Miles Davis · I know the classics

Beyond the classics: Davis

You know Kind of Blue, the first quintet and the 1960s band. This path fills in the story around them: the early 1950s sessions, more of the 1956 Prestige marathon, the orchestral records with Gil Evans, the bands between Coltrane and Shorter, and the quintet's later studio work. It runs in order, from 1951 to 1967.

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Long tracks, new faces, 1951
Dig Miles Davis Featuring Sonny Rollins · Prestige PRLP 7012 · 1956
On October 5, 1951, at Apex Studios in New York, Davis made one of his first sessions for Prestige, with Sonny Rollins on tenor, Jackie McLean on alto, Walter Bishop on piano, Tommy Potter on bass and Art Blakey on drums. It was his first chance to use the new long-playing record, and he stretched out the way he did in clubs, past the three-minute limit of the 78. Charlie Parker watched from the booth. It was McLean's first recording and one of Rollins's earliest. Davis was deep in his addiction then, but this session points straight at the hard bop he would help shape three years later.
Start with
- Dig
- It's Only A Paper Moon
- Bluing
"Dig" is fast, with the three horns on the theme and then long solos. Listen for McLean's alto: raw, eager, clearly in Parker's shadow, and by one account unnerved by Parker's presence in the booth. "It's Only a Paper Moon" is a pop song at a bright clip. "Bluing" is a slow blues close to ten minutes long, the kind of track a 78 could never have held.
In the band
Jackie McLean · alto sax
Jackie McLean grew up in Harlem, near Sonny Rollins and Bud Powell, and was barely 20 at this, his first session. Davis took him under his wing for a while. He went on to work with Charles Mingus and Art Blakey, then made a long run of records for Blue Note in the late 1950s and 1960s, moving toward the avant-garde. From 1968 he taught at the University of Hartford, where he built a jazz program.
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Blue Note, 1952 and 1953
Miles Davis Volume 1 Miles Davis · Blue Note BLP 1501 · 1955
Davis made three sessions for Blue Note as a leader in these years, and this LP gathers the first two, both at WOR Studios in New York. On May 9, 1952, he had J.J. Johnson on trombone, Jackie McLean on alto, Gil Coggins on piano, Oscar Pettiford on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. On April 20, 1953, Johnson and Coggins came back with Jimmy Heath on tenor, Percy Heath on bass and Art Blakey on drums. These were hard years for Davis, but Alfred Lion kept recording him. Issued on 12 inches as BLP 1501 after Davis topped the Down Beat readers' poll, it opened Blue Note's 1500 series.
Start with
- Dear Old Stockholm
- Kelo
- Tempus Fugit
"Dear Old Stockholm" is a traditional Swedish tune; Davis kept it and recorded it again with his quintet in 1956. "Kelo" is one of two Johnson tunes from the 1952 date: listen to the three horns voiced together, arranged bebop in a compact, modern style. "Tempus Fugit", Bud Powell's tune, is fast and tricky, and the Billboard reviewer in 1956 singled it out.
In the band
J.J. Johnson · trombone
J.J. Johnson, from Indianapolis, was the trombonist who showed the slide horn could keep up with bebop, playing clean, fast lines that sounded almost like a valve instrument. He had played on Davis's nonet sessions and worked with him often in these years, and he wrote "Kelo" and "Enigma" for this date. In 1954 he formed a two-trombone quintet with Kai Winding, and later wrote music for film and television.
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Christmas Eve with Monk
Miles Davis And The Modern Jazz Giants Miles Davis All Stars · Prestige PRLP 7150 · 1959
This LP holds most of the rest of the December 24, 1954 session that produced "Bags' Groove": Davis with Milt Jackson, Thelonious Monk, Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke at Van Gelder's in Hackensack. It was the only time Davis and Monk made a studio record together, and they argued through the day. Ira Gitler, who was there and wrote the notes, dismissed the story that they nearly came to blows. To fill the LP, Prestige added the 1956 quintet's "'Round Midnight". Two kinds of Davis band meet here, and the friction is part of the music.
