Miles Davis · I know them well

Deep into Davis

For listeners who know the main Davis records. This path runs roughly in order, from his first session as a leader in 1947 to a fierce 1964 concert, through Parker dates, a singer's record, a Paris film score, a brass ensemble, a French arranger's big band and an unfinished bossa nova album. Several show Davis in settings he rarely chose again.

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First date as a leader, 1947
Charlie Parker Memorial Volume 2 Charlie Parker Rebeboppers / The Be Bop Boys · Savoy MG 12009 · 1955
This Savoy LP gathers Charlie Parker sessions from 1945 to 1948, but one date on it belongs to Davis. On August 14, 1947, he led his first session, as the Miles Davis All Stars, with Parker playing tenor saxophone instead of alto, John Lewis on piano, Nelson Boyd on bass and Max Roach on drums. Davis was 21. The tunes were credited to him, and they are cooler and more spacious than Parker's, showing him already thinking as a composer. Around them, Parker's own dates show the band Davis was playing in every night.
Start with
- Milestones
- Half Nelson
- Sippin' At Bells
This "Milestones" is not the 1958 tune; it is a medium-tempo theme of long notes. Listen to Parker on tenor, a heavier sound than his alto, and to Davis, relaxed and in the middle of his horn. "Half Nelson" is a bebop line on the chords of Tadd Dameron's "Lady Bird"; "Sippin' at Bells" is a twisting blues.
In the band
John Lewis · piano
John Lewis, a pianist raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, came to New York after army service and joined Dizzy Gillespie's big band. His playing here is light and spare, a contrast to the busier bebop pianists of the day. He soon wrote arrangements for Davis's nonet, and in 1952 became the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, which he led on and off for more than 40 years.
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Behind a singer, uncredited
Sarah Vaughan Sarah Vaughan With George Treadwell And His All Stars · Columbia CL 6133 · 1950
In May 1950, in New York, Sarah Vaughan recorded six of this record's eight songs for Columbia with a small band of modern players: Davis on trumpet, Bennie Green on trombone, Budd Johnson on tenor, Tony Scott on clarinet and Jimmy Jones on piano, over a rhythm section. The 10-inch LP credited the band to George Treadwell, Vaughan's husband and manager and himself a trumpeter, so many listeners assumed the trumpet was his. Davis was named only on a later reissue. Our catalog dates the session to 1949; the Columbia session histories give May 18 and 19, 1950. It is a rare chance to hear Davis as an accompanist.
Start with
- Ain't Misbehavin'
- Goodnight My Love
- Mean To Me
Listen to Davis's short fills around Vaughan's voice and his brief solos between her choruses, the muted, middle-register sound already in place. On "Ain't Misbehavin'", the Fats Waller song, the horns are arranged in a compact, modern style rather than as a swing band. Tony Scott's clarinet and Green's trombone also get short spots.
In the band
Sarah Vaughan · vocal
Sarah Vaughan, from Newark, New Jersey, sang with the bands of Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine in the mid-1940s, alongside Parker and Gillespie, so bebop was her first language; Davis had filled in with that Eckstine band for two weeks in St. Louis in 1944. By 1950 she was a star, with a huge range and a voice that moved like a horn. She kept singing for four more decades.
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With Lee Konitz, 1951
The New Sounds Lee Konitz Featuring Miles Davis · Prestige PRLP 116 · 1951
On March 8, 1951, Davis joined the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz in New York for a session that was Konitz's, not his. With Billy Bauer on guitar, Sal Mosca on piano, Arnold Fishkin on bass and Max Roach on drums, they cut four tunes, two of them by the composer George Russell, "Ezz-thetic" and "Odjenar". Prestige issued them on a 10-inch LP with two more Konitz tracks, one a duet with Bauer. Here Davis sits in the cool circle around the pianist Lennie Tristano, the players who had grown up near his nonet.
Start with
- Ezz-thetic
- Odjenar
- Hibeck
"Ezz-thetic", which Russell named for the boxer Ezzard Charles, is a fast, angular line on the chords of "Love for Sale". Listen to Davis keeping pace with Konitz's long, light alto lines. "Odjenar" is slower and darker. "Hibeck", Konitz's tune, has the cool, even phrasing of the Tristano school, with Bauer's guitar in the ensemble.
