MILES DAVIS

Miles Davis 1926-1991

          Miles Davis was possibly the coolest person ever to walk this earth. Steve McQueen came close, but Miles takes it. But putting coolness aside, the music of Miles Davis influenced so many players and listeners, and he created so many new genres of jazz, took jazz music and jazz trumpet playing in so many new directions it would be nearly impossible to come up with a list of absolute bests from his discography. With that in mind, though, there are some individual recordings that should not be missed by anyone who cares to understand the depth of Miles Davis’s contribution to the world of jazz. So, let’s get right to it.

          I go back to a 1958 recording, already more than ten years into his career. The albums up to that time have their own swing, their own important history, but there is an album called BASIC MILES (C32025- released 1973), a collection of classic performances by Miles that is impossible to find, but if you can, listen to Stella By Starlight, with John Coltrane on tenor, Bill Evans, piano; Paul Chambers, bass and Jimmy Cobb, drums. The sensitive solos by Miles, Coltrane, and Evans, reach levels of painful beauty that few others in jazz do with a standard. Interestingly, another take of Stella from the same session is on the album ’58 SESSIONS, but Miles’s solo is not nearly as good as on the BASIC MILES track.

          Several albums came out of those quintet years with Coltrane on tenor, but to sample the real energy of that group, listen to the live concert at Newport in 1958, especially Straight, No Chaser (either MILES AND MONK AT NEWPORT, or the CD re-release LIVE AT NEWPORT).

          Summertime, from the PORGY AND BESS album (1958) is an absolute Must-Listen. Miles’s muted plaintive interpretation of Gershwin’s famous song, partnered with Gil Evans orchestral arrangement is one of the all-time high points in jazz. Listen to the entire album. One trumpet riff by Miles in the final twelve bars of There’s a Boat that’s Leaving Soon for New York is right up there with the most lyrical ever to flow out of a trumpet.

          Anyone who likes jazz needs to own the album KIND OF BLUE, the 1959 release that turned jazz on its ear with its modal progressions that basically announced to be-bop, “You’re finished, man.” The tune So What is the main attraction of the album, again with Coltrane and Bill Evans featured strongly. It is no wonder KIND OF BLUE became one of the best selling jazz records of all time. It was gentle enough for non-musician jazz lovers, but for jazz musicians, advanced the form.

          The studio album SEVEN STEPS TO HEAVEN (1963) launched a new quintet. The tune Seven Steps to Heaven is an absolute classic, with Herbie Hancock’s piano solo setting the stage for his years with Miles. That new quintet included Herbie Hancock on piano, George Coleman on tenor, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. Wayne Shorter replaced Coleman after two years and the group remained intact for more than five years. The studio albums they produced contain the reserved, avant garde jazz of the time that occasionally was too esoteric for mass audiences, but their live performances explode with energy. Listen to Miles’s stratospheric genius on My Funny Valentine, originally off the live album MY FUNNY VALENTINE (also on GREATEST HITS). Compare Seven Steps to Heaven off FOUR AND MORE to the studio version to get a taste of the incredible force of the group in concert. While you’re at it, don’t miss the tune Four, one of Miles’s best tunes of the era. Listen also to the albums LIVE IN EUROPE, and MILES IN BERLIN, both equally exciting live albums from the same period.

          Miles again created new directions in music with a burst of innovation that began in 1969 with the album

IN A SILENT WAY

. He makes musical first ascents with each of the next three albums, BITCHES BREW, TRIBUTE TO JACK JOHNSON, and LIVE EVIL. A Must-Listen is Sanctuary off BITCHES BREW. This is pure sound energy for its own sake, precisely the direction Miles takes us for the next decade. Listen to some or all of Right Off (JACK JOHNSON album) for the clarity and intensity of his trumpet playing which is the absolute best tone of his career. The piercing long tones; no one does them like Miles. Listen to Selim off LIVE EVIL for a haunting melodic composition that just hangs in the air and never comes down.

          Miles expands our musical world with GET UP WITH IT (1974), a powerful album of gentle beauty and force. He plays the organ on this album almost as much than the trumpet. The outsider but Must-Listen track is Rated X, six minutes and fifty-three seconds of the most vicious interplay ever between organ and percussive sounds from drums, guitar and electric piano. You may not like it, but who other than a visionary could create something like that?

           The 1980s is a prolific decade for Miles. He returns from a five year retirement with THE MAN WITH THE HORN (1981) and a monster line-up of sidemen. Fat Time has a kickass bass groove (introduce Marcus Miller) and guitar solo by newcomer Mike Stern that is totally novel to the jazz genre. Aïda introduces a melody that evolves into Fast Track on the live album WE WANT MILES (1982). Five minutes and sixteen seconds into Fast Track, Miles blows some of the most clarified prolonged high trumpet tones he has ever blown. It is ‘Miles in the 80s’ at its prime. The tune Katia, off YOU’RE UNDER ARREST (1985) has an intense trumpet-organ theme over a complicated Eastern percussions rhythm and stabbing guitar lines by John McLaughlin. Miles’s cover of Michael Jackson’s Human Nature strays from typical Miles but is nevertheless a beautiful tribute.

          AMANDLA (1989) is a collection of eight tunes, all under six minutes, written mostly by bassist Marcus Miller. More structure and melody to the tunes, but with plenty of funk. The Must-Listen tune is Mr. Pastorius, the only straight jazz tune with unmuted trumpet on the album, a poignant eulogy to Jaco Pastorius.

          So there. That’s one short playlist tour of Miles Davis’s career in under twenty tunes. Each is the best of its period. But there is so much more. All the tunes in between are worth studying.

          Miles once said the history of jazz could be said in four words: “Louis Armstrong Charlie Parker”. That was the first half of the twentieth century. The second half requires two more words: Miles Davis.