Start with
- The Man I Love
- Bemsha Swing
- Swing Spring
The first take of "The Man I Love" opens with a false start, Monk asking when to come in and Davis telling Van Gelder to put it all on the record. Listen to Jackson's vibes, smooth and singing, against Monk's angular chords. "Bemsha Swing" is Monk's tune, written with the drummer Denzil Best; "Swing Spring" is Davis's.
In the band
Thelonious Monk · piano
Thelonious Monk was 37 and still better known to musicians than to the public. Davis recorded Monk's tunes again and again, but disliked his chords behind horn solos and asked him to lay out. In his autobiography Davis wrote that the two were close and the quarrel was about music, not friendship. Within three years Monk was famous, leading a quartet with John Coltrane at the Five Spot.
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The marathon, first release
Cookin' With The Miles Davis Quintet The Miles Davis Quintet · Prestige PRLP 7094 · 1957
Cookin' was the first of the four albums Prestige drew from the quintet's two 1956 marathons at Van Gelder's, and it came out in July 1957. All five tracks come from October 26, 1956. The band was paying for its own studio time, so they played almost as if live, one take after another, with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Asked about the title, Davis said that was what they did: came in and cooked. If you know Relaxin', this is its twin, with a ballad Davis made his own and some of the band's fastest playing.
Start with
- My Funny Valentine
- Airegin
- Tune Up
"My Funny Valentine" opens the record, Davis on mute with Coltrane sitting out and Garland framing him gently. Then the tempo shoots up: "Airegin", Rollins's tune, is taken fast, with Coltrane's tenor surging. On side two, "Tune Up" runs straight into "When Lights Are Low". Listen to Chambers's bass holding everything steady at speed.
In the band
Paul Chambers · bass
Paul Chambers grew up in Detroit and was 20 when he joined Davis in 1955. He was the band's anchor, a bassist with a deep, even sound and a rare gift for bowed solos. He stayed longer than anyone from the first quintet, leaving at the end of 1962, and played on hundreds of records, many for Blue Note and Prestige. He died in 1969, at 33.
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Gershwin, rewritten for orchestra
Porgy And Bess Miles Davis · Columbia CL 1274 · 1959
The second big Davis and Gil Evans project was recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in four sessions in July and August 1958, and released in March 1959. Frances Taylor, whom Davis married that year, was dancing in a City Center production of Gershwin's opera, and he saw it often enough to want to record the music. Evans scored 13 pieces for brass, French horns, tuba, flutes and saxophones, with Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones or Jimmy Cobb on drums. Some critics rank it the best of their records together.
Start with
- I Loves You, Porgy
- Summertime
- Gone
Davis described "I Loves You, Porgy" in a 1958 interview: Evans wrote him only a scale, no chords, which gave him more freedom and space. Listen to the trumpet singing over still harmony. On "Summertime", the orchestra repeats a soft figure behind him all the way through. "Gone" is the fastest piece, with Philly Joe Jones driving the band.
In the band
Gil Evans · piano
Gil Evans wrote for instruments big bands seldom used: here French horns, tuba and flutes do work that saxophones would do elsewhere. He and Davis shaped each project together, and this was their third collaboration, after the nonet records and the 1957 orchestral album. Evans's own records of the time, like Out of the Cool in 1960, show how much of this sound was his.
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A Spanish record, almost by accident
Sketches Of Spain Miles Davis · Columbia CL 1480 · 1960
Davis heard Joaquín Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" on a record a friend gave him, and Evans copied the music down from it, since there was no score. As they listened to more Spanish music, including Alan Lomax's field recordings, it grew into a whole album. They recorded at 30th Street in November 1959 and March 1960, and Columbia released it in July 1960; it was Teo Macero's first Davis production. Some critics at the time doubted it was jazz at all, and Rodrigo's wife called it piracy. It has since become one of Davis's best-known records.
Start with
- Concierto De Aranjuez
- Solea
The "Concierto de Aranjuez" fills almost half the record. Davis starts on flugelhorn, playing the guitar melody, then moves to trumpet. He felt the tune was so strong that the softer you played it, the stronger it got. "Solea" is built on a flamenco form, and Davis plays over it for more than ten minutes as the orchestra rises and falls.