In the band
Lee Konitz · alto sax
Lee Konitz, from Chicago, studied with Lennie Tristano and played alto on Davis's nonet records in 1949 and 1950. His sound was light, dry and pure, his lines long and even, a clear alternative to Parker's. This was his date, with Davis as guest. Konitz played on Davis's 1957 orchestral album and kept recording for more than 60 years, always ready to improvise from scratch. He died in 2020.
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Parker on tenor, Rollins beside him
Collectors' Items Miles Davis · Prestige PRLP 7044 · 1956
Two sessions three years apart. On January 30, 1953, Davis led Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker, both on tenor, with Walter Bishop, Percy Heath and Philly Joe Jones. Parker was under contract elsewhere, so the label listed him as Charlie Chan. By Davis's account the day was chaotic: Parker drank heavily and spoke to Davis as if he were the employee. The music sat unissued until after Parker's death. In March 1956 Davis recorded three more tracks with Rollins, Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor to complete the LP. It is the only record of Parker and Rollins together.
Start with
- Compulsion
- The Serpent's Tooth
- In Your Own Sweet Way
On "Compulsion" and "The Serpent's Tooth", both Davis tunes, listen for Parker's tenor: Ira Gitler's notes say this was only the second time he recorded on that horn, the first being the 1947 date earlier on this path. Then jump to 1956 for "In Your Own Sweet Way", Dave Brubeck's tune, with Davis muted and calm, in the style of his new quintet.
In the band
Charlie Parker · alto sax
By 1953 Charlie Parker was 32, worn down by heroin and alcohol, and losing work in New York, where his cabaret card, needed to play in clubs, had been taken away in 1951. He still played brilliantly in flashes. Davis, once his sideman, was now the leader, and their roles had flipped. Parker died two years later, in March 1955, at 34.
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Clean, with a quartet
Miles Davis Vol. 3 Miles Davis Quartet · Blue Note BLP 5040 · 1954
On March 6, 1954, at Van Gelder's in Hackensack, Davis made the last of his three Blue Note sessions as a leader: a quartet, with Horace Silver on piano, Percy Heath on bass and Art Blakey on drums. In his autobiography Davis says these were his first sessions after he quit heroin, set up quickly because he needed money, and that Alfred Lion and Prestige's Bob Weinstock had given him a fair chance when his name was low. Blue Note issued the six tunes on this 10-inch LP. With no other horn, you hear his trumpet alone in front, clear and unhurried.
Start with
- It Never Entered My Mind
- Take-Off
- Well You Needn't
"It Never Entered My Mind", Rodgers and Hart's ballad, is Davis with the mute, close and quiet, an early sketch of the ballad style he kept for the rest of his career. "Take-Off" is his own up-tempo line. On Monk's "Well You Needn't", listen to Silver and Blakey driving the quartet behind a trumpet that never hurries.
In the band
Art Blakey · drums
Art Blakey, from Pittsburgh, had been the drummer in Billy Eckstine's big band in the mid-1940s, and he recorded with Davis often in the early 1950s. Two weeks before this date he led a live session at Birdland for Blue Note with Silver and Clifford Brown. With Silver he soon formed the Jazz Messengers, a band he led, through many changes of personnel, until his death in 1990.
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On Mingus's label
Blue Moods Miles Davis · Debut DEB-120 · 1956
On July 9, 1955, Davis recorded four songs for Debut, the small label Charles Mingus had started with Max Roach. The band was unusual for him: Britt Woodman on trombone, Teddy Charles on vibes, Mingus on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. Charles arranged three of the pieces and Mingus one, "Alone Together". The tempos are slow and the textures soft, close to the cool chamber jazz of the time. A week or so later Davis played "'Round Midnight" at Newport, and his career turned.
Start with
- Nature Boy
- Alone Together
"Nature Boy" is the song Nat King Cole made a hit in 1948. Listen to the soft blend of trumpet, trombone and vibes, and to Mingus's big bass sound, which Debut cut with wider grooves than usual to bring it out. On "Alone Together", Mingus's arrangement, hear how the parts weave around Davis rather than simply backing him.
