MILES DAVIS QUINTET: MILES IN THE SKY

In a session in Columbia Studio B on January 16, Miles Davis begins recording new material for an album that would become Miles in the Sky, (released in July). This session marks the final studio session of Miles' exclusive collaboration with Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Ron Carter--his "Second Great Quintet." In mid-May of 1968, Miles Davis wraps up recording the material that would become the album Miles in the Sky, an album whose music and electrified sound palette display a definitive shift in Davis' music. The May 15-17 sessions found Miles inviting electric jazz guitarist George Benson into the studio as well as asking bassist Ron Carter and keyboard master Herbie Hancock to perform on electric bass and electric piano, respectively. The sessions would also begin the trend of long, occasionally "side-long," jams: resulting here in four songs covering 51-minutes of music.

A1. "Stuff" (17:02) the experimentation with the "new" electronic options available to jazz musicians is finally being endorsed (commanded) by Miles: electric piano for Herbie and electric bass for Ron (which we all know he never really enjoyed despite his excellence at it). The result is something that definitely feels more modern--and more sassy- smooth. The slow-down/almost pauses every 30-seconds or so are kind of hard to get used to: they make me feel as if either the song is winding down to a conclusion or that they're preparing us for a new motif (like a bridge), but, no! The same theme keeps on; only the lead instruments change (sometimes). I like the sassy performance Miles gives us: it's as if he's really locked in and enjoying a loose, carefree day--and I think his attitude is infectiously affecting his studio mates cuz this song is overall very chill and relaxed. The length of the song, however, is a matter of question: was 17 minutes really necessary? (32/35)

A2. "Paraphernalia" (12:41) a composition credited to both Wayne and guest George Benson, as many have noted, this has got to be one of George's most unusual guitar performances, mostly sitting back as a single bass-dominant chord rhythmatist, reinforcing Tony's driving rhythm track, accenting Ron's wildly-exploratory and mountaintop-to-valley- floor walking bass line. As a matter of fact, until the sixth minute, George does little else but play one chord in perpetual rhythm--like another tom on Tony's kit. Herbie, Miles, Wayne, and even Tony, however, really flash and flair- -whether in solos (Miles and Wayne), melodic support (Herbie) or rhythmic attack (Tony). Finally at 7:10, George is "allowed" to step up to the front of the stage. But by the end of the ninth minute it's over: Herbie takes over for his first and only true solo (which, to my ears, sounds a little harsh and "off"--until he hits a cool series of chords in the beginning of the 12th minute, then he's cookin'. At the end of the 12th minute the horn players rejoin--though reluctantly as it is uncertain whether Herbie has completed his statement (he has not: he just continues doing so--off in his own very cerebral world--while the others tentatively play around him. I really like this ending: the ambiguity and uncertainty is really endearing for the fact that it shows the band's individual humanity with all of its doubt and frailty! Cool song! Especially for Tony's dynamic play, Ron's amazing adventurosity, Herbie's perseverance in the face of adversity and uncertainty, and Miles and Wayne's professional maturity. As for George: he's almost a non-entity; a moot member; I can't even remember his solo! (23.75/25)

B1. "Black Comedy" (7:32 or 13:49: I'm only reviewing and rating the 7:32 version since that's all I can find posted on YouTube.) A solid nondescript hard bop (or post bop, if you must) song of the ilk that Miles has been doing for some years. I have trouble staying focused much less remembering anything from this song once it has passed. (13.125/15)

B2. "Country Son" (12:51) a more loosely organized jam that sounds like something Teo recovered from hours of tape, fade in, splice away, and faded out--which would lead me to deduce that the song was not very cleanly composed (which is probably why Miles took the writing credit); it's more of a series of themes and ideas strung together--quite possibly played in the order published, even possibly planned as is with the thematic and stylistic shifts occurring due to signals from Miles, but that third and fourth minute feels to me as if the band was just wandering around beneath Wayne's soling sax, searching and fumbling around for the right style and pace to support him with--with Ron usually the promulgator of stylistic and rhythmic changes. It's just too weird of a conglomeration of musical themes to be intentional; it has to be a flow of thematic attempts--though, hearing this, one cannot help but compare these rather severe and dramatic shifts to prog songs like "Close to the Edge," "Supper's Ready," "Tarkus," or even one of Camel or Nektar's side-long symphonic pieces. This may be able to fall under the label "symphonic" but I swear: no symphony I've ever heard has this kind of radical stylistic and melodic shifting going on within a continuous flow. I'd be more inclined to call it a medley or, less respectfully, a hodge podge of leftovers pulled randomly and sequentially out out of the refrigerator. I like many of the themes present here, I think the motif that Herbie leads in the seventh into the eighth minute might be my favorite though Miles melodic play with his band's support in the thirteenth minute is pretty cool, as well. Overall, it just leaves me with a weird aftertaste. Like leftovers. (22.25/25)

Total Time: 51:04

The presence of four notably long songs supposedly squeezed into two sides of vinyl is a bit suspicious (though Todd Rundgren would routinely squeeze 30-40 minutes into a side during his mid-1970s heyday)--and I wish I could verify if Teo and Columbia managed to squeeze the long version of "Black Comedy" onto Side Two--which would equal some 25 minutes of music

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of hard bop/post bop that many people consider transitional to, or pre-, Jazz-Rock Fusion. I hear some of what they're talking about but to me its sounds more like a group of musicians who are quite familiar with one another, who are showing signs of growing a bit bored or fatigued with their collaboration: they're still performing at a high level but they feel as if, at times, they're reaching, stretching for inspiration and motivation-- especially on that last song. And I agree with the critics of "Stuff" in that it begins to over stay its welcome--to sound repetitive--after about ten minutes.

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