ESP (album)

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ESP
Studio album by Miles Davis

Publication
(s)

1965

Label (s) Columbia Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

jazz

running time

48:05

occupation

production

Irving Townsend / Teo Macero

chronology
Miles in Berlin
1964 		ESP The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965
1966

ESP (Extrasensory Perception, dt. Extrasensory perception ) is a jazz album by Miles Davis , recorded on 21 and 22 January 1965, the same year by Columbia Records released.

The album

In September 1964 - after George Coleman left and Wayne Shorter joined - the trumpeter formed his classic "second Miles Davis Quintet". Shorter had long been Miles Davis' favorite saxophonist. "Shorter was the catalyst", notes Jack Chambers in the "liner notes" to ESP. Her first appearance was at the Berlin Jazz Days (recorded on the album Miles in Berlin ). In January 1965 Miles went into the studio with the new band to record their own compositions.

From the previous live albums (in which versions of jazz standards and older Davis titles were played) ESP already differed in that it only contained original compositions by Miles Davis, Hancock, Shorter and Carter. The titles are characterized by a greater degree of abstraction, which Miles wanted to make clear with the title. The motto "Extrasensory Perception" ( extrasensory perception ) "represents a stylistic renewal, that is, for a new musical structure and an improvisation principle that Davis as programmatic consequence to his statement," I do not want to play chords anymore "( modal jazz ) want to understand. "

Agitation, which also became known through live performances, such as the "Plugged Nickel" recordings from December 1965, stands for this principle; “The title builds on a hectic, rhythmic mood; this is outlined at the beginning by a long drum solo. Davis then presents the motif in the "Harmon-Mute-Sound", interspersed with polyrhythmic inserts. Magnificent changes in tempo are made during his solo runs, ”said Davis biographer Peter Wießmüller in his review of the album.

The composition Little One also appeared on Herbie Hancock's album Maiden Voyage , which was recorded just a few weeks later.

The title track, composed by Wayne Shorter, refers to Jackie McLean's Little Melonae, which Davis recorded with John Coltrane in 1956 . Iris is a Coltrane-style ballad, similar to Infant Eyes on Shorter's album Speak No Evil .

The titles

  1. "ESP" (W. Shorter)
  2. "Eighty-One" (R. Carter / M. Davis)
  3. "Little One" (H. Hancock)
  4. "RJ" (R. Carter)
  5. "Agitation" (M. Davis)
  6. "Iris" (W. Shorter)
  7. "Mood" (R. Carter / M. Davis)

literature

  • Ian Carr : Miles Davis - The Definitive Biography . Revised edition 1998, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-6530265
  • Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
  • Miles Davis: The Autobiography . Heyne, Munich 2000
  • Erik Nisenson: Round About Midnight - A Portrait of Miles Davis . Hannibal, Vienna 1985
  • Gene Santoro: liner notes to "ESP"
  • Peter Wießmüller: Miles Davis - his life, his music, his records . Oreos (Collection Jazz), Gauting 1985

Remarks

  1. ↑ cit. by Gene Santoro in the "liner notes"
  2. ↑ The later "transitional" albums Filles de Kilimanjaro and Water Babies also belong to this series , with some restrictions , with Chick Corea and Dave Holland replacing Hancock and Ron Carter.
  3. ↑ quoted from Wießmüller, p. 144