| In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Box set by Miles Davis | ||||
| Released | June 3, 2003 | |||
| Recorded | April 21 - 22, 1961 | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 117:29 ("Friday"), 123:51 ("Saturday") |
|||
| Label | Sony | |||
| Producer | Bob Belden, Michael Cuscuna, Irving Townsend | |||
| Miles Davis chronology | ||||
|
||||
| In Person Friday Night at the Blackhawk (CJM reissue shown) | |
|---|---|
| Live album by Miles Davis Quintet | |
| Released | 1961 |
| Recorded | April 21, 1961, April 22, 1961 |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Length | 53:29, 57:46 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Producer | Irving Townsend |
In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete, also called The Complete Blackhawk, is a 2003 four-disc collection of the 1961 live performances of the Miles Davis Quintet at the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco. These sets, performed with recording in mind,[1] forged new ground for jazz musician Miles Davis, who had never previously been recorded live in a club with his combo.[2] Material from the four sets was first released in 1961 by Columbia Records on two albums, titled In Person Friday Night at the Blackhawk and In Person Saturday Night at the Blackhawk (Vol. 2). Although those albums were subsequently re-rereleased several times, the complete sets were not commercially available until Sony Records released this collection. Simultaneous to this release, Sony released the material as two separate double-albums, entitled Friday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete and Saturday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete.[3]
The complete collection, which included liner notes from the original release by Monterey Jazz Festival co-founder Ralph J. Gleason as well as additional notes by jazz trumpeter Eddie Henderson was critically and commercially well-received. The collection peaked at #9 on Billboard's "Top Jazz Albums" chart.
Contents |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | (Vol. 1) [4] |
| Allmusic | (Vol. 2) [5] |
| Allmusic | [6] |
| PopMatters | (positive)[7] |
In its review of the four-disc compilation, The New York Times indicated that the set was "the gold standard for straight-ahead, postwar jazz rhythm".[8] All Music, praising the "pristine" sound and "lovely" packaging suggested that "no Davis fan should be without these recordings purchased separately or as a set".[3] The All About Jazz website said that the set was "so fastidiously remastered it sounds live in your living room".[2]
The original 1961 albums and the 2003 complete reissues (both the 4-disc and 2-disc) displayed a photograph by Leigh Wiener of Davis with his soon to be second wife, Frances Taylor, for whom the song "Fran-Dance" was composed. In a 2001 article in The New York Times, historian Robin D.G. Kelley drew attention specifically to this image, including Davis's position and the picture's use of lighting, as an example of Davis's camera awareness and manipulation of what Kelley termed a cultural "pimp aesthetic".[9] Kelley argued that such iconic images of Davis help to demonstrate that Davis was a product and representation of "a masculine culture that aspired to be like a pimp, that embraced the cool performative styles of the players (pronounced 'playas'), the 'macks,' the hustlers, who not only circulated in the jazz world but whose walk and talk also drew from the well of black music".[9] This restoration of the original cover art came after a number of years during which the album was issued using a cover with an atmospheric representation of the exterior of the Black Hawk taken during Davis's performance.
The track listing for In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete reproduces in its entirety the performances of Friday and Saturday nights, April 21 and 22, 1961. Because of space constraints and a desire not to divide sets, the producers of the box set put sessions 1 and 3 together on the first disc, placing the more energetic and lengthier 2nd set on Disc Two.[2] For the two double-disc sets, the track listing for Friday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete is that of Disc One and Disc Two, below. For Saturday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete, it is that of Disc Three and Disc Four.
Except where otherwise noted, all songs by Miles Davis:
Except where otherwise noted, all songs by Miles Davis.
Except where otherwise noted, all songs by Miles Davis.
Side A
Side B
Side A
Side B