Jazz Articles about Miles Davis

Miles Davis: Jazz at the Plaza

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 2001

Partying at the Plaza! That’s what the Miles Davis Sextet was doing in the late summer of 1958--celebrating the success, popularity, and ubiquity of Jazz music. This set captures the exuberance and creativity of one of Jazz’s great outfits during this highpoint for improvised music.

Miles Davis: Big Fun

by Todd S. Jenkins
June 1, 2001

One of the less-remembered, underappreciated releases in Miles’ discography, revamped for the new century and ready to open some ears.

A few months after the Bitches Brew sessions that broke jazz-rock out like Phoenix from the flames, Miles Davis returned to the Columbia recording studios with the intent to push his music in yet another startling direction. This time around, Miles took inspiration from classical Indian music, interpolating it into rock and jazz structures as the Beatles, altoist Toby Harriott, ...

Miles Davis: The Essential Miles Davis

by Jim Santella
May 1, 2001

A seminal figure in the growth and development of jazz, Miles Davis helped move the genre from bebop to smooth jazz. Sony Music arranges the phases of Davis' achievements into five major periods:

1955-1961 Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Kind Of Blue 1957-1968 Miles Davis, Gil Evans: their collaborations 1965-1968 Miles Davis and his second great quintets 1968-1972 Fusion and electronic instruments Later Works

Davis remains the number one hall of fame ...

Miles Davis: Milestones

by Jim Santella
April 1, 2001

The calibre of personnel Miles Davis enlisted for his Sextet was the very best. Davis knew he couldn't keep this unit together for long. It was obvious to him that each was developing into a sensation. This was 1958, and history was being made with the emergence of Davis' modal sound. His sweet, open trumpet tone reflects what Davis stood for and explains why he's still the top vote getter in jazz polls around the world. The way he, Cannonball ...

Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool

by Jim Santella
February 1, 2001

The improved sound quality of this classic recording is immediately perceptible. Without that clear tuba and baritone saxophone bottom, Miles Davis' open trumpet would seem to be wandering in a different phase of his career. A valuable asset such as the first half of “Moon Dreams," which blends Gunther Schuller's French horn harmony and two distinct saxophone voices with one distant J.J. Johnson thread could have easily become lost without the right balance. This new Rudy Van Gelder edition has ...

Miles Davis: Jazz At The Plaza

by Jim Santella
February 1, 2001

From a live 1958 session at the Persian Room of New York’s swanky Plaza Hotel, this reissue reminds us that Miles Davis’ sextet was one of the greatest in jazz. Originally issued in 1973, the LP contained liner note errors regarding time and place of performance as well as one incorrect song title and one incorrect personnel listing. Those errors have been corrected. The CD repackaging includes both the original liner notes and updated comments from Bob Blumenthal.

Bill Evans, ...

Miles Davis: The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions

by David Beckman
September 1, 2000

No other musician in the 20th Century explored the possibilities of music as fiercely as trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis. He frustrated critics and fans alike as he opened himself up to unexpected directions in musical thinking while continuously shaping and refining his remarkable skills on trumpet. Critics tried and tried to squeeze his musical journeys into a box called “jazz," but Miles would have none of it. And then, in August of 1969, Miles decided he'd put all of ...