The Miles Davis album-by-album thread

I feel the title track and Fall towers above everything else on the album.

 

That's where I fell in love with Miles's music, that and the opening track on Ascenseur pour l' Echefaud-the way his horn just spirals up and around on those opening notes. They were on a 3 CD Miles on Columbia compilation. Absolutely radiant music... that was my gateway into Miles. I'm tempted to try the MOFI pressing, though it's not cheap in Tokyo .

 

It's Wayne Shorter's solo midway through, as everything loosens for a bit, that made me fall in love with "Fall".

 

Precisely, that solo is about as seductive as music gets.

 

What they said. I sold my NM original press and don't regret it, because the MOFI is that much better.

 

I gave Nefertiti a listen on the bus to work one monday morning. In that setting I thought the title track and "Fall" was absolutely sublime. From there it went into a territory I thought was too stressful. Amazing performance though. I can clearly hear how special this band was but too me this album is not one of the best balanced in terms of style. I might check it out again a moment when I'm more in "energy mode".

 

Agreed that it's an uneven and unevenly paced album. The preceeding albums are more unified. The following album, Miles In The Sky, is even more transitional, with electric instruments appearing. It's a bit like they had begun exhausting the "time, no changes" formula.

 

next up:

Live in Europe 1967
(The Bootleg Series Volume 1)



Recorded with the Second Great Quintet in October-November 1967 in Belgium, Denmark and France.

“No matter how many releases we get from the Davis archives, no matter how familiar you are with his mid-‘60s work, Live in Europe 1967 will surprise you and remind you that, even in lean times, even when the trends of the genre he championed were moving away from him, even when his country stopped caring, Miles Davis found a way to press forward, to reinvent, and to give us yet another classic sound, and perhaps the final thrilling word on Jazz as he knew it.”

— Matthew Flander, Popmatters
​

One of my favourite Miles Davis releases of all time.

 

A great place for anyone interested in Miles, or even Jazz in general, to start. Essential stuff and a Killer DVD.

 

I am going to duck as soon as I post this, but I truly enjoy this set more than the plugged nickel box...

 

No reason, Sir. You are not alone

 

The music on Plugged Nickel was groundbreaking, but it was really just the Second Quintet getting warmed up.

This, on the other hand, is the Second Quintet entering hyperdrive.

 

I watched the DVD several times when the box came out, it's excellent. I'll have to dig it out and watch it again.

 

To my mind, Wayne Shorter is the standout soloist on The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel, possibly because his identity as an innovative saxophonist was already established when he joined the group. Perhaps he had more freedom, and maybe he had some more experience than others in the very young band.

But there's no standout performer on Live 1967. Everyone is right there, all together, communicating, improvising, as mutual parts of a well-oiled machine. If Live 1967 had never been released, I'd be pretty happy with Plugged Nickel as the official, definitive live document of the Second Quintet. Happily, it's not; this is.

 

I'm also listening to Nefertiti to play a little catch up with the thread. Good lord, "Nefertiti" and "Fall" are stunning.

Edited to add: I mean, of course they are. It's not like I haven't heard this album before. It just bears repeating. Herbie's solo in "Fall" is great, too, but Wayne's takes the cake. I love the way the band repeats the theme throughout all the solos. It's very indicative of the way this band was playing with form.

 

That Live in Europe set holds a special place in my affections because, soon after it came out, I served as host for Klaus Doldinger (jazz saxophonist and composer) when he introduced a screening of Das Boot (which he wrote the score for). We went to dinner afterwards and talked and talked. Then I dropped him back to his hotel and - flukily but appropriately - one of the discs from this set was in the CD player. After about three seconds had played, Klaus asked, "Is this Wayne?" then said he didn't know the recording, so I showed him the box, and was rewarded with great stories about Wayne Shorter (who slept on Klaus's floor the first time he came to Europe with the Jazz Messengers) and Miles Davis (who Klaus opened for at Antibes in the early '60s) for the duration of the short ride to his hotel.

 

Miles had been ill and out or circulation and didn't have great chops for the Plugged Nickel dates. He's in much better shape on this 1967 comp and would continue to play some of the best trumpet of his career up to 1971. It's easy to forget that some wind instruments are very demanding physically.

 

I'm no jazzologist but Generique, the opening track on Ascenseur has got to be my favourite piece of Miles Davis music. 1957 ffs.

 

What a great gift this was for fans of the Quintet. Three full shows and a dvd! 20 years ago I was obsessed with a cd (which I think was a boot, image below) I had that was just part of the Paris show form 67, the version of Masqualero blew my mind, Herbie's solo in particular.

 

Actually came out earlier on this early 90s Jazz Music Yesterday (JMY) CD:

http://www.plosin.com/milesahead/Disco.aspx?id=NoBlues

 

I saw some of those 67 CDs, but didn't buy. I did buy some similar releases from the 1969 tour.

 

Pre-internet, one grabbed what one could. The one I posted (as was the case with most of the JMY's) sounded pretty darn good. The Moon ones, on the other hand......................

 

Regarding Nefertiti, and the less often noted "Riot":

Compare this track on Nefertiti to its counterpart on Herbie Hancock's Speak Like a Child. The same song, the same pianist and bassist, but a completely different feel. This speaks to both Davis' mastery as a workshopper of his bandmates' material, and Hancock's progress as a composer. As Hancock notes on the back cover of Speak Like a Child:

"When I listened to the [Miles Davis version of] the record, it sounded like a riot to me with regard to the emotions being expressed. This version [on Speak Like a Child], however, is less riotous. It does contain an element of turmoil, but it's there more as an undercurrent than on the surface. Incidentally, when I wrote this song, I wrote the melody first and then I added the harmonies I wanted underneath. I suppose I heard them vaguely in my head from the beginning: I just had to find them."

And here's a quote regarding his composition "The Sorcerer," which appears both on Davis' Sorcerer and on Speak Like a Child:

"The Sorcerer, originally written for Miles Davis, receives its title, Herbie smiles, 'because Miles is a sorcerer. His whole attitude, the way he is, is kind of mysterious. I know him well but there's still a kind of musical mystique about him. His music sounds like witchcraft. There are times I don't know where his music comes from. It doesn't sound like he's doing it. It sounds like it's coming from somewhere else.'"

This is exactly what I think Miles added to the compositions by Shorter, Hancock, Carter, and Williams: witchcraft.

 

I listened to my 2 Eye Columbia pressing of Filles de Kilimanjaro and the music drew me in more than it ever has before.
I found myself reevaluating the album and the next thing I knew, I was starting to think about getting the MoFi vinyl.
They've done such an amazing job on all of the Second Great Quintet recordings and the only reason to not buy them is if you don't care about the music or you don't have the money.