Miles Davis

3-CD SET

2+ HOURS OF PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED STUDIO RECORDINGS FROM 1966-1968

Chronicling the Miles Davis Quintet’s 1966-68 work. At the time, the band was composed of Davis on trumpet, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, and Tony Williams on drums (his “second great quintet”).

If ever a band of Miles Davis' deserved the high-intensity inspection / dissection represented by this 5th volume, it is this second great quintet. With Miles as the great catalyst, the rapport between Hancock, Shorter, Carter and Williams is virtually unparalleled in the history of jazz, but to hear the machinations behind their creations here is almost as fascinating as the music itself (liner notes rightly suggest use of headphones to hear all the spoken interludes).

The box set includes performances from 1967’s Miles Smiles, 1968’s Nefertiti, and 1976’s Water Babies (which was recorded in 1967), as well as full session reels from Miles Smiles comprising “every second of music and dialogue.” Overall, there's more than two hours of previously unreleased material.

Colorfully packaged in a three-CD digi-pak, a booklet with all the pertinent recording information, in consummate detail, accompanies Ashley Kahn's informative essay. Kahn mentions the eye-opening delight he himself experienced in hearing these recordings, a sensation most all other listeners will share as well, and which, judging from the camaraderie among these great musicians, has its source in the relationship between the five players themselves.

Produced by the multi Grammy Award winning team of Steve Berkowitz, Michael Cuscuna and Richard Seidel and sourced from original four-track analog session reels and master tapes transferred and mixed in high resolution, Freedom Jazz Dance offers a profound and intimate look at Miles’ creative process in the studio, providing insight into the bold new musical directions Davis and members of his quintet would take as the 1960s drew to a close.

PERSONNEL:

MILES DAVIS, trumpet
WAYNE SHORTER, tenor sax
HERBIE HANCOCK, piano
RON CARTER, bass
TONY WILLIAMS, drums

CD 1

01. Freedom Jazz Dance (Session Reel)
02. Freedom Jazz Dance (Master Take)
03. Circle (Session Reel)
04. Circle (Take 5)
05. Circle (Take 6)
06. Dolores (Session Reel)
07. Dolores (Master Take)

CD 2

01. Orbits (Session Reel)
02. Orbits (Master Take)
03. Footprints (Session Reel)
04. Footprints (Master Take)
05. Gingerbread Boy (Session Reel)
06. Gingerbread Boy (Master Take)
07. Nefertiti (Session Reel)
08. Nefertiti (Master Take)

CD 3

01. Fall (Session Reel)
02. Fall (Master Take)
03. Water Babies (Session Reel)
04. Water Babies (Master Take)
05. Masqualero (Alt. Take 3)
06. Country Son (Trio Rehearsal)
07. Blues in F (My Ding)
08. Play Us Your Eight (Miles Speaks)