Miles Davis Quintet Bootleg Series Vol. 2

Miles Davis Quintet: Live in Europe 1969 (The Bootleg Series Vol. 2).  This box set is one of the most valuable documents to emerge from jazz vaults since the advent of the compact disc.  The Quintet is as follows:

1.       Miles Davis (trumpet)

2.      Wayne Shorter (tenor and soprano saxophones)

3.      Chick Corea (electric piano, piano)

4.      Dave Holland (bass)

5.      Jack DeJohnette (drums)

Wayne Shorter, of course, returns from Miles’ second great quintet.  The rest of the band is new.  They never recorded in the studio, something Miles apparently regretted.  I believe this is the first official release of their music.  It would be enough to get three CDs and a DVD of new music from a Davis quintet to make this a red letter occasion. 

However, this is also priceless as a document of the last big turn in Miles’ career.  ‘Bitches Brew’ appears twice in the collection.  The Dark Magus is about to emerge, leaving jazz rather behind in my view.  In this collection, however, Miles and his crew are still firmly in the template that was established with the Plugged Nickel recordings in 1965.  This is genuine jazz in anyone’s book.

Like The Bootleg Series Vol. 1, the music is pensive yet intense.  It presents a series of solos mostly unmoored from any central melody.  Also like Vol. 1, it is not nearly as laconic as the Plugged Nickel sessions.  If anything, these recordings are a step away from avant garde. 

However, the third quintet, if one may call it that, clearly displays the fusionesque elements that show where Miles is going in 1969.  Having Shorter play soprano feeds this impression.  Most of all, the inclusion of Chick Corea on electric piano gives several of the numbers a Return to Forever touch. 

I am not as ready as I once was to agree with Stanley Crouch about Bitches Brew.  Crouch, a brilliant jazz critic, thought that Miles’ recordings after 69 were just an example of sellout.  I am still making up my mind after all these years.  I will say that I wish we had a few more years and some studio recordings of this last jazz quintet.  Holland and DeJohnette are consummate jazz men.  Miles could have molded this group into as powerful an instrument as his first two quintets, if he hadn’t decided to go in a different direction. 

Judged on its own merits, the Bootleg Series Vol. 2 is a marvelous collection of music.  I am playing:

1.       ‘Paraphernalia’

2.      ‘Nefertiti’, and

3.      ‘Round Midnight’.

Miles Davis Second Quintet Live

This blog's masthead puts Miles Davis at the center of genius in modern music.  I hold to that in spite of the fact that my collection of Miles' is very incomplete.  I have only a little of his work after 1969.  That was the point that Miles decided to strike out on a new course.

I have a lot of his work from the early fifties on.  Davis' fans are very lucky.  We have not only a fine body of studio work by his two "great" quintets, but very large box sets of live recordings.  I would suggest the following:

1. Stockholm 1960 Complete
2. In Person Live at the Blackhawk 1961
3. Live at Carnegie Hall 1961
4. Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965

That is a powerful lot of live Miles Davis.  Fortunately, there is more.  Miles second quintet was well documented in the studio.  ESP is an essential album by what many consider the greatest small ensemble in the history of jazz.   The Plugged Nickel gives us the Second Quintet in a very pensive mood.  I love this collection.  However...

We have two recent collections of recordings made by Miles in Europe in the late sixties.  The Bootleg Series Vol. 1 features the second quintet:

• Miles Davis — trumpet
• Wayne Shorter — tenor saxophone
• Herbie Hancock — piano
• Ron Carter — bass
• Tony Williams — drums

I have just now acquired this box and I am in love.  I am playing 'Footprints' (a Wayne Shorter composition) and 'On Green Dolphin Street'.  It just doesn't get any better than this.  Enjoy.

The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 has just been released.  This was Miles' "third quintet" with Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette.  This group never recorded in the studio.  Miles regretted this.  Fortunately, some of their live dates in Europe were recorded.  I am waiting for the box to arrive in my mailbox. 

