Miles Ahead

Read About This Recording

Most jazz musicians develop their sound and approach early in their careers and spend the rest of their lives refining and slightly altering their style. Miles Davis was a major exception. The trumpeter constantly reinvented himself during his career while keeping his same wistful and melancholy tone.

Early on Davis was inspired by the playing of Dizzy Gillespie to explore bebop. Since he did not have Dizzy's phenomenal technique, Miles developed his own middle-register cool-toned sound. After working with the Charlie Parker Quintet during 1947-48, he led a short-lived but highly influential nonet whose recordings became known as "The Birth of the Cool," inspiring the West Coast jazz movement. In addition, his early 1950s recordings helped to launch hard bop.

After his first quintet broke up in early-1957, Miles Davis recorded his first of four full-length albums with arranger Gil Evans, one of the key contributors to his earlier nonet. Miles Ahead has Davis switching to the flugelhorn and being joined by a 19-piece orchestra. The ten-song suite is continuous and includes famous versions of such numbers as Dave Brubeck's "The Duke," "My Ship," J.J. Johnson's "Lament" and "I Don't Wanna Be Kissed." In addition, four alternate takes have been added to the program. Miles Davis plays brilliantly throughout this memorable classic.

In later years, Davis would explore modal music, freer forms of jazz (his second classic quintet) and fusion. While some of his later projects are still considered a bit controversial, Miles Ahead has received universal acclaim as one of the recorded highpoints of Miles Davis' remarkable career.

—Scott Yanow

Extended Article

Like Citizen Kane, Oklahoma and Edward Hopper's Early Sunday Morning, Miles Ahead is universally recognized as an American masterwork. This was the first of four Columbia Records collaborations between Miles Davis (1926-1991) and Gil Evans (b. Ian Ernest Gilmore Green: 1912-1988), jazz's Damon and Pythias. Miles Ahead, a suite recorded in 1957, finds the great trumpeter Davis "singing" on the mellower sounding flugelhorn, while Evan's arrangements for a stellar 19-piece orchestra refined and expanded the cool approach he and Davis spearheaded in the 1940s.

Never before had Davis' justly celebrated lyricism been more beautifully framed, as Evans drew on classicists ranging from Delius to Debussy to Duke (Ellington) in a program of mostly jazz standards — or pieces that would achieve that status thanks to the performances they received herein.

The current edition of Miles Ahead, with the remastering overseen by multi-Grammy® award winner Phil Schaap, is mixed with the kind of attention to detail that maximizes the richness of Evans' patented, subtle mid-range voicings. And with Schaap's new liner notes, superb photographs from the recording sessions, and 17 additional minutes of music in four alternate takes, Miles Ahead brings to mind a story that Davis told about his best friend, Evans: "...he would call me up at three a.m. and tell me, 'If you're ever depressed, Miles, just listen to Springsville.'"

The same holds true for all of Miles Ahead.

Contents

Springsville*; The Maids of Cadiz; The Duke; My Ship; Miles Ahead; Blues for Pablo*; New Rhumba; Medley*: The Meaning of the Blues, Lament; I Don't Wanna Be Kissed (By Anyone But You)*.

(*Alternate takes/bonus tracks.)

Miles Davis, Flugelhorn; Gil Evans, Arranger/Conductor; Ernie Royal, Bernie Glow, Louis Mucci, Taft Jordan, Johnny Carisi, Trumpets; Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, Joe Bennett, Trombones; Tom Mitchell, Bass Trombone; Willie Ruff, Tony Miranda, Jimmy Buffington, French Horns; Bill Barber, Tuba; Romeo Penque, Flute/Clarinet/Bass Clarinet/Oboe; Sid Cooper, Eddie Caine, Flute/Clarinet; Lee Konitz, Alto Sax; Danny Bank, Bass Clarinet; Paul Chambers, Bass; Arthur Taylor, Drums; Wynton Kelly, Piano.

CD Special Features

Jazz Masterpiece!

• One of the greatest jazz recordings of all time!

• Miles Davis and Gil Evans at their musical peak!

• Now with four bonus tracks — 17 minutes of new music!

• The same sound as the three-time Grammy®-winning Miles/Gil box.

• New liner notes! Stunning session photos!

• In the same category as Kind of Blue, Porgy & Bess and Sketches of Spain.