From the Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2004 issue

Music

CLASSICAL, JAZZ, & AVANT

SEVEN STEPS OF MILES DAVIS

by Christopher DeLaurenti

What elevates Miles Davis above every other jazz titan including Louis Armstrong, Bird, Diz, Monk, Duke, Mingus, Ornette, and Coltrane? Like those legends, Miles was unquestionably a great improviser (indeed, the trumpeter for several generations of musicians), yet unlike Armstrong et al., Miles also helped create, instigate, and solidify several major stylistic shifts in jazz from the birth of "cool jazz" in the late 1940s to the culmination of hard bop, the so-called "First Great Quintet" of the late 1950s, to the epochal ensembles of the 1960s that birthed modal jazz (think Kind of Blue) and jazz-rock (In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew). The antsy, agitated textures of Filles de Kilimanjaro (1969) as well as the electri-fried symphony-sized improvisations on 1975's Agharta and Pangaea opened paths that took decades for musicians to explore and understand.

Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis 1963-1964 finds Miles assembling what would become his Second Great Quintet: Tony Williams (drums) Herbie Hancock (piano) Ron Carter (bass), and Wayne Shorter (saxophone). Because of a spat with producer Teo Macero, Miles refused to step into the studio, so most of this seven-disc set contains smokin' live performances of classic tunes like "Seven Steps to Heaven," "So What," "All Blues," and "Walkin'."

It's enthralling to hear Miles hunting the right pieces for his jigsaw puzzle. Early takes of "Seven Steps to Heaven" stay earthbound until Tony Williams joins the group for subsequent takes and propels the song skywards with frisky drumming filigreed with gentle cymbal pulsations. Hancock and Carter lend stable support to a succession of saxophonists (the able George Coleman, the overly avant Sam Rivers, and finally, Wayne Shorter, whom Miles wanted all along), but Miles remains the real star. He soars on bittersweet ballads like "My Funny Valentine" and "Stella by Starlight" and blazes ferociously through uptempo numbers like "Milestones," "Four," and "Joshua." Highly recommended. CHRISTOPHER DeLAURENTI

chris@delaurenti.net

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