Red Garland & Paul Chambers

 

Pianist Red Garland shares at least one honor with John Coltrane, besides often playing behind Trane.  Both were fired by Miles Davis.  I finally got around to adding Red Garland Revisited to my collection.  The cause in both cases was heroin.  

Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones were often referred to simply as the rhythm section.  That is mostly due to their work as the platform for Davis and Trane in Miles' first great quintet.  You can find Garland and Chambers on a lot of seminal albums in the late fifties. 

I finally got around to adding Red Garland Revisited to my collection.  It is a superb showcase for Garland's talent and also features some fine work by guitarist Kenny Burrell.  I am playing the two cuts with Burrell on them, both Miles Davis standards: 'Walkin' and 'Four'.  Chambers plays bass and Art Taylor is on drums.  

I bought the album on the recommendation of the Penguin Jazz Guide 1001.  Shortly after the entry on the above disc, I read one on Paul Chambers Bass On Top.  Had to have it.  Burrell shows up again, as does Art Taylor.  Hank Jones plays piano.  This is a great one for bass fans, especially if you like jazz bass played with a bow.  I am playing another piece from the Davis playlist: 'The Theme'. 

Miles, Trane, & Stitt

One Miles box set that doesn't get nearly the recognition it deserves is Miles Davis in Stockholm 1960 Complete with John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt.  This covers two concerts, several months apart.  I am playing 'All Blues' from the first disc.  A lot of the commentary focuses on the contrast between Coltrane and Stitt.  Guess who wins? 

Anyway, I think that this is the most penetrating and compelling version of the composition that I have heard.  The Trio behind the horns is Wynton Kelley on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. 

Miles Live @ the Blackhawk

The two most valuable Miles Davis box sets (of those that I have) are: 1) The Legendary Prestige Quintet Recordings and 2) Live at the Plugged Nickel.   If you have those two, you have big chunk of music from both of Miles' great quintets.  I would add that the former is much less important if you already have the individual albums released from those sessions.  

What comes next?  Almost certainly it would be Miles In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete (Columbia, 2003).  This box contains four CDs recorded on April 21st and 22nd of 1961.  The Blackhawk was a great venue and the location of some very great jazz recordings.  This album is fine sample of Miles between his two quintets.  Here is the lineup:

• Bass – Paul Chambers (3)
• Drums – Jimmy Cobb
• Piano – Wynton Kelly
• Tenor Saxophone – Hank Mobley
• Trumpet – Miles Davis

Chambers and Cobb remain from the Kind of Blue album.  Hank Mobley fills the sax chair.  He gets some bad press for his work with Miles, but I can't hear any problems other than the fact that his name isn't John Coltrane.  Wynton Kelly is a superb hard bop piano player and he does a fine job here.  His work on the above cut is toe curling good. 

I am playing 'No Blues' from the first disc in the set.  If this doesn't recharge your smart phone, I don't know what will. 

I am also playing 'Softly As In a Morning Sunrise' from Wynton Kelly's  Kelly Blue.  This is just the rhythm section from the above album, recorded in 1959. 

Miles Live at the Plugged Nickel

Miles Davis' Plugged Nickel recording might represent his most profound statement on the avant garde idea.  I wouldn't call the recording avant garde, but that is precisely the point.  Miles explored the avant garde idea while remaining just barely within the hard bop tradition.  

Miles' second great quintet included Wayne Shorter on tenor, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and the brilliant Tony Williams on drums.  They play a series of standards, many of them from the earlier quintet, but what a difference!  They cut up and dissect each part of a melody, squeezing out all the juice and laying out all the veins and organs.  

I am playing two consecutive numbers: 'Round Midnight' and 'Milestones.'  Both are brilliant club jazz documents.  This is a superb box set, a monumental statement at the center of modern jazz. 

Miles Davis in a Box

I need to get back in  touch with my masthead.  Miles Davis is at the center of it all, I announce.  Well, why?  The great Miles Davis box sets have the answer.  I began my serious jazz recording with the first Miles Davis Quintet.  Workin', Cookin', Steamin' and Relaxin'.  I still think that this is one of the most successful bodies of work in modern jazz.  

