Miles Davis - Round About Midnight
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Free Music Notes for Round About Midnight
Free Music Review: Cool and stylish album from Miles' first great quintet.
Hit: 5 Stars
'Round About Midnight' is the first album Miles Davis would record during his long tenure at Columbia, and is the beginning of the most prolific and consistentally impressive output in jazz music history. You can see where the level of sophistication and innovation is flourishing in these recordings, even though this is still more or less considered "traditional" jazz. But the improvised lines, and the cool, muted playing are already becoming apparent as a Miles standard. The album opens up with 'Round Midnight', which is a rich and stirring late-night ballad, starting out with Miles' brooding, muted trumpet playing over Paul Chambers' slowly rolling basslines, then changing pace slight with Coltrane's reflective tenor sax smoothing out the edges, and making it into a smoky nightclub classic. Truly a work of art. 'Ah-Leu-Cha' is a throwback to the classic bebop style of jazz, and is more uptempo, with some impressive soloing from Coltrane and Davis. Red Garland's piano work is great here as well, as he manages to keep up with every chord change being thrown at him. 'All of You' is an old pop standard that the quintet plays through easy and relaxed. The same goes for the cool and subdued interpretation of 'Bye Bye Blackbird'. This is one of the best renderings of this old standard that you will find, and Davis varies his playing softly and then brings it back up to higher notes to compilment Coltrane's tenor sax. The musicianship all blends together seamlessly on this song as Garland's excellent piano solo brings Davis back in to close it out with a final sweet, muted refrain; just beautiful. 'Tadd's Delight' is another nice throwback to hard bop, with rollicking drumming from Philly Joe Jones, and more impressive piano playing from Garland. The final song on the original album 'Dear Old Stockholm' is a strange and haunting number, particularly Paul Chambers' long bass solo, which is low enough to get your heart racing. This reissue contains four titles from these sessions that were not featured on the original album, but all of them are slighty subpar in comparison, the only real standout, to me, being the slightly upbeat interpretation of 'Little Melonae', with its interesting arrangements and Davis' cool and perfectly-timed trumpet interjections. This is one of the essential recordings from Miles Davis' Columbia Years and anyone who is only familiar with the cool and stylish sophistication of 'Kind of Blue' and wants to know where to go next in Miles' HUGE catalog should check this album out. This quintet's musicianship are the perfect compliment to each other and smooths out all the rough edges that had previously marred some of Miles' work prior to this. It is especially interesting to note that this is the only album that was recorded by the quintet who would break up this same year over inner tensions. But the beauty is, they would reform a year later in 1957 with Cannonball Adderly as a sextet, and then would continue on an uphill journey making some of the greatest and most reputed recordings in jazz history.
Free Music Review: The Ma-je-st-er-y of the 1st Quintet
Hit: 5 Stars
Mastery, majesty, yeah, it's all that!
The Miles Davis Quintet's recording of 'Round Midnight on this release is the GREATEST JAZZ RECORDING of ALL TIME. No Question. I normally don't like proclamations like the greatest this or the greatest that. I'm making an exception for 'Round Midnight. I'm not going to dissect these tracks one by one.
However, notice I said "on this release" That's because another version of 'Round Midnight by this quintet also exists on the Prestige label. It was released on "The Modern Jazz Giants" which is a mixture of music by this quintet and other tracks from the famous "Bag's Groove" session. I own every single track available from this line-up and that should tell you something about how I feel about this group's music. I also highly recommend the The Legendary Prestige Sessions box set on the Prestige label - check my review on that one, it's a four disc set that comes exquisitely packaged and at a very reasonable price.
This band was perhaps the greatest small ensemble in the history of jazz, but then that argument can also be made for the later quintet/sextet that featured Davis, Coltrane, Adderly, Cobb, and Chambers. It can also be made for the Davis, Williams, Shorter, Hancock, Carter quintet. Sometimes it just depends on what line-up I happen to be listening to at the time as to which one I think was Miles' best band.
When I started collecting Miles, it was his funky electric music that really grabbed me. I even started my own band that specialized in his 70's era music. But then I picked up 'Round About Midnight' and started collecting the music of these earlier Davis quintets. I have to say, very honestly, that Miles' later music lacks the "richness" of these earlier bands. That doesn't mean I don't like the later stuff, I LOVE it. But it lacks the substance of this earlier period. Miles sure isn't/wasn't a god (some regard him as such) but when it comes to jazz, even though he hated the "J" word, well he is just awesome and incomparable! Thank you God for the music of Miles Dewey Davis!
as mentioned above:
The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions
Miles Davis & the Modern Jazz Giants (20 Bit Mastering)
Bags Groove
Free Music Review: Classic Miles, yet another great album by him.