In the band
Jimmy Cobb · drums
Jimmy Cobb, from Washington, D.C., had played with Dinah Washington and Cannonball Adderley before he replaced Philly Joe Jones in Davis's band in May 1958. He kept time quietly, with brushes and cymbals, never crowding the soloist. He stayed until 1963, then toured as a trio with Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers. He was the last surviving player from Kind of Blue, and died in 2020.
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After Coltrane
Someday My Prince Will Come Miles Davis Sextet · Columbia CL 1656 · 1961
Coltrane left in 1960 to lead his own band, and after trying Jimmy Heath and Sonny Stitt, Davis settled on Hank Mobley that December. With Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb, he recorded this album at 30th Street in March 1961; it was Mobley's only studio album with the quintet. Coltrane came back as a guest and solos on the title track, a song from Disney's Snow White. It is softer and more romantic than what came before, half standards and half Davis originals, and his wife Frances is on the cover.
Start with
- Someday My Prince Will Come
- Pfrancing
- Old Folks
"Someday My Prince Will Come" is a waltz. Davis plays the melody with the mute; both Mobley and Coltrane solo, and hearing the two tenors on one track shows what changed when Coltrane left. "Pfrancing", named for Frances, is a relaxed blues. Listen to Kelly's piano behind the horns, which the Down Beat reviewer praised.
In the band
Hank Mobley · tenor sax
Hank Mobley, raised in New Jersey, had been a founding member of the Jazz Messengers and was a steady Blue Note leader; Soul Station came out the year before this session. His tenor sound was round and relaxed, never forced, the opposite of Coltrane's intensity. He stayed with Davis into 1962, then went back to making his own records for Blue Note through the 1960s.
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Live in a San Francisco club
Miles Davis In Person Friday Night At The Blackhawk, San Francisco Volume I Miles Davis Quintet · Columbia CL 1669 · 1961
In April 1961 Columbia recorded the quintet over two nights at the Black Hawk, a small club in San Francisco: the first time Davis's working band was recorded live in a club. This first volume is from Friday, April 21, with Mobley, Kelly, Chambers and Cobb, and Ralph J. Gleason wrote the original notes. Away from the studio, the band plays long and loose, and Davis works through his book of the time, from "Walkin'" and "Bye Bye Blackbird" to newer tunes. It is the 1950s repertoire as it sounded at the start of a new decade.
Start with
- Walkin'
- No Blues
- Bye Bye Blackbird
Compare this "Walkin'" with the 1954 studio version, if you know it: it is taken faster, with Davis pushing hard over Cobb's drums. "No Blues" is a medium blues where Kelly's bright, bouncing piano comes to the front. Listen too for Mobley's solos, which have more room here than on the studio album.
In the band
Wynton Kelly · piano
Wynton Kelly was born in Jamaica and grew up in Brooklyn. He had played with Dinah Washington and Dizzy Gillespie before joining Davis, and he is the pianist on "Freddie Freeloader". Davis prized his swing and the way he lifted a soloist. After leaving with Chambers and Cobb, he led the trio that backed Wes Montgomery at the Half Note in 1965. He died in 1971, at 39.
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Two bands, one album
Seven Steps To Heaven Miles Davis · Columbia CL 2051 · 1963
By late 1962 Davis's whole band had quit. In April 1963 he recorded in Los Angeles with George Coleman on tenor, Ron Carter on bass, and two West Coast players, Victor Feldman on piano and Frank Butler on drums. Davis kept the ballads but not the fast tunes, and in May, back in New York, he recut those with a new rhythm section: Herbie Hancock, Carter and the 17-year-old Tony Williams. The album came out that July and sold better than any Davis record before it. You can hear the old Davis and the new one side by side.
Start with
- Basin Street Blues
- Seven Steps To Heaven
- Joshua
"Basin Street Blues", a song Louis Armstrong introduced in 1928, is a slow quartet piece from Los Angeles, with Feldman on piano and Davis on the mute. Then "Seven Steps to Heaven", which Feldman wrote with Davis, from the New York date: fast and sharp, with Williams's cymbals driving. "Joshua", Feldman's other tune, stayed in Davis's book for the rest of the decade.
