# Miles Davis



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

In A Silent Way, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and Bitches Brew.

Sensational.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I don't believe I've heard the 2nd one, but agree the others are great, especially Bitches Brew. In Kind of Blue, the only track that grabs me now is Blue in Green.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Jack Johnson features two side long jams. A big favorite of rock fans.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

The Second Quintet


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Bwv 1080 said:


> The Second Quintet


That's my favorite stuff. Although I enjoy the 1963-64 period as well.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I enjoy each of Miles's periods, except the post-retirement Warner years.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I recently got a copy of In Person: Friday Night At The Blackhawk. Apparently Miles wasn't too happy with Hank Mobley's playing but overall it sounds good to me.


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## Jay (Jul 21, 2014)

Captainnumber36 said:


> In A Silent Way, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and Bitches Brew.


Check _Filles de Kilimanjaro_ next.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Jay said:


> Check _Filles de Kilimanjaro_ next.


And the 15 minute opener Stuff, from Miles In The Sky.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

...and the second half of Water Babies (_Two Faced_ and _Dual Mr. Anthony Tillmon Williams Process_). The CD reissue from the late 90s has a third track from late 1968, Splash, also on the 3-disc _In a Silent Way_ sessions set.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Two interesting blog articles -

The Music of Miles Davis and Hank Mobley, Part 1: "Someday My Prince Will Come" (1961)

http://mark-markmywords.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-music-of-miles-davis-and-hank.html

The Music of Miles Davis and Hank Mobley, Part 2: "In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk" (1961)

http://mark-markmywords.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-music-of-miles-davis-and-hank_30.html

Excerpt -

"Davis makes it clear that he wasn't working well with Mobley in his autobiography. Davis writes about driving out to San Francisco for the dates at the Blackhawk in April 1961: "…the music was starting to bore me because I didn't like what Hank Mobley was playing in the band…Playing with Hank just wasn't fun for me; he didn't stimulate my imagination." (Miles: The Autobiography, p.252)

This begs the question: why did Miles Davis hire Hank Mobley? Mobley was a part of some important projects with Davis, the first small group album after "Kind of Blue," Miles's first live recordings to be issued by Columbia, and the Carnegie Hall concert. There must have been a reason Miles hired him, but he doesn't say what it is in his autobiography.

To my ears, Mobley's playing with Davis is not that different from his playing on his own albums of the time. So the question is, if Miles liked Mobley's solo work, why didn't he like what Hank was playing in his group? Or, if Miles didn't care for Mobley's solo work, why did he hire him? I wonder if Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers recommended Mobley to Davis, as they had worked with Mobley on his two classic 1960 Blue Note albums, "Soul Station" and "Roll Call." That's my guess, that Davis needed a tenor saxophone, Kelly and Chambers recommended Mobley, and Mobley was available and said yes. "


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

This isn't a half-bad article, really... We would probably have 20 different rankings of the 20 albums, though...

Miles Davis's 20 greatest albums - ranked!

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/01/miles-daviss-20-greatest-albums-ranked


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I've read the Miles autobiography. It's very entertaining but I take many of his recollections with a grain of salt. And with the benefit of hindsight he may be comparing Mobley with more forward looking players like Wayne Shorter? Who knows?


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Deleted post...............


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## Jay (Jul 21, 2014)

Miles wasn't crazy about George Coleman, Sam Rivers, or Frank Strozier, either. Miles never got passed Coltrane.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I love Frank Strozier. I think Sam Rivers was a little too far out for Miles. He didn't like McCoy Tyner either.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Jay said:


> Miles wasn't crazy about George Coleman, Sam Rivers, or Frank Strozier, either. Miles never got passed Coltrane.


Miles Davis: 'Coltrane was a very greedy man. Bird was, too. He was a big hog' - a classic interview from the vaults -

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/nov/06/miles-davis-interview-rocks-backpages


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Bwv 1080 said:


> The Second Quintet


That box set 65-68 is terrific.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Sunburst Finish said:


> Two interesting blog articles -
> 
> The Music of Miles Davis and Hank Mobley, Part 1: "Someday My Prince Will Come" (1961)
> 
> ...


it's probably like that. I've read that years later Davis (who altough has made music with a lot of freedom in it hated free jazz) hired Sonny Sharrock. And that didn't go well at all too.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Jay said:


> Miles wasn't crazy about George Coleman, Sam Rivers, or Frank Strozier, either. Miles never got passed Coltrane.


