In a Silent Way may be the spaciest album Miles Davis ever made. Augmenting his quintet with guitarist John McLaughlin and electric pianist Joe Zawinul, Davis dispensed with individual songs of conventional length, instead having the band stretch out on four lengthy tracks. Despite the additional players, everything about the music is stripped-down: Harmony, rhythm, and melody become secondary to impressionistic texture. The intertwining tracks conjure up visions of the vast expanse of the cosmos, with keyboard lines darting about like shooting stars and evocative solos shimmering like the tails of comets. While bassist Dave Holland and drummer Tony Williams map out the barest of funk patterns, Davis and Wayne Shorter, who lays down his first recorded soprano work, devise lyrical improvisations whose open-ended manner adds greatly to the album's overall sense of mystery. Considering Davis's epochal Bitches Brew was just around the corner, In a Silent Way can be heard as the calm right before the storm.