All four recordings and a lot of extra stuff is included in the Legendary Prestige Quintet Recordings.   This is a box you want next to the stereo.  I am playing my single favorite cut from the box: 'My Funny Valentine.'  The Quintet includes Miles and John Coltrane, along with the most famous rhythm section in modern jazz: Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.  

I'll be posting more on Miles.  Enjoy. 

More Sam Rivers

You can hear a delightful interview with Rivers at The Jazz Session podcast, with host Jason Crane.  Meanwhile I have posted a couple more cuts featuring Sam Rivers on my Jazz Note NSU.  

One is 'Revelation', from Culmination, one of Rivers' many large ensemble projects.

• Alto Saxophone – Greg Osby, Steve Coleman
• Baritone Saxophone – Hamiet Bluiett
• Bass – Doug Mathews (2)
• Drums – Anthony Cole (3)
• Horn [Baritone] – Joseph Daley*
• Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Written-By – Sam Rivers
• Tenor Saxophone – Chico Freeman, Gary Thomas
• Trombone – Art Baron, Joseph Bowie, Ray Anderson
• Trumpet – Baikida Carroll, James Zollar, Ralph Alessi, Ravi Best
• Tuba – Bob Stewart

 I also posted a cut from Miles at Tokyo: 'So What'. 

• Bass – Ron Carter
• Drums – Tony Williams*
• Piano – Herbie Hancock
• Tenor Saxophone – Sam Rivers
• Trumpet – Miles Davis

I hadn't listened to this live Miles recording in a while.  It is simply superb.  It's the second great quintet with Rivers sitting in the chair usually occupied by Wayne Shorter.  Rivers' solos will not leave you wondering why he appears on so many seminal albums. 

JazzNote Radio 1: Miles Davis and his Men

JazzNote is now playing on Live365.  Episode 1 is about three hours long and will repeat (I hope!).  This episode is devoted to the music of the two great quintets headed by Miles Davis, and to music produced by the great jazzmen who were part of those two groups.  It roughly tracks some of my early collecting. 

JazzNote can be accessed at this address:

http://www.live365.com/stations/kcblanchard

Here is a list of the music on Episode 1.  

Adderley	Julian	One for Daddy-O	Somethin' Else
Carter	Ron	Lawra	Third Plane
Carter	Ron	Softly as in a Morning Sunrise	Where?
Coltrane	John	Bass Blues	Tranein In
Coltrane	John	I Want To Talk About You	Soultrane
Davis	Miles	My Funny Valentine	Cookin'
Davis	Miles	Ahmad's Blues	Workin'
Davis	Miles	Iris	ESP
Davis	Miles	My Funny Valentine	Live at the Plugged Nickel
Garland	Red	All Morning Long	All Morning Long
Garland	Red	What Can I Say?	Groovy
Hancock	Herbie	Oliloqui Valley	Empyrean Isles
Hancock	Herbie	The Sorcerer	Speak Like a Child
Morgan	Lee	Melancholee	Search for the New Land
Pepper	Art	Imagination	Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section
Shorter	Wayne	Down in the Depts	Introducing Wayner Shorter
Shorter	Wayne	Infant Eyes	Speak No Evil
Williams	Tony	Two Pieces of One: Red	Life Time
Williams	Tony	Love Song	Spring

Miles Davis Around Midnight in Stockholm

Tonight, courtesy of Netflix, I watched Miles Davis: Around Midnight.  The DVD includes several numbers from a 1967 concert in Stockholm, and one last number from a concert in Germany.  The band was the Second Quintet: Wayne Shorter on tenor, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums.  Williams looked so young!  I think he was twenty two.  

It is a great pleasure to actually see Miles and his men do their stuff.  The music reminded me most of the great Live at the Plugged Nickel recordings.  Melodies were briefly stated, and then each player zeroed in on a simple musical idea and concentrated on it with remarkable discipline.  One number they did was Shorter's exquisite 'Footprints'.  Hancock's work was fascinating, but I think the most amazing thing was the synergy between Tony Williams and whoever else was playing.  Miles knew a genius when he saw one.  

