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Miles Davis: Miles Davis: Olympia – Mar 20, 1960
I am going to over-simplify the history of small-ensemble jazz between the heyday of bebop and the vestibule of fusion using a single catalyst—
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
Bebop—Davis records "Billie's Bounce" with
Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto1920 - 1955
Dizzy Gillespie
trumpet1917 - 1993
Cool—The Miles Davis Nonet performs Denzil Best's "Move" at the Royal Roost in New York City, September 18, 1948; then commits the piece to shellac for Capitol Records January 21, 1949. Davis' "little big band," in reaction to the excesses of bebop, dissipated bop's frenetic heat in favor of more delicate textures through careful arrangement and orchestration. The West Coast was never the same after.
Hard Bop—Davis and pianist
Horace Silver
piano1928 - 2014
Art Blakey
drums1919 - 1990
Modal—With what is likely the finest small ensemble in jazz history, Davis recorded "Milestones," for Columbia Records February 4, 1958. Experimentation with this composition led directly to "So What," the opener for Davis' modal coup de maitre Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959).
Post Bop—Miles in Berlin (Columbia, 1964). September 25, 1964, Philharmonie Hall, Berlin, West Germany, is the first recorded documentation of what would be commonly known Davis' Second Great Quintet. It is this band that would perfect the freer more avant-garde post bop sound developing in Davis' transitional ensembles between 1960 and '64. The definition of post bop would be completed on The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 (Columbia, 1965/1995).
Davis' firing of
Philly Joe Jones
drums1923 - 1985
Red Garland
piano1923 - 1984
Wynton Kelly
piano1931 - 1971
Paul Chambers
bass, acoustic1935 - 1969
Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982
The recent
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
Bill Evans
piano1929 - 1980
The present Olympia performances are noteworthy because they were the first stop on the European tour and thus the first exposure of Europe to a very different John Coltrane than expected based on his lyrical playing on Kind of Blue. Davis too was beginning to change his performance style (faster and looser tempi), but has well behind Coltrane, as was the rest of the band. The lengthy "All of You" that opens the release is very comparable to Davis' marathon Prestige recordings of Fall 1956. Davis solos conservatively up to the transition to Coltrane's solo, throwing off sparks as his introduction to the saxophonist. Coltrane begins thing pretty traditionally, but it takes him no time to properly warm up and expel an Avogadro's number of notes and chords. His solo here is more cogent, organized and listenable here than any for the rest of the tour. It can be heard as the beginning of John Coltrane's transformation into JOHN COLTRANE. The conclusion to Coltrane's solo recalls the standard's melody and is met with enthusiasm from the crowd (there was some whistling, construed by earlier writers as discord, but overall, Coltrane sounded roundly accepted).
For the remainder of this recording, Coltrane is improvising vertically while the rest of the groups is searching horizontally. Obviously inspired by Coltrane in the opener, Davis counts off a brisk "So What" and opens his solo with an assertive cascade of staccato notes. He proceeds then to eschew all time and temperature and searches the netherworld for higher harmonies. It is a sound glimpse of things to come from Davis. Coltrane settles into a ritual of beginning his solos with simple lines and then deconstructing and reconstructing these notes and chord in every possible configuration. It is here that Coltrane finds, in the words of Mary Wordsworth about her husband poet William Wordsworth, his head "in paradise."
Standards "On Green Dolphin Street," "Walkin,'" "Bye Bye Blackbird" and "'Round Midnight" all display evolution on the parts of Davis and Coltrane. Kelly, Chambers and Cobb (a jazz law firm is ever) hold down the tradition, tempering these performances, guiding the two principles between the ditches. This will be among the last times that these hard bop giants play hard bop. These 1960 performances are very much hinges on which jazz swings. ">
Track Listing
CD1: All of You; So What; On Green dolphin Street. CD2: Walkin’; Bye Bye Blackbird; ‘Round Midnight; Oleo; The Theme.
Personnel
Miles Davis
trumpetMiles Davis: trumpet; John Coltrane: Tenor Saxophone; Wynton Kelly: piano; Paul Chambers: bass; Jimmy Cobb: drums.
Album information
Title: Olympia – Mar 20, 1960 | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: LaserLight
Tags
Miles Davis
Extended Analysis
C. Michael Bailey
LaserLight
Charlie Parker
Dizzy Gillespie
Horace Silver
Art Blakey
Philly Joe Jones
Red Garland
Wynton Kelly
Paul Chambers
Thelonious Monk
John Coltrane
Bill Evans
Miles Davis: Olympia – Mar 20, 1960
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