In the band
Charles Mingus · bass
Charles Mingus, a bassist and composer raised in Watts, Los Angeles, had played with Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton and Charlie Parker. He started Debut partly to keep control of his own music, and he had played with Davis on and off since 1946. Within a year of this date he made Pithecanthropus Erectus, and he spent the next two decades leading his Jazz Workshop bands through some of the most ambitious music in jazz.
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Soloist with a brass ensemble
Music For Brass The Brass Ensemble Of The Jazz And Classical Music Society · Columbia CL 941 · 1957
In October 1956, between quintet dates, Davis joined a large brass ensemble at Columbia, gathered by the Jazz and Classical Music Society and conducted by Gunther Schuller. The music came from composers working across the line between jazz and classical. Davis is the featured soloist on John Lewis's "Three Little Feelings" and plays in J.J. Johnson's "Poem for Brass", here titled "Jazz Suite for Brass"; the LP also had pieces by Schuller and Jimmy Giuffre. It came out in 1957. By some accounts, Davis's playing here helped persuade Columbia to give him an orchestra of his own.
Start with
- Three Little Feelings
- Jazz Suite For Brass
"Three Little Feelings" is a short concerto for Davis by John Lewis; listen to his trumpet and flugelhorn floating over massed French horns, trumpets and tuba. In Johnson's piece, listen for the shifts between written passages and swinging sections, with Johnson's trombone and Joe Wilder's trumpet also heard as soloists.
In the band
Gunther Schuller · French horn
Gunther Schuller was principal horn in the Metropolitan Opera orchestra and had played French horn on Davis's nonet sessions in 1950. A composer and conductor, he gave the name third stream to music joining jazz and classical traditions, around the time of this record. He later ran the New England Conservatory and wrote two major histories, Early Jazz and The Swing Era.
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A Paris film score, improvised
Jazz Track Miles Davis · Columbia CL 1268 · 1959
In late 1957 Davis was playing in Paris, and the young director Louis Malle asked him to score his first feature, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows). In early December, at a Paris studio, Davis and four local players, Barney Wilen on tenor, René Urtreger on piano, Pierre Michelot on bass and the expatriate American Kenny Clarke on drums, improvised the music while scenes from the film played on a screen. Davis brought only a few harmonic sketches. Columbia issued it in the US as side one of Jazz Track; side two is his sextet of May 26, 1958, with Bill Evans.
Start with
- Generique
- Florence Sur Les Champs-Elysees
- On Green Dolphin Street
On "Generique", the opening titles, Davis plays long, slow lines over a repeating bass and soft drums, with almost no composed theme. Some writers hear this music as a step toward Milestones and what followed. Then turn to the sextet: "On Green Dolphin Street" is a standard, with Evans's piano and Davis's muted trumpet, a taste of the band that made the 1959 sessions.
In the band
Barney Wilen · tenor sax
Barney Wilen was born in Nice in 1937 and was 20 when he made this music, already one of the leading young saxophonists in France. Davis had been playing Paris clubs with this band that autumn. Wilen later explored free jazz and rock-influenced music before returning to straight-ahead playing in his last years. He died in 1996.
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A young Frenchman's big band
Legrand Jazz Michel Legrand · Columbia CL 1250 · 1959
In June 1958 Michel Legrand, a 26-year-old French arranger whose album I Love Paris had been a surprise hit, came to New York to record jazz arrangements for Columbia. For the June 25 session he had Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Phil Woods, Herbie Mann, Eddie Costa and a harp. It was one of Davis's rare sideman dates of the period, and he reportedly agreed once he saw who was in the studio. The program reaches back through jazz history, from 1920s tunes by Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller to John Lewis's "Django".
Start with
- Django
- Wild Man Blues
- 'Round Midnight
On "Django", John Lewis's tune for the guitarist Django Reinhardt, Davis is the only horn, set against Legrand's harp, vibes and flute. "Wild Man Blues", from the Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton era, gets a modern setting. Then hear another "'Round Midnight", in Legrand's arrangement, and compare it with the Gil Evans chart Davis had used in 1956.
