Miles Davis - Jazz at the Plaza - Vol 1 [Jazz][mp3 320][h33t][schon55]

Miles Davis - Jazz at the Plaza - Vol 1

Original Release Date: July 28, 1958

Label Legacy

Orig Year 1974

Audio CD: April 17, 2001

Label: Sony

Bitrate: 320 kbps



Back in 1958, Jazz at the Plaza was never meant to be a record; it was a Columbia party at the Plaza, a place jazz had never been played before. Also on the bill were Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Jimmy Rushing. Despite the fine remastering job done by the Sony crew, Jazz at the Plaza remains more a curiosity piece than an essential recording by a remarkable band, strictly because of its dodgy recording quality. The 40-minute set is plagued by the problem of barely being able to hear Davis in places, particularly on the stellar opener, "If I Were a Bell," and Evans is all but absent on much of the record. In fact, there is no mix; it's just a flat-out two- or three-mike set. That said, the performance is far from dodgy. There are four tunes in the set: the previously mentioned old stripe from Guys and Dolls; "Oleo," played at a blistering tempo; "My Funny Valentine," which, although recorded by Davis' previous quintet for Prestige, had become a staple in the sextet's play book; and Monk's "Straight, No Chaser." It is perhaps the last that brings the sextet to full bloom in this performance. Davis plays the theme faster than normal, alternating the groove between full and cut time, and Bill Evans goes directly to quoting "Blue Monk" in his own solo. Also notable is the performance of "My Funny Valentine" without the saxophone giants John Coltrane or Cannonball Adderley. But here, again, given the recording quality, it just feels like they weren't miked — the audience is louder than the band on most of this. Nonetheless, Davis had turned the tune inside out by this time and was playing it in his new modal style; the melody became a skeleton and was replaced by the ghosts of intervals that kept its integrity and made it recognizable. This is not to say Davis had abandoned melody for mode entirely because his melodic sensibility, which was instinctual, is what made the modalism on the sextet level possible in the first place. Ultimately, Jazz at the Plaza succeeds mightily on the level of its fine performance, but is for hardcore jazz fans only, due to its dubious sound quality. ~ AMG



Miles Davis's Kind of Blue is nothing if not legendary, and this live date--never before released on CD--captures most of the classic Kind of Blue band in concert. Recorded at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan in 1958 and originally released in 1973, this live set superbly spotlights Davis's "walking on eggshells" melodicism. Pianist Bill Evans, alto and tenor saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and Davis blow the blues on Sonny Rollins's "Oleo" and Thelonious Monk's "Straight No Chaser." Davis's warm, Harmon-muted trumpet melodically shoots Cupid's arrow on "If I Were a Bell" and "My Funny Valentine," with Evans's piano lines sounding equally footed in Ravel and modal bop. Add the Bird flights of Adderley and the spooling energy of Coltrane and you have one of the top groups at the top of their game. This is a marvel, a hot and cool preview to the band's landmark 1959 Kind of Blue explorations. ~ Eugene Holley Jr.



I'm raising my rating of this album from 3 to 4 stars after a few additional hearings. The audio separation is so extreme and the ensemble sound so remote that the individual solos are brought into bolder relief than ever before. It's like having a frequency equalizer and being able to extract just one soloist from the mix. As a result, you can hear the melodic/rhythmic language of each soloist in ways that could be instructive for some musicians or listeners with an analytic bent. ~ Samuel Chell



Personnel:

Miles Davis (trumpet)

Cannonball Adderley (alto sax)

John Coltrane (tenor sax)

Bill Evans (piano)

Paul Chambers (bass)

Jimmy Cobb (drums)



Miles Davis - Jazz at the Plaza - Vol 1 tracks:

01 If I Were A Bell (8:30)

02 Oleo (10:45)

03 My Funny Valentine (10:13)

04 Straight, No Chaser (11:02)