Quintet/Sextet
{{Infobox album
| name = Miles Davis and Milt Jackson Quintet/Sextet
| type = Album
| artist = Miles Davis and Milt Jackson
| cover = Quintet Sextet.jpg
| alt =
| recorded = August 5, 1955
| venue =
| studio = Van Gelder (Hackensack)
| genre = Jazz
| length = 31:01
| label = Prestige
{{small|PRLP 7034}}
| producer = Bob Weinstock
| prev_title = Miles
| prev_year = 1956
| next_title = Blue Haze
| next_year = 1956
}}
Miles Davis and Milt Jackson Quintet/Sextet, also known as Quintet/Sextet is a studio album by the trumpeter Miles Davis and vibraphonist Milt Jackson released by Prestige Records in August 1956.{{cite news |last1=Editorial Staff |first1=Cash Box |title=August Album Releases |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Cash-Box-IDX/50s/1956/CB-1956-08-4-OCR-Page-0013.pdf |access-date=2 March 2020 |location=New York |work=The Cash Box |publisher=The Cash Box Publishing Co. Inc. |date=August 4, 1956}} It was recorded on August 5, 1955.[http://www.jazzdisco.org/miles-davis/catalog/#prestige-prlp-7034 At JazzDisco] Credited to "Miles Davis and Milt Jackson", this was an "all-star" session, and did not feature any of the members of Davis's working group of that time. Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean appears on his own compositions “Dr. Jackle” and “Minor March”.
Background and recording
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2024}}
Image:Miles Davis by Palumbo.jpg
After the release of Blue Moods, a collaboration with Charles Mingus on which Davis only participated to pay back fees to Mingus,Brian Priestley. Mingus: A Critical Biography. London 1985, p. 75 Davis recorded with his new band in New York's Café Bohemia. That band included the young Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone) as well as the rhythm section of pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones, whom Davis retained for the Miles Davis Quintet (with tenor saxophonist John Coltrane). This album’s August sessions did not feature Davis’ current working band, but an "All Star" lineup, with Milt Jackson (vibraphone), bassist Percy Heath and drummer Art Taylor. Davis also hired pianist Ray Bryant, because he wanted a bebop sound.
Together with Jackson and Heath, Davis recorded with Thelonious Monk during the December 1954 session (Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants). Art Taylor was then effectively a "house drummer" for the Prestige label.
Sonny Rollins was replaced with the young alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, who composed and arranged the two pieces on which he played, "Dr. Jackle" and "Minor March", the latter the only up-tempo tune in that session. "Minor March" (renamed "Minor Apprehension") was later included on McLean’s 1959 Blue Note album New Soil.
The tune "Dr. Jackle" shows McLean's connection with the blues as well as with Charlie Parker, Davis plays in a lyrical fashion and Ray Bryant plays in more rhythmic, soul-driven style. "Minor March" has rhythmic breaks and a bridge, that are similar to Bud Powell's composition "Tempus Fugue-it"; McLean's cadentials, honks and screams anticipate the style of his future Blue Note recordings.
Miles Davis commented critically in his autobiography on the saxophonist's style:
{{cquote|I remember Jackie got so high he got terrified he couldn't play. I don't know what that shit was all about, but after this date, I never used Jackie again.| Miles Davis M. Davis, p. 184.}}
It was the last joint session by Miles Davis and Percy Heath as well as the only performance by pianist Ray Bryant on a Davis album. Bryant wrote "Blues Changes" (later renamed to "Changes"). Davis plays trumpet with a mute on this track, which has a typical romantic-tranquil mood. Thad Jones' composition "Bitty Ditty" is characterized by Bryant's integration of blues, gospel and bebop.
Reception
{{Music ratings
| state = collapsed
|rev3 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings
|rev3score = {{Rating|3.5|4}} {{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |authorlink1=Richard Cook (journalist) |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |authorlink2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |year=2008 |edition=9th |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-141-03401-0 |page=167}}
| rev1 = Allmusic
| rev1score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/miles-davis-and-milt-jackson-quintet-sextet-mw0000653533|title=Miles Davis and Milt Jackson Quintet/Sextet – Allmusic|publisher=Rovi Corporation|work=Allmusic|access-date=3 June 2012}}
| rev2 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
| rev2Score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|edition=4th|isbn=978-0195313734|title-link=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music}}
|rev4 = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide
| rev4Score = {{rating|4|5}}{{Cite book
|editor-last=Swenson
|editor-first=J.
| year = 1985
| title = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide
| publisher = Random House/Rolling Stone
| location = USA
| isbn = 0-394-72643-X
| pages = 58
}}
}}
Quintet/Sextet received overall positive reception. Davis' biographer Peter Wießmüller said that this album is "way more straightforward and intensive than Blue Moods, released four weeks prior", and "the pendulum in Miles' stylistical progression hits in the direction of the experimential workup of bebop into a closed hardbop concept, and conservative as well as progressive elements are getting fused with each other; (...) the subtle arrangements of Blue Moods are yielded towards a certain expressive hardness".Wießmüller, p. 105.
Jackie McLean is encouraged by the other musicians to play markedly long and fantastic solos in the otherwise typical arrangements of "Dr. Jackle" and "Minor March". The short session is revived through "the excellent vibraphone playing by Milt Jackson and Jackie McLean's extroverted alto phrasing, which emphasizes Bird's heritage more than before, greatly revive the musical scene."Wießmüller, p. 106.
Critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton awarded the album 4 out of 5 stars in Penguin Guide to Jazz. Scott Yanow from Allmusic only gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, and stated it was "one of the most obscure of [Davis's] Prestige recordings", but its quality is still "fairly high". He named "Dr. Jackle" and "Minor March" as his highlights.
Track listing
{{Track listing
| headline = Side one
|title1 = Dr. Jackle
|writer1 = Jackie McLean
|length1 = 8:55
|title2 = Bitty Ditty
|writer2 = Thad Jones
|length2 = 6:37
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Side two
| total_length = 31:01
|title1 = Minor March
|writer1 = Jackie McLean
|length1 = 8:18
|title2 = Changes
|writer2 = Ray Bryant
|length2 = 7:11
}}
Personnel
- Miles Davis – trumpet
- Milt Jackson – vibraphone
- Jackie McLean – alto saxophone (“Dr. Jackle” & “Minor March”)
- Ray Bryant – piano
- Percy Heath – bass
- Art Taylor – drums
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- Richard Cook & Brian Morton. The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD 6th edition. {{ISBN|0-14-051521-6}}
- Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe: Miles, the Autobiography: Simon and Schuster, 1990. {{ISBN|9780671725822}}
- Dan Morgenstern: Liner Notes. CD issue of Chronicle – The Complete Prestige Recordings
- (In German) Eric Nisenson: Round about Midnight – Ein Portrait von Miles Davis. Wien, Hannibal, 1985 {{ISBN|3-85445-021-4}}
- (In German) Peter Wießmüller: Miles Davis. Oreos, Schaftlach, 1985
External links
- [http://www.allmusic.com/album/miles-davis-and-milt-jackson-quintet-sextet-mw0000653533 Review by Scott Yanow on Allmusic]
- [http://www.plosin.com/milesahead/prlp/prlp7034.html Original liner notes]
{{Miles Davis}}
{{Jackie McLean}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:Prestige Records albums
Category:Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio