Miles Ahead
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| Miles Ahead | |||||
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| Studio album by Miles Davis | |||||
| Released | 1957 | ||||
| Recorded | May 6-27, 1957 | ||||
| Genre | Cool jazz | ||||
| Length | Original: 37:21 Reissue: 51:57 | ||||
| Label | Columbia Records | ||||
| Producer | Gil Evans and Miles Davis | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
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| Miles Davis chronology | |||||
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Miles Ahead is a cool jazz album by Miles Davis released in 1957. This was the first album after "Birth of the Cool" that Davis recorded with Gil Evans, with whom he would go on to release albums such as Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain. Gil Evans combined the ten pieces that make up the album in a kind of suite, each following the preceding one without interruption. Davis is the only soloist on Miles Ahead, which also features a prominent horn section.
The album features Miles on flugelhorn, with his band for these recordings consisting of Bernie Glow (lead trumpet), Ernie Royal, Louis Mucci, Taft Jordan, and John Carisi (trumpets); Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, and Joe Bennett (trombones); Tom Mitchell (bass trombone); Willie Ruff and Tony Miranda (horns, with Jimmy Buffington replacing Miranda on one session); Bill Barber (tuba); Lee Konitz (alto sax); Danny Bank (bass clarinet); Romeo Penque and Sid Cooper (flute and clarinet, with Edwin Caine replacing Cooper on one session); Paul Chambers (bass); Art Taylor (drums). The album features songs from four separate recording dates each with slight modifications of the band members.
A fifth recording date involved Davis alone (re-)recording material to cover/patch mistakes/omissions in his solos using overdubbing. The fact that this album was originally produced in mono makes these inserted overdubbings rather obvious in the new stereo setting.
On the alternate take of "Springsville", Wynton Kelly features on piano as part of a version that underwent a re-write for the next recording session. Only about 10 seconds of his playing is heard on this track, although about 5 seconds of this can be heard in the master track. Nevertheless, Kelly's contribution to the album was left uncredited until the reissues came out.
The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave Miles Ahead a four-star rating (out of a possible four stars), and called the album "a quiet masterpiece... with a guaranteed place in the top flight of Miles albums."[1] Of Davis' flugelhorn, Kevin Whitehead of Cadence wrote that it "seemed to suit [Davis] better than trumpet: more full-bodied, less shrill, it glosses over his technical deficiencies."[2] The Penguin Guide, on the other hand, opined that "the flugelhorn's sound isn't so very different from his trumpet soloing, though palpably softer-edged.... [S]ome of the burnish seems to be lost."[1]
[edit] Miscellanea
Miles was reportedly unhappy about the album's original cover, which featured a photo of a young white woman aboard a sailboat. He made his displeasure known to Columbia executive George Avakian, asking, "Why'd you put that white bitch on there?" Avakian later stated that the question was made in jest. For later releases of the record, the original cover-photo has been substituted by a photo of Miles Davis.
[edit] Track listing
- "Springsville" (John Carisi)
- "The Maids of Cadiz" (Leo Delibes)
- "The Duke" (Dave Brubeck)
- "My Ship" (Ira Gershwin/Kurt Weill)
- "Miles Ahead" (Davis/Evans)
- "Blues for Pablo" (Evans)
- "New Rhumba" (Ahmad Jamal)
- "The Meaning of the Blues" (Bobby Troup/Worth)
- "Lament" (J. J. Johnson)
- "I Don't Wanna Be Kissed (By Anyone But You)" (Elliott/Spina)
The current CD reissue contains alternate takes of "Springsville", "Miles Ahead" (incorrectly labeled as being one of "Blues for Pablo"), a complete rehearsal take of "The Meaning of the Blues" and "Lament" (recorded as a continuous track by Avakian as a contingency plan) and "I Don't Wanna Be Kissed (By Anyone But You)".
[edit] References
- ^ a b Cook, Richard; Brian Morton [1992] (2006). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, 8th ed., The Penguin Guide to Jazz (in English), New York: Penguin, p. 321. ISBN 0-141-02327-9.
- ^ Whitehead, Kevin (1994), Ron Wynn, ed., All Music Guide to Jazz, San Francisco: Miller Freeman, p. 196, ISBN 0879303085
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