Miles Ahead

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Miles Ahead
Studio album by Miles Davis

Publication
(s)

1957

Label (s) Columbia Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

jazz

running time

37:21 (LP) or 51:57 (CD)

occupation

production

George Avakian / Cal Lampley

Studio (s)

New York City

chronology
Bags' Groove
1957 		Miles Ahead Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants
1958

Miles Ahead Miles Davis - + 19 - Orchestra under the Direction of Gil Evans , the full title, is a jazz - album by Miles Davis , recorded with Gil Evans -Orchester in four recording sessions in May and August 1957, published by Columbia Records in the same year.

Prehistory of the album

Miles Davis in the mid-1950s

In the mid-1950s, the music of the Miles Davis Nonet from 1949 ( Birth of the Cool ) gained new relevance when it was re-released on LP. Miles Davis attracted a wide audience , not least because of his success at the Newport Jazz Festival and the release of Columbia's first album , Round About Midnight . George Avakian from Columbia Records was looking for a new marketing concept to present his new star. There were plenty of recordings in quartet or quintet formation; It was supposed to be something else, Third Stream , the combination of European symphonic and jazz was en vogue back then. Miles Davis suggested the then almost forgotten arranger and pianist Gil Evans, with whom he had been close friends since the Birth of the Cool days. Miles Davis was on the The Music for Brass album by Jay Jay Johnson and John Lewis ; Davis wanted to develop the 1949/50 nonet in a similar way. "Instead of the cool pastel colors of the nonet, the new band should have fullness and layered timbres." A series of meetings followed in the spring of 1957, until the concept of the album was fixed; Miles set the framework, Evans selected the musicians and the compositions, and withdrew to write the arrangements.

The album

In contrast to Birth of the Cool , Miles Davis played the flugelhorn and was the only soloist; in contrast to the nonet, a big band played here . Evans put together "a strange big band line-up in which there is no saxophone setting, but instead - in addition to the usual trumpet and trombone groups - a strangely unreal-looking grouping of French horns, alto saxophone, bass clarinet and flute." He had put the various pieces together in a kind of suite; each track follows the other without a break. Evans referred to the recordings of Duke Ellington in the early 1940s. The orchestration of the track “Maids of Cadiz” has echoes of “I Don't Wanna Be Kissed”. The sound "is deliberately stripped of any spirited attacca , calm, lyrical, static, preparing and initiating every climax well in advance, favoring large lines in every respect, not only in terms of melody but also in terms of harmony, but it moves beyond the old, swinging, pulsating rhythm created by Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. "

Joachim-Ernst Berendt said about the album: "Gil Evans is the man who can most perfectly transform the Miles Davis tone into orchestral sound - into sound."

Miles Ahead was the first album Miles Davis recorded with Gil Evans; shortly thereafter, the collaboration with Porgy and Bess (1958) and Sketches of Spain (1959/60) continued.

The titles

  1. "Springsville" ( John Carisi )
  2. "The Maids of Cadiz" ( Léo Delibes )
  3. "The Duke" ( Dave Brubeck )
  4. " My Ship " ( Kurt Weill )
  5. "Miles Ahead" (Davis / Evans)
  6. "Blues for Pablo" (Evans)
  7. "New Rhumba" ( Ahmad Jamal )
  8. "The Meaning of the Blues" ( Bobby Troup / Worth)
  9. "Lament" ( JJ Johnson )
  10. "I Don't Wanna Be Kissed (By Anyone But You)" (Elliott / Spina)
  • The CD release also includes alternate takes from "Springsville", "Miles Ahead" a rehearsal take from "The Meaning of the Blues", "Lament" and "I Don't Wanna Be Kissed (By Anyone But You)".

Trivia

  • Miles Davis was very unhappy with the album's original cover, which featured a photo of a young white woman aboard a sailboat. He asked George Avakian, "Why'd you put that white bitch on there?" A picture of Miles Davis was used in later publications.

Movies

Literature / sources

  • George Avakian: Liner Notes on Miles Ahead
  • Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
  • Konrad Heidkamp : Snow White and Rose Red - Gil Evans and Miles Davis, luxurious memories of two soul mates . DIE ZEIT, No. 46, November 8, 1996, p. 52
  • André Hodeir : Liner Notes for Miles Ahead
  • Erik Nisenson: Round About Midnight - A Portrait of Miles Davis . Vienna, Hannibal, 1985
  • Peter Wießmüller: Miles Davis - his life, his music, his records . Gauting, Oreos (Collection Jazz) 1985

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ At the August date, Miles Davis played overdubbing over previously recorded orchestral passages ("Springsville", "New Rhumba", "I Don't Wanne Be Kissed By You")
  2. ↑ cit. after Konrad Heidkamp
  3. ↑ published on the album: Brass Ensemble of the Jazz and Classical Music Society under the direction of Gunther Schuller . The "Poem for Brass", on which Miles Davis played, later appeared on the Columbia compilation Facets (CBS 62637), coupled with the Michel Legrand recordings from 1958 ( Django )
  4. ↑ cit. after Nisenson, p. 101
  5. ↑ a b Joachim E. Berendt, Das Jazzbuch, Frankfurt a. M. 1973, p. 97.
  6. ↑ cit. after André Hodeir
  7. ↑ cit. after Wießmüller, p. 114
  8. ↑ In the alternate take of "Springsville", Wynton Kelly briefly plays piano; only 10 seconds of his performance can be heard on this track, only 5 seconds on the master track . However, his contribution was not featured on the original album.