Do yourself a favor, and put this on your Netflix list.  Meanwhile, here is a sample from the aforementioned document.  

Miles Davis/Stella By Starlight/Live at the Plugged Nickel

Miles Davis and Sam Rivers in Tokyo

One joy of doing a blog like this for several years is that I am often amazed at what I had to say.  Sometimes I said something stupid, but other times I emphatically agree with myself.  In Feb. of last year I did a post on Miles Davis and Tony Williams.  I mentioned a book by Christopher Meeder, only because cherished reader André posted a chunk of it in the comments to an earlier post.  The book was Jazz: the Basics.  

Mr. Meeder left a comment on that post which I failed to responded to.  I don't know if I missed it or just didn't get around to it.  I feel a bit guilty about that.  Here is Meeder's comment:

 Heh. I haven't Googled myself in a while. Thanks for the nod to my book. Did you ever get it? Did anyone?

The theoretical comparison of Rivers and Shorter is very nice, but not entirely necessary... You can hear Rivers with the 2nd quintet rhythm section and Miles on the 1964 Tokyo concert on Columbia. I haven't heard the album in about seven centuries and can't really comment about what I think about it anymore. 

I happened upon this old post because last night I happened to download the very album he mentions.  I chanced upon it on eMusic.  I have wanted to get to know Sam Rivers better, and I vaguely remembered that he played with Davis for a bit, just before Wayne Shorter came aboard.  I had just enough eMusic credits to nail the album, so I did.  

It was worth it.  I just plain love what Miles was doing in this period.  I think that one could learn a lot by comparing Sam Rivers playing with what Shorter does, say on ESP.  I even enjoyed the one credit introduction.  Sam Reevers, Run Catta...  I don't know exactly what it was about Rivers that Miles didn't like, but he is good here.  Here is a sample:

Miles Davis/My Funny Valentine/Miles in Tokyo

And Christopher: if you are Googling yourself again, I am ordering your book. 

More J.D. Allen & Some Miles

I have been listening to I AM I AM, by the J.D. Allen Trio.  It is one of those recordings that impressed me a lot more the second time I heard it.  I would like to think that is the result of spiritual growth, but it may be more like the difference in a good wine when your pallet is better prepared. 

Allen's music is fine example of what I call Page Four Jazz: the music sounds a lot like the intro to a traditional bop melody that has been extended to the length of a whole song.  The architecture of melody has been disassembled and reassembled into something that no longer looks like a dwelling place.  But the effect is to see the inner spirit of each element in stark relief.  This sort of thing can be very dry when it is abstracted to mere mathematical formulas, as it sometimes is more extreme avant garde music.  But Allen preserves the passion of each element as he weaves his tapestry.  Dancing around in my kitchen as I listen, I feel a little like a serpent being charmed out of its basket. 

I think this is a very substantial work, and I recommend it.  You can hear a good bit of the J.D. Allen Trio at the Village Vanguard site.  See my earlier post.  Here is a sample:

J.D. Allen Trio/Titus/I AM I AM

It occurred to me as I was listening that this reminded me of one of Miles Davis's less celebrated albums.  Miles In The Sky is an artifact of his experiments with avant garde jazz.  This is one of the recordings by his second great quintet: Miles Davis (tp) Wayne Shorter (ts) Herbie Hancock (p) George Benson (el-g) Ron Carter (b) Tony Williams (d).   Here is a sample:

Miles Davis/Black Comedy/Miles in the Sky

I think that a careful listen will detect the similar approach to musical composition in the two works, though they are made with a very different instrument set, decades apart.  It is a testament to the stamina of the post bop/avant garde regime.  Well, give it a try and let me know how it comes out.

PS.  I have also been listening to an earlier J.D. Allen recording, Pharaoh's Children.  It is also very good.  J.D. Allen is the real thing. 

