Miles in the Sky

Miles in the Sky is an album recorded in January and two dates in May 1968. It is the fifth and final album fully made by the Miles Davis second great quintet, for by the time of Filles de Kilimanjaro, the quintet was beginning to dissolve, with Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock being replaced on two of the five songs. Miles in the Sky is notable for the first use of electric piano, electric bass and electric guitar on an issued recording by Davis, a foreshadowing of his move into fusion music over the next few years.

Although the album was released shortly after recording the last two songs, the tracks come from different sessions which show different stages of Miles Davis's evolution from acoustic jazz to electric "fusion" music. "Paraphernalia" (recorded January 16, 1968) features George Benson's electric guitar, although it is more conservative in style than the earlier "Circle in the Round" (which however was not released until the late seventies). "Black Comedy" and "Country Son" (May 15 and May 16, 1968 respectively) were two of Davis's last studio tracks using an acoustic quintet format. "Stuff" (recorded May 17, 1968), with its electric bass, Fender Rhodes piano and binary rhythm, is in yet another idiom, that of the forthcoming Filles de Kilimanjaro. "Paraphernalia" was the only composition from this album to enter Davis's live book.

Track listing

Side one

Side two

1998 reissue bonus tracks

Personnel

• Miles Davis — trumpet
• Wayne Shorter — tenor saxophone
• Herbie Hancock — piano, electric piano on "Stuff"
• George Benson — electric guitar on "Paraphernalia"
• Ron Carter — bass, electric bass on "Stuff"
• Tony Williams — drums

References