Released October 21, 1957 Label Columbia (CL 1041) | Length 37:21 | |
Recorded May 6, 10, 23, 27 & August 22, 1957 Studio Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City Genre Third stream, cool jazz | ||
Miles Ahead is an album by Miles Davis that was released in 1957 by Columbia Records. It was Davis' first collaboration with arranger Gil Evans following the Birth of the Cool sessions. Along with their subsequent collaborations Porgy and Bess (1959) and Sketches of Spain (1960), Miles Ahead is one of the most famous recordings of Third Stream, a fusion of jazz, European classical, and world musics. Davis played flugelhorn throughout.
Contents
Background
Evans combined the ten pieces that make up the album into a suite, each flowing into the next without interruption; the only exception to this rule was on the title track since it was placed last on side A (this has been corrected on the CD versions). Davis is the only soloist on Miles Ahead, which features a large ensemble consisting of sixteen woodwind and brass players. Art Taylor played drums on the sessions and the then current Miles Davis Quintet member Paul Chambers was the bassist.
A fifth recording date involved Davis alone (re-)recording material to cover or patch mistakes or omissions in his solos using overdubbing. The fact that this album originally was produced in mono makes these inserted overdubbings rather obvious in the new stereo setting.
Critical reception
The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave Miles Ahead a four-star rating out of a possible four stars, and called the album "a quiet masterpiece... with a guaranteed place in the top flight of Miles albums." Of Davis' flugelhorn, Kevin Whitehead of Cadence wrote that it "seemed to suit [Davis] better than trumpet: more full-bodied, less shrill, it glosses over his technical deficiencies." The Penguin Guide, on the other hand, opined that "the flugelhorn's sound isn't so very different from his trumpet soloing, though palpably softer-edged.... [S]ome of the burnish seems to be lost."
Album cover
Miles reportedly was unhappy about the album's original cover, which featured a photograph of a young white woman and child aboard a sailboat. He made his displeasure known to Columbia executive George Avakian, asking, "Why'd you put that white bitch on there?" Avakian later stated that the question was made in jest. For later releases of the record, however, the original cover-photo has been substituted by a photograph of Miles Davis.
Track listing
- "Springsville" (John Carisi) – 3:27
- "The Maids of Cadiz" (Léo Delibes) – 3:53
- "The Duke" (Dave Brubeck) – 3:35
- "My Ship" (Kurt Weill) – 4:28
- "Miles Ahead" (Davis, Evans) – 3:29
- "Blues for Pablo" (Evans) – 5:18
- "New Rhumba" (Ahmad Jamal) – 4:37
- Medley Pt. 1: "The Meaning of the Blues" (Bobby Troup, Leah Worth) – 2:48
- Medley Pt. 2: "Lament" (J. J. Johnson) – 2:14
- "I Don't Wanna Be Kissed (By Anyone but You)" (Jack Elliot/Harold Spina) – 3:05
A current CD reissue contains alternate takes of "Springsville", "Miles Ahead" (incorrectly labeled as being one of "Blues for Pablo"), a complete rehearsal take of "The Meaning of the Blues", and "Lament" (recorded as a continuous track by Avakian as a contingency plan) and "I Don't Wanna Be Kissed (By Anyone but You)".
Personnel
Source: Miles Ahead at Discogs.