Stephen Brown on Kind of Blue

I have been listening to Cecil Taylor today, and had intended to post something on his wonderfully challenging music, when I happened to glance at a copy of the Times Literary Supplement, my single favorite book review publication, and found "Finished Sketches," a review by Stephen Brown of Richard Williams' The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue" and the remaking of modern music. A review of a book about an album had the hair standing up on the back of my neck. Find a copy of this review and read it. It's the best short piece I have seen on KOB. Here is a sample from the article, transcribed by sight:

Listen to "Blue in Green". It's five-and-a-half minutes long. Coltrane doesn't even know he's supposed to be playing on the tune until Davis decides to include him right as the tape starts to roll. "Producer: Just you four guys on this, Miles? Miles: Five . . . (to Coltrane) No, you play." And then they play and improvise over an unusual ten-bar form which doesn't properly close but loops back on itself --with such beautiful ideas and exquisite control that you wonder why the piece hasn't entered into the classical repertory. I don't mean the tune -- I means this improvised performance of it. It should be copied note for note, nuance for nuance, and played in concert. It is one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century music.

I have written in praise of Evan's composition, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful songs in all of modern jazz. Brown speaks with more musical authority than I ever will, and with apparently as much love. It was delicious to get that little bit of information. That Trane plays into the subtlest fibers of the melody's heart with no preparation at other than hearing the beginning, that he didn't even know he was to put his horn in his mouth, that may constitute an argument for the existence of God that trumps a thousand years of philosophy and theology. Who or what but God could make a Coltrane? Or an Evans? I would add Miles, but Miles probably thought that God had stolen his seat.

I expect that many or most of my readers are well familiar with this album. But just in case someone isn't, or maybe doesn't have it handy right at this moment, here is the number. Listen to it now, knowing what we both know.

Miles Davis/Blue in Green/Kind of Blue

If you don't have the recording, by all means rush out and get it. Shove people out of the way if you have to. No, don't, but think about doing it. KOB is easy to get for pennies. I got mine years ago by joining a record club.

ps. If you click on the picture above, you will get a lot more. It includes Evans along with Trane, Cannonball, and Miles. It makes a good background image for my laptop. Oh, and it is taken at a 1958 date, a recording of '58 Miles.

eMusic we hardly knew ye 2

I have benefited tremendously from my membership in eMusic. I owe this to my friend and benefactor, Ken Laster, who got me enrolled. Over the last year I have subscribed to eMusic's most generous plan. For just short of two hundred dollars, I got 75 downloads a month. That means 75 cuts off of a great selection of classic jazz. I have expanded my jazz library beyond my earlier, wildest dreams.

But recently eMusic has tightened the screws. The good news is that they acquired the Sony catalog, which means that I can get a lot more great jazz from such artists as Miles Davis. But the bad news is rather worse. The new music is more costly, for the most part. Miles In The Sky has six cuts on it, and eMusic counts that as 12 downloads. Worse still, after my current subscription runs out, I'll get only 35 downloads a month for about $171 a year. That's less than half the downloads for sometimes twice the price.

But tempted though I am to complain, eMusic prices are still way below what I would pay at any other source. Here, if it works, is a chart I made on Excel:

191.99	75	12	0.21	2.56
171.99	35	12	0.41	4.91

The first line represents what I pay now. For 191.99 a year, I pay 21 cents a song, or $2.56 per twelve song album. I certainly can't beat that anywhere else. And a lot of jazz albums have fewer than 12 cuts.

Under the new plan, I pay 41 cents a cut and $4.91 a 12 song album. That ain't nearly as inviting, but it's still better than iTunes.

I am working on my laptop battery right now, and I am running out of juice. I'll finish this post as soon as I can, with a clip or so for hungry jazz fans.

Well, I'm back and still discombobulated, as my Arkansas relatives sometimes say. It's one thing to charge more than one credit per download for music newly available. But it looks to me as if some previously available discs have risen in their credit price. I can't be sure about this, but I believe that Eric Dolphy's Stockholm Sessions was there before, and now it's twelve credits for eight cuts.

Still, that's $2.56 under my current plan and five bucks if I wait until after next February. Right now the disc is available at iTunes for $5.99. You can get the plastic on Amazon for $17! Perhaps the most infuriating thing about eMusic's big price increase is that they still have the best deals around, so their fans are going to have to swallow it. Well, I guess they ain't in business to be loved.

