A blowing session????

@stuartk

One could also argue that there are "blowing sessions" that are equal to some well rehearsed recording dates. Both the quality of the material and its execution/interpretation are important. Great players can take a simple progression and "off the cuff" make it transcendent. Middling players can rehearse more complex compositions and be less compelling.

Let’s not oversimplify.

Agreed!! Spot on observation.

Charles

I concur with Charles1dad  about stuartk post ..

+1😊

"Which would lead me to my next question, perhaps this is why Miles Davis ’progressed’ into the discovery ( if you can call it that?) of fusion."

A reason (and not the only one,) is that Davis wanted to play music that would appeal to fans of rock music for bigger paydays. I have been searching (unsuccessfully, so far) for the attribution for the following event; In 1970, Miles Davis opened for the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore West. He agreed to do this when he learned how much MORE money he could make filling 2000+ seat venues.

In a bigger scheme, by the late 1960s jazz was no longer "popular music." Steady paydays were getting harder to find for straight-up jazz musicians. This is why you had musicians like Wes Montgomery playing jazz versions of popular hits, and others leaving touring altogether to play as studio musicians, or tv and movie music ensembles.

@daveyf 

My OP was wondering more along the lines if the particular genre at the time...mostly Bop, was pretty much a ’blowing session’ for a lot of these musicians. Which would lead me to my next question, perhaps this is why Miles Davis ’progressed’ into the discovery ( if you can call it that?) of fusion.

It's unclear to me what you mean by "Bop".  I associate the term Bop with Bebop, as opposed to hard Bop or Post Bop. Bebop may sound like "just blowing" but a highly sophisticated grasp of harmony was required to "blow" in that genre. According to what I've read, the major figures in that movement (Bird, Dizzy, etc.) put in a lot of woodshedding, discussion and serious study to refine that language and their facility. 

Bebop is where Miles started out but he subsequently went through a variety of  phases before embracing Fusion, including loosely structured ("In A Silent Way"), highly structured ("Birth of the Cool") and points in between. So you could say he was, among other things,engaged in an ongoing exploration of  the relationship/tension between written composition and "composition on the fly" (improvisation). 

As to why he embraced Fusion, I've also read he was financially motivated but at the same time, genuinely enjoyed the music of of Hendrix and Sly. Plus, he was creatively restless; it was only natural that he would not stay in one place for long. And it's worth recognizing that he worked his way into it; it wasn't a single, sudden leap from "If I Were A Bell" to "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down". 

I was so happy for you thinking you got blown but unfortunately found out that was not the case