When Miles Davis released his seminal 1969 album In a Silent Way, its newfangled, neoteric sound — which Lester Bangs described as “space music” — polarized the musician’s fans. The Jazz purists, much like acoustic Bob Dylan die-hards, were flummoxed by the jarring change even more than they were by the composition of 1960’s Sketches of Spain. But other, more open-minded listeners were beguiled by Miles’s modernist experimentations. Still, even the split reaction to In a Silent Way can’t compare to the reception of…
