Jazz Articles about Miles Davis

Miles On A Good Day

by Rob Mariani
November 10, 2006

The men's room at Birdland was, like the rest of the club, pretty much about economies of scale. A pair of urinals too close together. One cramped toilet stall. One gray-jacketed, tired old attendant who maybe could feel the vibrations through the walls when Philly Joe was playing “Two Bass Hit." But there was no way of telling if he cared about the music or the people playing it. The Miles Davis Sextet--the Kind of Blue ensemble--was on ...

Miles Davis: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions

by CJ Shearn
November 10, 2006

The Miles Davis Quintet The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions Prestige Records 2006 (1955-56)

This box set includes the final five albums trumpeter Miles Davis made for Prestige. Davis recorded as a leader for the label from 1951-1956 and the albums capture an artist in the process of finding his own voice. They also present Davis recording with his first real working group, on material the band had regularly been performing on live dates. And ...

Miles Davis: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions

by Doug Collette
August 27, 2006

The Miles Davis Quintet The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions Prestige Records 2006 (1955-56)

Adorned by a painting rendered by the man with the horn himself, the elegant understatement of the packaging of The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions is wholly in line with the music it contains. The four-CD set--the latest chapter in the seemingly endless, but well justified, series of homages to Miles Davis--captures the entire output of Davis' mid ...

Miles Davis: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions

by John Kelman
August 8, 2006

Much has been written about how, by 1955, trumpeter Miles Davis—already fast becoming legendary at the age of 29—had cleaned up his act, kicking his heroin habit cold turkey. Much has also been written about how his solo on Thelonious Monk's “'Round Midnight," with an all-star band at the Newport Jazz Festival, became the stuff of legend. Much has been written, too, about how this one solo—one single performance—was enough to entice Columbia Records to sign Davis to ...

The Miles Davis Quintet: Miles Davis: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions

by C. Michael Bailey
May 24, 2006

The noted Irish-American author Thomas Cahill has written a series of books called “The Hinges of History" where, instead of concentrating on war, outrage, and catastrophe, the author illuminates stories of grace, great gift-givers and the evolution of our human sensibility. Cahill brings to life those personalities who had the greatest impact on who we are. In the realm of jazz music, we have an artist who regularly installed hinges in the history of American music. He ...

Miles Davis: Miles in Berlin

by Jim Santella
April 1, 2006

Miles Davis Miles in Berlin (Collector's Edition) Columbia 2006 (1964)

Containing a bonus track that wasn't available on the original LP, Columbia's “collector's edition" reissue of this live concert offers a terrific look at Miles Davis and one of his best bands. Recorded on September 25, 1964 at The Berlin Philharmonie, in what was then known as West Berlin, Davis ran his second great quintet through a series of multi-hued interpretations that introduced free ...

Miles Davis: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970

by Andrey Henkin
March 23, 2006

The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 is the eighth box set edition in a series begun in 2004, moving chronologically through the trumpeter's career with John Coltrane and Gil Evans, recorded output for Columbia from 1963-68, and extensive investigations into the sessions that yielded In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew and A Tribute to Jack Johnson. This collection, however, has less to do with this series conceptually than it does with mid to late-'90s releases highlighting live Miles (such as Live ...