Seven Steps to Heaven (composition)

"Seven Steps to Heaven" is a 1963 jazz composition by Victor Feldman and Miles Davis. Different lyrics to it were written much later by Cassandra Wilson and Jon Hendricks. This iconic jazz standard was introduced in 1963 by the Miles Davis Quintet.[1] Although Feldman played and recorded with Davis in Los Angeles on Seven Steps to Heaven,[2] and he appears on half of the tracks of the album, the West Coast-based pianist did not want to follow Davis to New York, where the album version of the composition was finally recorded with Herbie Hancock on piano.[3]

"Seven Steps to Heaven"
Composition by Miles Davis
from the album Seven Steps to Heaven
Released1963 (1963)
RecordedMay 14, 1963
GenreJazz
Length6:26
LabelColumbia
Composer(s)Victor Feldman, Miles Davis[1]
Producer(s)Teo Macero
Seven Steps to Heaven track listing
6 tracks
  1. "Basin Street Blues"
  2. "Seven Steps to Heaven"
  3. "I Fall in Love Too Easily"
  4. "So Near, So Far"
  5. "Baby Won't You Please Come Home"
  6. "Joshua"

Composition

Seven Steps to Heaven is a 32-bar composition in AABA form; it has an intro, an interlude and an ending - but these are the same.[4] It was originally played in an up-tempo swing style in the key of F Major.[1]

See also

References
  1. Aebersold, Jamey (1995). Jamey Aebersold Play-A-Long - Volume 50 - The Magic of Miles. Jamey Aebersold Jazz Inc. pp. ii. ISBN 1-56224-209-1.
  2. The two Los Angeles (i.e. the first ever recorded) versions of “Seven Steps to Heaven” appear on the CD-box set Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis 1963-1964 (Columbia, 2004).
  3. Chambers, Jack. Milestones 2: The Music and Times of Miles Davis Since 1960, Da Capo Press, 1998. pp. 53ff.
  4. Levine, Mark (1995). The Jazz theory Book. Sher Music Co. pp. 393. ISBN 9781883217044.
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