here, so what
All life represented, so what
There’s the great, the good, the bad, so what
No one missing here you know that, so what
And we’ll play those tunes for you, so what
The ones you have remembered, so what
We’ll do it so you might love jazz, so what
We’ll do it just to entertain you, so what
And though you might decide to laugh, so what
What the hell if you do now, so what
So it’s coming to the time, so what
When we offer up our spirit, so what
To the night, the deep dark night, so what
Here we go then, let’s play it

©2007 Angela J Elliott