In the band
Victor Feldman · vibes
Victor Feldman was born in London and was a child prodigy on drums before he moved to vibes and piano. He came to the United States in 1955, worked with Woody Herman and Cannonball Adderley, and settled in Los Angeles as a busy studio player. Davis asked him to join the band; Feldman said no, preferring his session work. He left Davis two tunes, "Seven Steps to Heaven" and "Joshua".
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The new band in France
Miles Davis In Europe Miles Davis Quintet · Columbia CL 2183 · 1964
On July 27, 1963, two months after the New York sessions, the new quintet played the jazz festival at Antibes, on the French Riviera, and Columbia released the concert in 1964. It was the first full album by this band: George Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. The tunes are from the old book, "Autumn Leaves", "Milestones", "Walkin'", but the band plays them as if they were new, faster and more elastic. Here you hear the young rhythm section begin to take over.
Start with
- Milestones
- Autumn Leaves
- Joshua
Listen to Tony Williams behind Davis on "Milestones": the tempo is far faster than the 1958 studio version, and his cymbals drive the band. On "Autumn Leaves", which Davis first recorded with Adderley in 1958, hear how Hancock and Carter keep shifting the harmony and feel under the soloists. Coleman's tenor is smooth and fluent throughout.
In the band
George Coleman · tenor sax
George Coleman, from Memphis, had played with B.B. King and Max Roach before joining Davis in 1963. He was a smooth, technically commanding tenor player, rooted in bebop. He left the band in 1964, and went on to lead his own groups and to teach, much respected by other saxophonists for his command of harmony.
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Shorter brings the book
E.S.P. Miles Davis · Columbia CL 2350 · 1965
Wayne Shorter joined in September 1964, and in January 1965 the quintet spent three days in Columbia's studio in Hollywood. E.S.P. was the first album by the band now called the second great quintet: Shorter, Hancock, Carter and Williams. There are no standards and no ballads, only new tunes by the band; Davis had told Shorter to bring his book. Many of the tunes break the usual 32-bar form: "Mood" has 13 bars, "R.J." has 19. The title was said to come from the way the five seemed to read each other's minds.
Start with
- E.S.P.
- Eighty-One
- Iris
"E.S.P.", Shorter's tune, is fast and open, and the rhythm section never settles into one pattern for long. On "Eighty-One", Hancock recalled, Davis squeezed the melody together and cut out parts to leave big spaces for the rhythm section alone. "Iris" is a slow Shorter tune; listen to how quietly the band plays it.
In the band
Ron Carter · bass
Ron Carter, from Ferndale, Michigan, trained as a classical cellist and switched to bass when he found the classical world closed to Black players. He joined Davis in 1963. He wrote "R.J." and co-wrote "Eighty-One" and "Mood" with Davis for this record, and his walking lines held the quintet's loose time together. He went on to become the most recorded bassist in jazz history.
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Shorter's tunes, Tyson's profile
Sorcerer Miles Davis · Columbia CL 2732 · 1967
Recorded at 30th Street in May 1967 and released later that year, Sorcerer was the quintet's third studio album. Shorter wrote most of it; Hancock wrote the title tune and Williams wrote "Pee Wee", on which Davis does not play. To fill the record, Columbia added "Nothing Like You", a 1962 track with the singer Bob Dorough and a Gil Evans arrangement. The cover is a profile of the actress Cicely Tyson, later Davis's wife. A Down Beat reviewer in 1968 heard music built more on mood and nuance than on big melodies, and that is a good way in.
Start with
- Masqualero
- Prince Of Darkness
- The Sorcerer
"Masqualero", Shorter's tune, is the one piece here Davis kept playing in concert for years; listen to its slow, shadowy melody and the way the rhythm section rises and falls behind the solos. "Prince of Darkness" is quicker and lighter. "The Sorcerer" is Hancock's, fast and bright, with the horns tightly together on the theme.
In the band
Wayne Shorter · tenor sax
By 1967 Wayne Shorter was the quintet's main composer. His tunes had unusual shapes and moods, melodies that seemed to float over shifting harmony, and Davis trusted him to supply most of a record. He made his own albums for Blue Note in these years too, among them Speak No Evil. He stayed with Davis into 1970, playing on the first electric records, before leaving to start Weather Report.
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