Miles Davis – The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet

Miles’ ‘Second Great Quintet’, as is informally known was formed in 1964 with a static line-up of Tony Williams on drums, Ron Carter on bass, Herbie Hancock on keys and Wayne Shorter on saxophone. This group was disbanded following the departure of Ron Carter in the sessions for Filles de Kilimanjaro in 1968 after recording and releasing five full albums in a three and a half year period.

The group was less of a Miles Davis project and, for the only real time in his career, more of a band project. Miles was surrounded by musicians a lot younger than he was, with all sorts of new musical ideas. This is music which is best listened to closely, rather than simply heard. An example of this is Nefertiti. On first listen to the uninitiated it can be a difficult piece, because there is almost no change to the lines of the trumpet and saxophone, the traditional melody and, in jazz, improvisational elements. Then you listen to the bass, drums and even piano. That’s where the meat of the piece is. The roles have been reversed and you are supposed to be listening to the rhythm section improvise over the melody instruments.

To me, the best sessions are those which develop closer to the electric sound of Miles’ later period. The best album represented by this set is Miles in the Sky, which uses an electric keyboard and electric bass, the implementation of the latter leading to Ron Carter’s resignation from the band. There are also a couple of tracks from these sessions where George Benson plays guitar, the best of which are Paraphernalia and the hypnotic Circle in the Round.

As with all of the Miles Davis releases in this series, they have been remixed from the original multis by Mark Wilder. Mark has placed Miles a lot more prominently in most of these mixes, where as Teo’s mixes keep Miles and Wayne Shorter roughly equal. For that, I tend to prefer the Teo Macero versions of a lot of this material, but that being said there is a lot of content here which has not been released previously, and on the strength of that alone it’s impossible not to recommend it. The Wilder mixes are also a lot less muddy.

Nefertiti: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKuaWivZ7sw
Circle in the Round: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUyy3C6riPA
Stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT_Zo5uIuTM