Hit: 5 Stars
This album's beauty knocked me out when I first heard it. It swings better than almost any other combo album I've ever heard. This attributes greatly to Coltrane and Red Garland. Miles leads the way and stays impressive throughout, seemingly never missing a beat. Coltrane usually follows with wonderful intonation and technique, and then Red Garland comes out with that beautiful light touch. Most of the songs from this era follow the solo order of Miles, Coltrane and Garland. "'Round Midnight" is Miles's muted trumpet feature, in which he performed that previous year at the Newport Jazz Festival and brought his name back into the public eye. Coltrane sounds great here too. "Ah-Leu-Cha" is a Charlie Parker tune and was recorded with Miles in the 1940's. Now it sounds even fresher, and everyone swings and sounds great on it. "All Of You", Cole Porter's chesnut is a fast-paced tune with Miles playing beautifully on muted trumpet. Coltrane and Garland interact really well here, and Philly Joe Jones's brushwork is very prominent here, as it also is on the standard "Bye Bye Blackbird". Garland takes a most amazing solo here, and you can tell he's really enjoying himself, and Miles is at his muted best as usual. "Tadd's Delight" is another throwback to the old days of Tadd Dameron's bebop compositions. The playing is very clean and once again Miles, Coltrane and Garland follow suit interacting perfectly. The runs are all clean and fluid. Finally is the traditional that Stan Getz originally made famous, "Dear Old Stockholm". This opens up with Miles's muted trumpet, followed by a bass solo by Paul Chambers which is impeccably played. Then Coltrane comes in with his clean arpeggios and great ideas, and Miles closes it out nicely. This was the first album for Columbia from the first great Miles Davis Quintet. There were also other songs added to the remaster, which I have heard from an album I have called "Miles & Coltrane". These tunes are "Little Melonae" and "Sweet Sue, Just You". There is also an interesting recording of Bud Powell's "Budo". They are great to hear, but slightly interrupt the flow of the 'Round About Midnight album, so I prefer the original version. Get your hands on the "Miles & Coltrane" album too if you can, because that has some worthy lesser known performances also.
Free Music Review: Miles Can Do No Wrong
Hit: 5 Stars
In 1955, the Miles Davis Quintet recorded their debut album for Columbia Records. This Quintet is one of Miles's finests groups, with Miles Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Miles Davis proves himself genius on this album because he makes an amazing jazz album in addition to the awesome performances.It kicks off with the Thelonious Monk standard "Round Midnight", for which the album is named. This is easily the best performance on the album; honestly, it's my favorite version of "Round Midnight". It kicks off as a jazz ballad, where Miles plays a scintillating muted trumpet on the melody and his solo. After Miles's solo, the song becomes a medium swing, and the transition from ballad to medium swing is brilliantly executed. Once it becomes swing, Coltrane does an innovative solo. Then the song returns to its original ballad form as Miles concludes the song. This performance is awesome and alone worth buying the album.
However, the rest of the album holds up brilliantly. After "Round Midnight" comes "Ah-Leu-Cha", which is a Charlie Parker standard, and the Quintet does an amazing version of this song. After Miles and Coltrane, Garland does his first piano solo of the album, and does not disappoint at all.
Another standout on this album is the performance of "Bye Bye Blackbird", with Miles yet again on muted trumpet. He does a gorgeous interpretation of the melody and soothing solos, as does Coltrane. I think this song's main point is that it boasts the best Garland on this album, where Garland does some great blues licks and really hits it home.
The final standout on the original album is the performance of "Dear Old Stockholm", where Paul Chambers does the only bass solo on the original album and is awesome to finish this classic album.
However, the remastered version doesn't end there. There are four bonus tracks on this album, and they are all great. I always embrace bonus tracks as long as they don't overdo the alternate takes, like on "Giant Steps". But, there are no alternate takes here.
Bonus tracks and all, I recommend this to all jazz fans. I think this album is superb and a strong debut on one of jazz's biggest labels. It is also a sign that Miles and Coltrane still had much to show the jazz world.
Free Music Review: And then there was Miles Davis...
Hit: 5 Stars
...and his 1st Great Quintet in this masterpiece of hard bop which was his first recording for Columbia and took place from October 26, 1955 and concluded on September 10, 1956. The "1st great quintet is what this magnificent group has been known by and it consisted of the legendary late, Great John Coltrane(1926-1967) on tenor sax, the underrated William "Red" Garland(1923-1984) on piano, the great Paul Chambers(1935-1969) on bass, and one of the greatest drummers of them all, the late "Philly" Joe Jones(1923-1985). Team up this already great quartet with the legendary Miles Davis(1926-1991) and we have the group many still consider to be the greatest band in the history of jazz, but if you said this to Miles himself, he would probably get pissed at the word "Jazz" because he hated the critics catagorizing music.
Anyway, this landmark recording features some of the best performances of the careers of these five great musicians and standards which Miles would perform throughout his career until the fusion era began in late 1968. This version of the classic Thelonious Monk(1917-1982) song, "'Round Midnight" is usually known as the best performance, and I couldn't agree more. The next song, "Ah-Leu-Cha" was written by the late Great Charlie Parker(1920-1955), and is the only song on the album which features Miles with open horn. It is also the only up tempo tune on the original album. Simply put, it smokes! The next song is truly one of the best Miles standards. "All of You," which was penned by Cole Porter, I believe, is a beautiful ballad and the band plays with a great passion, especially Trane.
Well, that's all I want to say except this is definately essential Miles and if you want to learn about the mind blowing "2nd Great Quintet" and don't have about 65 bucks to spare, I'd suggest either getting the 1966 classic, Miles Smiles or the gem recorded a year later named for the beautiful Wayne Shorter song, Nefertiti.