Miles in the Sky
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums:
Top
Miles in the Sky [Bonus Tracks]
- Artist: Miles Davis
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1968
- Total Time: 71:49
- Type: Instrumental
- Genre: Jazz
Review
With the 1968 album Miles in the Sky, Miles Davis explicitly pushed his second great quintet away from conventional jazz, pushing them toward the jazz-rock hybrid that would later become known as fusion. Here, the music is still in its formative stages, and it's a little more earth-bound than you might expect, especially following on the heels of the shape-shifting, elusive Nefertiti. On Miles in the Sky, much of the rhythms are straightforward, picking up on the direct 4/4 beats of rock, and these are illuminated by Herbie Hancock's electric piano -- one of the very first sounds on the record, as a matter of fact -- and the guest appearance of guitarist George Benson on "Paraphernalia." All of these additions are tangible and identifiable, and they do result in intriguing music, but the form of the music itself is surprisingly direct, playing as extended grooves. This meanders considerable more than Nefertiti, even if it is significantly less elliptical in its form, because it's primarily four long jams. Intriguing, successful jams in many respects, but even with the notable additions of electric instruments, and with the deliberately noisy "Country Son," this is less visionary than its predecessor and feels like a transitional album -- and, like many transitional albums, it's intriguing and frustrating in equal measures. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi| Miles in the Sky (1968 Album by Miles Davis) | |
| Miles in the Sky [Sony Japan] (1968 Album by Miles Davis) |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Miles in the Sky
| Miles in the Sky | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Miles Davis | ||||
| Released | September 1968 | |||
| Recorded | January 16 & May 15-17, 1968 Columbia Studio B (New York, New York) |
|||
| Genre | Fusion, post-bop | |||
| Length | 51:12 originl LP 72:16 CD reissue |
|||
| Label | Columbia CS 9628 |
|||
| Producer | Teo Macero | |||
| Miles Davis chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [1] |
| Down Beat | [2] |
| Rolling Stone | [3] |
Miles in the Sky is an album recorded in January and two dates in May 1968. It is the fifth and final album fully made by the second great Miles Davis quintet, for by the time of Filles de Kilimanjaro, the quintet was beginning to dissolve, with Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock being replaced on two of the five songs. Miles in the Sky is notable for the first use of electric piano, electric bass and electric guitar on an issued recording by Davis, a foreshadowing of his move into fusion music over the next few years.
Although the album was released shortly after recording the last two songs, the tracks come from different sessions which show different stages of Miles Davis's evolution from acoustic jazz to electric "fusion" music. "Paraphernalia" (recorded January 16, 1968) features George Benson's electric guitar, although it is more conservative in style than the earlier "Circle in the Round" (which however was not released until the late seventies). "Black Comedy" and "Country Son" (May 15 and May 16, 1968 respectively) were two of Davis's last studio tracks using an acoustic quintet format. "Stuff" (recorded May 17, 1968), with its electric bass, Fender Rhodes piano and binary rhythm, is in yet another idiom, that of the forthcoming Filles de Kilimanjaro. "Paraphernalia" was the only composition from this album to enter Davis's live book.
|
Contents
|
Track listing
Side one
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Stuff" | Miles Davis | 17:03 |
| 2. | "Paraphernalia" | Wayne Shorter | 12:42 |
Side two
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3. | "Black Comedy" | Tony Williams | 7:31 |
| 4. | "Country Son" | Davis | 13:56 |
1998 reissue bonus tracks
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5. | "Black Comedy [Alternate Take]" | Williams | 6:26 |
| 6. | "Country Son [Alternate Take]" | Davis | 14:38 |
Recorded on January 16 (#2), May 15 (#4), May 16 (#3) and May 17 (#1), 1968.
Personnel
- Miles Davis — trumpet
- Wayne Shorter — tenor saxophone
- Herbie Hancock — piano, electric piano on "Stuff"
- George Benson — electric guitar on "Paraphernalia"
- Ron Carter — bass, electric bass on "Stuff"
- Tony Williams — drums
References
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums
Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Read more
Mentioned in
Miles in the Sky [Sony Japan]
(2000 Album by Miles Davis)
Miles in the Sky
(1968 Album by Miles Davis)
Fire Mountain: The Eruption and Rebirth of Mount St. Helens
(1997 Nature Film)
Payton's Place
(1997 Album by Nicholas Payton)
Payton's Place [Japan Bonus Track]
(1998 Album by Nicholas Payton)
» More