In the band
Michel Legrand · arranger
Michel Legrand, born in Paris in 1932, studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Nadia Boulanger. This album made his name with American jazz listeners. He went on to score more than 200 films, among them The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and won three Oscars, one for "The Windmills of Your Mind". In 1990 he worked with Davis again on the soundtrack for the film Dingo.
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The sextet live at Newport, 1958
Miles & Monk At Newport Miles Davis Sextet · Columbia CL 2178 · 1964
On July 3, 1958, the sextet played the Newport Jazz Festival: Davis, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb. Columbia taped it and held it for six years, then issued it in 1964 on one side of an LP, with a 1963 Thelonious Monk set on the other; the two never play together. Apart from one other 1958 concert, it was the only official live recording of the band that made Kind of Blue. They play fast bebop from their club book, not the modal pieces to come.
Start with
- Ah-Leu-Cha
- Two Bass Hit
- Fran-Dance
"Ah-Leu-Cha" is a Parker tune with two lines running against each other, which Davis had recorded with Parker a decade earlier. Listen to how fast the sextet takes it, and to the three horns soloing in turn. "Fran-Dance", a calmer Davis tune named for his wife Frances, lets you hear Evans's lighter touch behind the horns.
In the band
Willis Conover · announcer
Willis Conover, who introduces the band, was the voice of jazz on the Voice of America. His program, Music USA, began in 1955 and was broadcast around the world, including behind the Iron Curtain, where millions heard jazz through it. He was a regular master of ceremonies at Newport in these years, and kept his show going until shortly before his death in 1996.
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The unfinished bossa nova album
Quiet Nights Miles Davis · Columbia CL 2106 · 1963
In 1962, with bossa nova suddenly selling, Davis and Gil Evans went back into the studio with a large ensemble. Sessions ran from July to November 1962 and produced only about 20 minutes of usable music, and they never finished it. In 1963 the producer Teo Macero added "Summer Night", a quartet track from Los Angeles, and released the album. Davis was furious and did not work with Macero again until 1966. It was the last Davis and Evans album. Leonard Feather, in Down Beat, called it "curious and not entirely satisfying".
Start with
- Corcovado
- Once Upon A Summertime
- Summer Night
"Corcovado" is Antonio Carlos Jobim's song; listen to Evans's soft backgrounds of flutes, harp and horns under the trumpet. Feather singled out "Once Upon a Summertime" for its recorded sound. "Summer Night", from the different session, is Davis with Victor Feldman's piano, and the change of setting is easy to hear.
In the band
Gil Evans · piano
Gil Evans was 50 when these sessions began, and he worked slowly. Columbia's schedule and the push for a hit may not have given him time to finish the charts. This was the last record he and Davis completed together, though they stayed close. Evans went on leading his own orchestra into the 1980s, including an album of Jimi Hendrix's music in 1974, and died in 1988.
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The fast half of the concert
'Four' & More: Recorded Live In Concert Miles Davis · Columbia CL 2453 · 1966
This is the other half of the February 12, 1964 benefit at Philharmonic Hall in New York: the up-tempo tunes, which Columbia issued as a separate LP in 1966. The band is George Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, and it was Coleman's last recording with Davis. The players had just learned they would not be paid for the night, and the importance of the hall weighed on them. Davis's biographer Ian Carr thought these tunes taken too fast; others hear a band at full burn. It ends this path with Davis at 37, already looking for what came next.
Start with
- Four
- Seven Steps To Heaven
- Joshua
Listen to Tony Williams on "Four" and "Seven Steps to Heaven": very fast tempos, cymbals rushing, and sudden changes in volume and density behind the soloists. Compare "Seven Steps to Heaven" with the studio version from the year before; the concert take is quicker and wilder. Hancock and Carter keep up at a speed that leaves little room for error.
In the band
Tony Williams · drums
Tony Williams was 18 on this night and had been in the band about nine months. His father, a saxophonist, had taken him to clubs in Boston as a boy, and he was playing professionally in his early teens. Davis gave him unusual freedom to push and pull the time behind the soloists. He stayed with Davis until 1969, then formed Lifetime.
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