“Four” & More - Miles Davis (1966)

Ideated from: clearing out the oldest items in my inbox

A drill-down on Miles Davis and this album, in 200 words or so, for people who don’t know jazz:

Miles wasn’t a “giant of jazz.” The giants of jazz could all sit on his shoulders with room left over. That’s how profoundly Miles affected jazz. One of his many highly influential periods was with a band people call “the second quintet” in the late 60s. Just before that started, he recorded this 1964 benefit concert with 3 of the 4 bandmates from that quintet, plus George Coleman on sax. While Coleman isn’t as well-known as some of Miles’ other sax men, he’s very good. More info on Miles, Coleman, and this moment here.

The ballads from this concert went onto a different record called My Funny Valentine. This release pulls together the absolute scorchers of the set. Supposedly, Miles didn’t tell his band that he was donating the proceeds (and that they weren’t getting paid) until right before they went on so that they’d play angry. Miles was a master at manipulating his musicians, for good or ill. And they played angry for sure.

These are all songs that Miles had recorded with various groups over the previous 15 years or so, but here he thrashes them with furious tempos. Shortly after this, Miles’ music would take off in some hugely different directions and he wouldn’t have as much use for his old repertoire. Whether or not he knew this was the swan song of some of his most famous back catalog, you can compare these takes with their originals to hear how he’s pushing against the restraints of what he’d been playing. He was just about ready to blow things up, and this is the fuse getting lit.

The drummer here is Tony Williams, one of those greats I mentioned. He was 19 when this was recorded and Miles loved his impossibly frenetic energy. Miles is said to have told all his drummers to play like Buddy Rich, and Williams was the rare person who could. That probably contributes to how fast paced these cuts are.

You also get Herbie Hancock on piano, who was already becoming a major figure and would grow even more, both with Miles and on his own. His playing stands out from his peers, in my mind, because it’s a little more dedicated to pushing the melody than adding more and more harmonics and texture to the mix.

Tracks I Liked:

So What - my favorite from Kind of Blue, but sped up and raucous

Seven Steps To Heaven - a nice showcase for Coleman on sax