By 1963 Miles Davis was on the cusp of being left behind. Creatively exhausted, touring with a repeatedly imploding sextet, he was also trading in a form of modal jazz that was rapidly becoming old hat compared to the frenetic, discursive innovations of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor. However, there were signs of promise. For three tracks on the inconsistent studio LP, Seven Steps to Heaven Davis recruited 17-year-old Chicago drummer Tony Williams, 23-year-old pianist Herbie Hancock and Michigan-born bassist Ron Carter (an ancient 26). Allied to the relentless skitter of Williams’ drums, Carter’s regal, mellifluous bass, and Hancock’s background melodic conversations, Davis was able to expand and contract his sound, allowing for more…
Tag Archive: Miles Davis
If it’s nearly impossible to define jazz, Miles Davis, perhaps inadvertently, gave it a shot in 1956. The context was mundane: His band was fulfilling Davis’ obligations to Prestige, recording several sides’ worth of music that the indie would release mostly over four albums — Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’, and Steamin’ — while the trumpeter moved on to a bigger deal and wider audience at Columbia. Those recordings, plus another session featuring Sonny Rollins in John Coltrane’s place on saxophone, are chronicled in a new box set from Craft recordings, assembled to celebrate Davis’ centennial.
In the course of those two tossed-off sessions, Davis and his all-star quintet distilled everything that came before them and much…
1. Miles Davis – When Lights Are Low
2. Sarah Vaughan – It Might As Well Be Spring
3. Sonny Rollins Quartet – I Know
4. Charlie Parker’s All Stars – Ah-Leu-Cha
5. Miles Davis – Jeru
6. Coleman Hawkins All-Stars – Bean-A-Re-Bop
7. Miles Davis – Weirdo
8. Miles Davis – Générique
9. Michel Legrand – ‘Round Midnight
10. Lee Konitz Sextet – Odjenar
11. Miles Davis All-Stars – Milestones
12. Cannonball Adderley – Autumn Leaves
13. Miles Davis – The Maids of Cadiz
14. Herbie Fields Band & Rubberlegs Williams – That’s The Stuff You Gotta Watch
15. Miles Davis Quintet – Solar
Following last year’s release of Miles ’54: The Prestige Recordings, collecting the legendary trumpeter’s 1954 sessions, Craft Recordings is turning the clock forward to Miles Davis’ 1955 with – what else? – Miles ’55. Miles ’55 bring together sixteen recordings cut by Davis at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Hackensack, New Jersey for the Prestige label.
Ashley Kahn (author of Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece) observes in the new liner notes for this release, “There was a particular sound that had defined the ’50s. It was an approach that balanced a modern, post-bop feel with echoes of a simpler time. And it belonged to one trumpet player in particular.” Though Davis would famously go on to break new ground in jazz…