Dolphy's Stockholm album is one of a marvelous set of albums recorded in 1961. How many Dolphys were there? The gems of this collection are his incomparable Five Spot recordings with Booker Little. But the rest of the bunch all represent vintage Dolphy live.

A similar case is the aforementioned Miles in the Sky. This is one of the string of recordings made by Miles' second quintet. All of these recordings demonstrate brilliance and moments of breathtaking beauty. But they are wildly uneven overall. E.S.P. is the best of them. In fact, I would rank it as one of Miles' ten best recordings. Miles in the Sky is a work that is valuable chiefly because it is part of this string. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the first listen and I will listen again. But it is a series of rambling, unstructured solos. It is one of those albums that would trigger the key words: workshop, exploration, and transitional, if a computer were grading it. I don't believe I have ever seen a copy in a record bin. In short, this is the kind of thing interesting mostly to collectors like myself. If anything ought to be available at a discount price, this is it.

Here are a couple of samples from the discs under inspection. Given 'em a listen, and if you like them bite the bullet and get the recordings. They're still cheap from the folks at eMusic.

Eric Dolphy/Miss Ann/Stockholm Sessions

Miles Davis/Black Comedy/Miles in the Sky

More Miles at Stockholm

What a splendid chunk of jazz the Miles Quintet at Stockholm box has turned out to be. I listened to disc 1, with Trane playing, while driving around town today. I believe it is the March 22, 1960 concert. Two of the numbers are from Kind of Blue: 'So What', and 'All Blues.' They come closer to the perfection of KOB than any live versions of these songs I have heard. I sat in my car at the supermarket tapping the steering wheel for a long time before I persuaded myself to shut it off and go in.

Here is a sample from disc 1. Miles is brilliant. Trane is transcendent. Wynton Kelly is great enough for me.

All Blues/Miles Davis with John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt/In Stockholm Complete 1960

Coltrane does this marvelous restrained squealing thing with his horn that scratches itches I didn't know I had. Kelly's solo rises to the occasion, keeping the solid shuffle solid all the way to the end. You just gotta get this one.

ps. I remain hungry for comments! I am feeding you. Feed me!

Miles Davis Quintet Stockholm 1960

I have posted on the advantages and disadvantages of the boxed set. There is really only one drawback, but it's significant. It's just harder to remember what you have and have not listened to recently, and that often means that a lot of the box goes unappreciated for long stretches. But packaged sets are a necessity for even a moderately serious collector like myself.

Milesophiles have a lot to be thankful for on this count. At least three box sets are worth their weight in gold:

1. Miles in Person at the Blackhawk,
2. The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel, and
3. Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall.

The first two are treasures both for the volume and the virtue of the contents. The Plugged Nickel recordings cover eight CDs.

To these I would add a couple more:

4. The Legendary Prestige Quintet Recordings

This box contains the famous four recordings: Workin', Cookin', Relaxin', and Steamin'. If you haven't already got these, the box is cost effective. It also has a lot of unreleased odds and ends, including a full disc of unreleased material. Most valuable are a couple of snippet of Steve Allen introducing Miles on the Tonight Show. I love how Allen, who I greatly admire, apologizes for the complexity of the music. "It's not just blowing notes, as my grandmother says."

I recently obtained another box: Miles recordings in 1960 with Sonny Stitt and John Coltrane. Coming a year after Kind of Blue, it's very interesting. Trane is present on six of twenty-three numbers, but there is a brief interview with him. Gotta love that. The rhythm section is Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. I am still workin' my way through it, but I think it's superb. It verifies the masthead to this blog: at the center of it all is Miles Davis.

Here is a sample of a piece where the horns sit out, and you get a good taste for Kelly, Chambers, and Cobb.

Softly as in a Morning Sunrise/Miles Davis Quintet with John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt

That is a haunting interpretation of a haunting melody. Now here's a sample with Miles and Stitt on display. This one makes my toes curl.