Of course he did: Wayne Shorter.


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## Jay (Jul 21, 2014)

SanAntone said:


> Of course he did: Wayne Shorter.


And of those he used after Coltrane left, i.e., Coleman, Stitt, Strozier, Mobley, Rivers, Rocky Floyd, and Shorter, who most closely compares to Coltrane? Coltrane's leaving devastated Miles.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Sunburst Finish said:


> This isn't a half-bad article, really... We would probably have 20 different rankings of the 20 albums, though...
> 
> Miles Davis's 20 greatest albums - ranked!
> 
> https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/01/miles-daviss-20-greatest-albums-ranked


I'll not contest any Miles Davis 20-greatest album list that places _Kind of Blue_ at number 1 and does not mention _Doo-Bop_ at all. This one meets both criteria.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

SONNET CLV said:


> I'll not contest any Miles Davis 20-greatest album list that places _Kind of Blue_ at number 1 and does not mention _Doo-Bop_ at all. This one meets both criteria.


Only _Miles in the Sky_ from the 2nd Quintet?


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## gregorx (Jan 25, 2020)

Jay said:


> Coltrane's leaving devastated Miles.


What? I don't think either of them looked back.


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## WNvXXT (Nov 22, 2020)




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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

It is true that after Coltrane left the band Miles the tenor slot was a revolving door, with mixed results, until Wayne Shorter completed what became the Second Great Quintet. That said, the period from 1961-1964 still produced some fantastic recordings: _My Funny Valentine/Four & More_; _Someday My Prince Will Come_ (Coltrane has limited involvement), _Seven Steps to Heaven_; and even though Miles complained about Mobley's contributions on the _Blackhawk_ dates, those are still great sets, IMO.


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## gregorx (Jan 25, 2020)

From the guardian, a 1985 Richard Cook interview with Davis.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/nov/06/miles-davis-interview-rocks-backpages

"And Bird played like that. Nobody wrote like that before. The first time they saw the music to Moose the Mooche - before that Stravinsky and Alban Berg was the hardest thing. Lucky Thompson was saying - what? What is - ? The notation! Everybody had to learn that.

"That was one style. Sonny and I used to play that style. Now Sonny's the only one playing it, only one who could. And me.

"Coltrane could do it. He started with a style imitating Eddie Lockjaw Davis. But he was something else. People don't know it but it took him a long time. I was going with a girl who was an antique dealer in France. She gave this soprano sax to me and I gave it to Coltrane. I gave that thing to Trane, man, and it's probably still in his hand. He probably died with it in his mouth! He never did take that thing out of his mouth.

"Then I gave him some progressions. I said, Sonny - I mean, Trane. I had them both in the band but I have no tapes of that band, ****. We had this thing by Khatchaturian - you know Rachmaninoff's modulations and stuff like that, three or four keys? I gave him a tone centre of E natural and said, you can play F, G minor, E minor triad, C triad, all these chords … and he'd play all of them. In two bars. In that order, and then in a different order.

"I gave him all these little things, like - play this for me, Trane. And it'd sound like - blablablablublurp.... that's the way it sounds, if you play without stopping you sound like Coltrane. But you have to be doing something. It has to fit the chord, the day, the weather and everything."


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

deleted post......


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## Jay (Jul 21, 2014)




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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

In A Silent Way is truly my favorite of the fusion days.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

starthrower said:


> Jack Johnson features two side long jams. A big favorite of rock fans.


Sort of. The release of "The Complete Sessions" reveals how much of the structure of JJ was created by Teo Macero with his razor blade. What we think of as JJ was as much Teo's doing as Miles'.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Yes, it's pretty well known that Macero did numerous edits to produce the final product.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

With the exception of his post-retirement albums I also love almost every Miles period: first quintet, second quintet, the collaborations with Gil Evans, the electric/fusion era.... it's all phenomenal. I'm perhaps most fond of the fusion era given my roots in rock, but even with that my favorite is probably the proto-ambient In a Silent Way rather than the more rocking Bitches Brew or Jack Johnson (I love both of those as well, but I'm picking favorites among favorites). Still, Round About Midnight, Miles Smiles, Sketches of Spain, Kind of Blue... all essential. Miles is probably on my Mt. Rushmore of music artists.


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