LSAT 104, Section 2, RC Passage 1, Miles Davis

RC Passage 1 Explanation

Paragraph Summaries

1. Miles Davis was innovative, but many critics disliked him.
2. Davis started with Bebop, then laid the foundations for “West Coast Cool”.
3. Then in the late 1950s, Davis tried to make jazz more like an orchestra.
4. Then Davis mixed his recordings the way rock and roll bands did.
5. Davis was just doing what jazz musicians always did: trying to make something new. But since he lived so long, this made it hard for critics to classify him.

Analysis

The author likes Miles Davis. A lot. In the first three lines, they call him an astonishingly productive genius.

The point of the passage is to argue that Davis was a good musician, and the critics were narrow minded.

The author shows us the wide variety of Davis’ music, and ends by explaining that critics don’t like innovative variety.

You don’t need to know the details of the various musical styles to do well on this passage. You do need to know where to find them, and to read them again when a question asks about them.

Almost every reading comprehension question can be answered with a specific detail from the passage, if you know how to find the details quickly enough.