The Newport Jazz Festival was a happy hunting ground for Miles in the 1950s.
The first three tracks on this double LP are from the 1955 concert where he sat in with a band featuring the unlikely combination of Gerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims and Thelonious Monk. Miles’ thoughtfully constructed trumpet solo on ’Round Midnight brought stomping applause from the audience and an invitation to sign up with Columbia Records by an executive who happened to be there. If Miles had difficulty learning the composition, as he later claimed, he certainly had it nailed in 1955. His solo is certainly the highlight of this performance.
The rest of the programme is by the 1958 Davis sextet with Bill Evans on piano and Jimmy Cobb on drums replacing Red Garland and Philly Joe Jones from the original quintet.
Parker’s Ah-Leu-Cha goes like a bomb with Coltrane back in his fiercest sheets of sound mode. Earlier in 1958 Miles had recorded great versions of Two Bass Hit and Straight No Chaser on Milestones, one of his greatest ever studio recordings. These live versions are very good but not as good as the exceptional earlier performances. Bill Evans fitted into the sextet perfectly, as Miles must have known in advance that he would. His delicately played piano solos are the ideal contrast to the white-hot contributions of Miles, Trane and Cannonball Adderley.
Evans only stayed with the band a short time, but Miles did persuade him to return and play on Kind Of Blue in 1959 where his considerable contribution helped to elevate that LP to the position of the best-selling jazz album of all time. The live reading of Two Bass Hit here is perhaps the highlight of a ferocious performance in which Coltrane, Davis and Evans are all outstanding. It is taken at an even faster tempo than the studio record. This is a good example of Miles in his prime with arguably the best sextet he ever had, all on top form in front of an enthusiastic audience.
Discography
LP1: (1) Hackensack; ’Round Midnight – Now’s The Time (2) Ah-Leu-Cha (31.32)
LP2: Straight No Chaser; Fran Dance – Two Bass Hit; Bye Bye Blackbird; The Theme (32.19)
Davis (t) with:
(1) Gerry Mulligan (bar); Zoot Sims (ts); Thelonious Monk (p); Percy Heath (b); Connie Kay (d). Newport, Rhode Island, 17 July 1955.
(2) John Coltrane (ts); Cannonball Adderley (as); Bill Evans (p); Paul Chambers (b); Jimmy Cobb (d). Newport, Rhode Island, 3 July 1958.
Jazz Wax Records JWR 4635