Round Midnight/Miles Davis Quintet with John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt

Put this one on your Christmas list. Every note is pregnant with Miles' genius, no matter who blows, strums, taps, or beats it out. It is the kind of music that makes you think that God was onto something when he decided to create this world.

Kind of Blue Turns Fifty

March 2nd will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Kind of Blue, Miles Davis' most perfect recording, and maybe the most perfect in the history of jazz. I plan to return to this theme. For now, here is a post I wrote two years ago.

NPR has a new series, Jazz Profiles, that is available by podcast. I have only listened to one: "Miles Davis: Kind of Blue", a 54 minute adoration to the best selling record in the history of jazz. Almost fifty years after its release, more than 5,000 copies of Kind of Blue are purchased every week. And of course, those are only the legal purchases.

Kind of Blue brought together seven now-legendary musicians in the prime of their careers: tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Jimmy Cobb and, of course, trumpeter Miles Davis.

If you are interested in modern jazz, the program is worth a listen. Unfortunately, the writer felt compelled to tell us, over and over again, how great the record is, something that should speak for itself when they treat each selection. Most of the information is hardly new, but it is nice to have it in one package, with the music as the background. Any certified jazz nerd knows that when Wynton Kelly showed up at the first of two sessions, he was irritated to find Bill Evans at the piano. Kelly had just replaced Evans in Miles' band. Kelly played on only one of the five tracks.

It is also well-known, but well worth repeating, that Evans was as much or even more responsible for the compositions as Davis was. Bill Evans was one of the prime geniuses of modern jazz, and if he got little share of the immense royalties from the disc, he ought at least to get credit for his input.

The best thing about the program is the many brief interviews. I had never heard Bill Evans actually talk before. It is also fascinating to hear how Miles' genius as leader worked.

Davis was at a musical peak in the 1950s and had been preparing the ideas that would become Kind of Blue for years. A year before the recording, Davis slipped Evans a piece of paper on which he'd written with the musical symbols for "G minor" and "A augmented." "See what you can do with this," Davis said. Evans went on to create a cycle of chords as a meditative framework for solos on "Blue in Green."

"Blue in Green" is one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music that I have ever heard. Here is a clip of Miles Davis and John Coltrane playing "So What?", the first piece on Kind of Blue.

Postscript:

Here is a version of "All Blues," one of the compositions on KOB.

Miles Davis/All Blues/Live at the Plugged Nickel

This is no substitute for the original, but I have to say that just the resonance with the original makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Besides, this is very fine jazz work.

Page Three Odds & Ends

Roswell Rudd's ruddy trombone is a big part of the Avant Garde scene, or so I gather. I only recently discovered him, while crawling along the discography of Steve Lacy. I picked up Regeneration, a very interesting album with a very interesting cast. With Lacy's soprano sax on board, you would be expecting Page Four jazz. What you get is pretty straight Page Three bop. It's avant garde only in the squeaky, circus clown orchestra cum Thelonious monk sound of the instruments. I listened to it this afternoon while making out a test for my Constitutional Law students. It's very good jazz. There's a nice interview with Rudd at All About Jazz.

Here is a cut:

Roswell Rudd/2300 Skiddoo/Regeneration

In addition to Rudd and Lacy, the album features Misha Mengelberg on piano (really good piano), Kent Carter on bass, and Han Bennink on drums. Strong Dutch accent. The music is Monk and Herbie Nichols. Nichols, I gather, was a contemporary of Monk's.

As I said, this music is p3 jazz, more akin to actual Monk hardbop than to the free jazz for which these guys are known. For a lark, compare it to this piece by Miles Davis. This is one of Mile's albums that never got the recognition it deserves. Coltrane and Hank Mobley play tenor sax on the disc, with Wynton Kelley on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and both Jimmy Cobb and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

Miles Davis/Teo/Someday My Prince Will Come

Enjoy, and if you do, leave a comment and go on and buy the music. Regeneration is available on eMusic. The Miles disc is easy to come by.

What strikes me is the similar way the two bands explore the music, while doing so with very different sounds and moods.