BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

Recorded in 1959, but timeless jazz from the great Miles Davis and an all-star ensemble.

An online reviewer gushes, "If you ever buy one peice of Jazz this is all you will ever need. I have it in just about every format it's ever been in. It becomes a part of your soul."

From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD:

This first-take, unrehearsed Miles Davis session from 1959, no less than a jazz/blues succes d' estime, offers stimulation for the mind and satisfaction for the soul. The late trumpeter and his fellow improvisers (notably John Coltrane and Bill Evans) create shifting prismatic colors, textures given over to lyricism, and intriguingly vague tonality within five compositions. A quiet, wondrous state of equilibrium between tension and repose.

From Wikipedia:

Miles Dewey Davis III (26 May 1926 – 28 September 1991) was one of the most distinguished jazz musicians of the latter half of the 20th century. A trumpeter, bandleader and composer, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s. He played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jazz records. He was partially responsible for the development of modal jazz, and jazz fusion arose from his work with other musicians in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Free jazz was the only post-war jazz style not significantly influenced by Davis, although some musicians from his bands later pursued this style. His recordings, along with the live performances of his many influential bands, were vital in jazz's acceptance as music with lasting artistic value. A popularizer as well as an innovator, Davis became famous for his languid, melodic style and his laconic, and at times confrontational, personality. As an increasingly well-paid and fashionably-dressed jazz musician, Davis was also a symbol of jazz music's commercial potential. Davis' name has, over time, become so well-known that in musical contexts he is often unambiguously referred to simply as Miles.

Davis was late in a line of jazz trumpeters that started with Buddy Bolden and ran through Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie. He has been compared to Duke Ellington as a musical innovator: both were skillful players on their instruments, but were not considered technical virtuosos. Ellington's main strength was as a composer and leader of a large band, while Davis had a talent for drawing together talented musicians in small groups and allowing them space to develop. Many of the major figures in post-war jazz played in one of Davis's groups at some point in their career.

Davis was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006. He has also been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame, and the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

Davis received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.

Miles Davis died from a stroke, pneumonia and respiratory failure in September 28, 1991 at the age of 65. He is interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.




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