In tribute to the 50th Anniversary of the seminal Miles Smiles album, Sony Legacy is bringing out 3 cds worth of unreleased material that later appeared on Miles Smiles, Nefertiti and Waterbabies. The “Second Classic Quintet” of Miles Davis with Wayne Shorter/ts-ss, Herbie Hancock/p, Ron Carter/b and Tony Williams/dr set the trend during 66-67, with these two albums arguably the apotheosis of post-bop music, and essentially defining the genre. Modern jazz was changed forever by this enzymatic quintet.
This collection includes all of the 6 master takes for Miles Smiles, along with session reals for “Water Babies,” “Nefertiti” and “Water Babies” as well as alternate takes of pieces such as “Circle” and “Masqualero” and a fly on the wall experience to hear the trio rehearse “Country Son”, the band work on a “Blues in F” and hearing the leader give some instructions to the musicians. The full session reels that were taped for Miles Smiles is here, and it is intriguing to hear the band’s material before your ears. “Dolores,” “Footprints” and “Gingerbread Boy” still resonate with excitement, freshness and forward vision after half of a century,while the drums leading concept of “Nefertiti” still confounds, shocks and inspires.
The rhythm section take of “Country Son” is an intriguing revelation, feeling like a vintage Herbie Hancock Blue Note session. Most intriguing is the “Blues In F” which has Miles cozy at the piano and delivering a soliloquy to Wayne Shorter with subjects ranging from finding a bass player to finding a drink. The various reels of each song reveals the flexibility and creativity of the band, as Davis and Shorter are clever and elastic in their solos, finally whittling the piece down to a coherent whole. This set also shows that while inspiration is important, so is perspiration, as each song is chipped at until all of the dross and marble is gone, leaving the essence in marble.
Any self-respecting Miles Davis fan will have to own this, and will spend hours analyzing each nanosecond. Isn’t that what we all want, anyway?
Sony Legacy