I'm sure (or at least I hope, for your sake) that most of you will recognize the scantily dressed lady on the left. Her true name is unknown, but she's known as Venus De Milo. She was abducted by a Frenchman who put her on display at The Louvre, but her original home was the Greek island of Milos where I am right now, writing the introduction to today's post. She has served as a muse to many a pop musician, including Prince and Television, both of which wrote songs with the same name. Jazz saxophonist Gerry Mulligan (then a member of Miles Davis' band) also wrote an instrumental composition called "Venus De Milo" which was included in their masterpiece Birth Of The Cool. Further below you'll find a youtube clip of it, which I hope you'll enjoy. I certainly do enjoy Milos' beautiful beaches and tasty cuisine. I am nevertheless not neglecting my blogging duties and will keep posting during my island vacation. Until next time...
I'm not a huge jazz fan, in fact jazz only accounts for about 5% my rather sizeable collection. Not because I don't like it that much, I often go to jazz clubs and love listening to live jazz. But every time I play instrumental music at home it sort of blends in the background. By the time the CD is finished I remember very little about what I've just heard. Which means I'm not the one to enlighten you when it comes to someone like Miles Davis. Countless people have delved deep in his massive (100+ albums, including live recordings) and incredibly varied discography. Certainly for a genre that can seem samey to the ear of a beginner, few records can sound as different as, say, Kind Of Blue and Bitches Brew. I've always been meaning to buy Davis' "essential" albums to close the relevant holes in my collection but I end up buying overlapping compilations instead. The most exhaustive of them is this 5 CD collection, drawing from all the stages of his career. With such rich source material and ample running time, a cursory look made me think I was looking at the "Utimate Miles" collection indeed. Instead -let me spoil the end of the review for you- the compilers miss the mark. I really just wanted the highlights of Miles' illustrious career. Instead I'd say roughly a third of what's here is essential listening while the rest seems to have been selected randomly. Which doesn't make it a bad album. On the contrary, these CD's have a nice flow, and you get a broad overview of Miles' different styles and periods. But it's nevertheless a missed chance to assemble all of his essential recordings in one place. I guess eschewing the obvious in favour of the relatively unfamiliar is instinctive when the compiler is a true fan. The 5 CD's are more or less chronologically arranged, although not in any order. Instead we begin at the end:
***** for Time after time
**** for Tutu, Human nature, Fat time, Mystery
*** for Jean-pierre, Back seat betty, Perfect way, White, U 'n' i, Freaky deaky, In a silent way remix, Freedom jazz dance ft. nas
CD2 (1956-1961) is a non-stop parade of classics, especially ballads. Albums anthologized here include Miles Ahead, Milestones, Kind Of Blue, Round Midnight and Gerswin's Porgy And Bess. On some of them Miles is accompanied by John Coltrane (tenor), Cannonball Adderley (alto) and Bill Evans (piano) - each a jazz giant in his own right. Others feature a bigger band under the supervision of Gil Evans. Every track here is pure magic.
***** for So what, Stella by starlight, Summertime, Round midnight, Blue in green, Someday my prince will come, Bye bye blackbird
**** for New rhumba, Sweet sue just you, It ain't necessarily so, Blues for pablo
*** for Sid's ahead
CD3 (1962-1969) sees Miles making the move from modal jazz to jazz rock. Many important albums are anthologized but the selections seem random: we get "The pan piper" and "Will o'the wisp" from the classical/Spanish folk-inspired Sketches Of Spain, presumably because they are the shortest tracks, a few pretty ballads, the bossanova-tinted "Aos pes da cruz" and "Corcovado", and an excerpt from "In a silent way". But some of his best music of that era is conspicuous by its absence.
***** for I fall in love too easily, Will o'the wisp
**** for Aos pes da cruz, Baby won't you please come home, The pan piper, Corcovado, Circle, In a silent way
*** for Mood, Pinocchio, Vonetta, Fall, Frelon brun
***** for Now's the time, Dear old stockholm, Venus de milo, It never entered my mind, Walkin', My funny valentine, Bags' groove, Generique
**** for Tasty pudding , Moon dreams, Green haze, Four, In your own sweet way
*** for Blue room
CD5 (1969-1976) deals with his most experimental period, during which he gave birth to so-called Jazz rock. He's often accompanied by that subgenre's dream team including John McLaughlin (guitar), Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul and Herbie Hancock (keyboards), and Wayne Shorter (sax). Unfortunately two of the selections from his iconic album of the period Bitches Brew ("Miles runs the voodoo down" and "Spanish key") are featured in severely truncated form. Another truncated jazz rock opus is "Prelude pt.2" from the live Agharta while we also get two songs from the influencial street-wise funk of On The Corner ("Take 4" and "Black satin"). I was very pleased to discover a few gems from relatively obscure albums: "Water babies" from the same-titled album, "Duran" from Directions and the straight blues "Red china blues" from Get Up With It, surprisingly introduced with some downhome harmonica.
***** for Red china blues, Miles runs the voodoo down, Prelude pt.2
**** for John mclaughlin, Black satin, Spanish key, Water babies, Duran
*** for On the corner take 4, Honky tonk, Sanctuary (live), Willie nelson/the theme (live)
All in all, this may not be the "ultimate" collection it might have been but it does contain a whole lot of great jazz. But while it certainly works well as an introduction to the various sides of this mercurial artist, I'd suggest newcomers to try the more concise Essential Miles Davis. More about that in a future post.
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