Milestones (album)

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Milestones
Studio album by Miles Davis

Publication
(s)

1958

Label (s) Columbia Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

jazz

running time

47:36

occupation

production

George Avakian

Studio (s)

CBS 30th Street Studio , New York City

chronology
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
1957 		Milestones Porgy and Bess
1957

Milestones is a jazz album by Miles Davis , recorded in two recording sessions on April 2-3, 1958, released on Columbia Records in 1958.

Prehistory of the album

After the trumpeter had dissolved the legendary "first Miles Davis quintet" in the spring of 1957 and turned to other projects for a year (such as the large orchestral album Miles Ahead , which was created in collaboration with Gil Evans ), it came at the beginning of 1958 to found a new combo in the form of a sextet. Alto saxophonist Julian Cannonball Adderley was added as the third wind part . “My idea,” wrote Miles Davis in his autobiography, “was to continue with this sextet what we had already started with Trane , Red, Paul and me; I just wanted to add the blues voice of Cannonball Adderley and thereby expand the whole thing. I could imagine that Cannonball's bluesy alto sax against the harmonic, chordal playing of Trane, his freer way of improvisation, would create a whole new feeling, a new sound. "

The music of the album

Milestones was also a step towards modal jazz ; The trumpeter had already used experiments of this kind with playing on scales in the film music for the elevator to the scaffold ( Ascenseur pour l'échafaud ). This development is most evident in the title track Milestones , which eventually led to the music of Kind of Blue a year later . In breathtaking solos, Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane perform a musical duel in pieces like Straight No Chaser and Sid's Ahead . On the album, the contrasts between the bebop numbers Dr. Jackle and Two Bass Hit , jazz standards like the Monk composition Straight, No Chaser and Sid's Ahead (also known under the title Weirdo ) and the steps to modal jazz. What is particularly striking is the contrast between the sheets of sound in Coltrane's solos and Davis' rather cool playing.

The "Milestones" session was the end of from Jones , Garland and Chambers existing rhythm section of Davis band; Garland had little opportunity for solo performances on this album. Only on the track Billy Boy , where Davis skips, and in Straight, No Chaser , he can be heard longer. He can't be heard at Sid's Ahead , Davis plays in his place. Shortly afterwards, Jimmy Cobb started for Philly Joe Jones; pianist Bill Evans began his collaboration with Miles, which led to a session that same year, during which the tracks Love for Sale , Fran Dance, Stella by Starlight and On Green Dolphin Street were recorded.

The title track Miles (or Milestones ) became a jazz standard played by Jimmy Smith , Wes Montgomery , Bill Evans, and many other musicians.

The titles

  1. Dr. Jekyll - 5:46 ( Jackie McLean )
  2. Sid's Ahead - 13:01 ( Miles Davis )
  3. Two Bass Hit - 5:13 ( John Lewis - Dizzy Gillespie )
  4. Milestones - 5:41 ( Miles Davis )
  5. Billy Boy - 7:14 (Traditional, arr.Ahmad Jamal )
  6. Straight, No Chaser - 10:41 ( Thelonious Monk )
  • Billy Boy is played in a trio of Garland, Chambers and Jones. The CD release includes additional alternate takes from Two Bass Hit , Milestones and Straight, No Chaser .
  • The original liner notes were written by jazz writer Charles Edward Smith .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Review of the album at allmusic
  2. ↑ Some sources give February 4, 1958 and March 4, 1958 as the date of recording; it is probably a misinterpretation of the American date notation month / day / year, according to which April 2, 1958 is written as 4/2/1958 and April 3, 1958 as 4/3/1958; Miles Davis himself mentions in his autobiography (p. 304) only the April date and no February session for his album, after he had previously participated in Cannonball Adderley 's album Somethin 'Else (recorded on March 9, 1958).
  3. ↑ cit. after Miles Davis, p. 299
  4. ↑ included on Miles' 1954 album Miles Davis Volume 1
  5. ↑ Garland was late for the session, which annoyed Davis and contributed to his expulsion. Davis therefore plays the piano here when he accompanies the saxophonists with the rhythm section, cf. Wießmüller, p. 119
  6. ↑ The latter three titles appeared on Miles Davis Sextet and Quintet - Miles at Newport , "Love for Sale" only in the 1970s on the Columbia compilation Circle in the Round .
  7. ↑ Originally Miles ; Milestones is in itself the title of an earlier composition attributed to Miles Davis (from his time in the Charlie Parker Band) but written by John Lewis , dedicated to Miles Davis, and recorded in 1947.