Miles Davis Quintet Plays "Joshua":
The Miles Davis Quintet of 1964-1968 is justly celebrated as one of the most important jazz groups of all time. Miles picked four of the most extraordinary young musicians playing at the time — Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums — and they created a new sound that remains tremendously influential today.
Here's an excellent clip from YouTube of an early performance of the quintet performing "Joshua" on tour in Italy in October 1964. Shorter had joined the group only a month earlier, replacing Sam Rivers, who had a few months earlier replaced George Coleman (you can hear the difference by comparing the string of live albums recorded in 1964: My Funny Valentine in February with Coleman, Miles in Tokyo in July with Rivers, and Miles in Berlin in September with Shorter). It's also interesting to note that the drummer, Tony Williams, was all of 18 years old at the time.
Here's an excellent clip from YouTube of an early performance of the quintet performing "Joshua" on tour in Italy in October 1964. Shorter had joined the group only a month earlier, replacing Sam Rivers, who had a few months earlier replaced George Coleman (you can hear the difference by comparing the string of live albums recorded in 1964: My Funny Valentine in February with Coleman, Miles in Tokyo in July with Rivers, and Miles in Berlin in September with Shorter). It's also interesting to note that the drummer, Tony Williams, was all of 18 years old at the time.
This group, in the Freddie Hubbard edition, recorded V.S.O.P. , one of the finest jazz albums.
Great recommendations, as always. I can't get enough of my box set of the 1965-68 recordings which I've ripped onto all of my computers.
JHA
JHA, do you have the complete Plugged Nickel sessions?
This quintet sometimes takes some getting used to, and I would not recommend that beginners start with "Sorcerer," in fact, which has some numbers that are hard to enjoy on anything but an intellectual level. "E.S.P." is great, particularly the last number, but newcomers to modern jazz should probably start with "Miles Smiles" or something else, in my opinion--and not with the concert albums, which are often played way too fast to be enjoyable.
Love the jazzblogging--always something to look forward to on the weekend.
I've got no quarrel with ESP or Miles Smiles as a starter, but let me put in a plug for the live My Funny Valentine with Coleman. Sure, a couple of the tunes are a bit too fast, and it's Coleman and not Shorter, but for a intro to Tony Williams, check out the title track. Miles starts rubato introducing and improvising around bits of the theme, while Hancock and Williams vamp around him. Then, Williams slowly teases out a groove on his trademark ride cymbal. After about 8 bars, the whole quintet is in on Williams' groove, and the listener is just sucked into this amazing swinging sound. I've heard a zillion 18 year old drummers who could swing, but no one with that finesse. It stops me in my tracks whenever I hear it.
And Realist Liberal--I popped ESP and Sorcerer (along with Shorter's JuJu) after seeing Orin's post, and after about 5 minutes, my two-year-old said, "I like this music." Never too young....
I'd still pitch for Smiles, first though; not only is there what amounts to a drums-trumpet duet on "Gingerbread Boy", but there's also "Footprints", truly a masterpiece, even to the "run it on down" coda, and Miles' gravel-voiced whisper "Teo?!?" at the end.
That reminds me, I heard Jimmy Heath play "Gngerbread Boy" just a few weeks ago at the Vanguard.
Those who like this period of Miles/Wayne Shorter might also enjoy Roots &Herbs, a lesser known record from Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers. It was recorded around 1961 but not released until much later. Blakey's band at the time included Wayne Shorter, who composed most of the tracks, and the trumpeter Lee Morgan. Morgan's tone and virtuosity as a trumpet player put Miles to shame (though Miles had the superior body of work and chops as a composer and band leader), but his life was tragically cut short by murder.
Heck, I thought that all of three people, including me, bought On The Corner, on CD, then I heard it at someone else's house last week., so it musta been four. . .
. . . . but for my thirty or so bucks, the two most under-rated "Miles albums without Miles" would be Wayne Shorter's "pre-fusion" Schizophrenia (Shorter, Hancock, Carter, Chambers, Spaulding, Fuller) and Miroslav Vitous' "what fusion coulda been" Moutain In The Clouds, (originally Infinite Search) (Vitous, Hancock, McLaughlin, Joe Henderson, DeJohnette and Chambers)
Miles' most underrated record is Some Day My Prince Will Come, which nobody ever mentions among his best, but which has some outstanding playing. The title track is as cheerful and fun as any of the First Quintet records. "Teo" has a great Coletrane solo--and I'm not a big fan of Coltrane, so that's saying a lot. And the slow pieces like "Old Folks" have the perfect smoky, dark, sound that is copyright 1961, Miles Davis Inc.