Miles Davis - The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965
★★★★★
COLUMBIA/LEGACY
By 1963 Miles Davis was on the cusp of being left behind. Creatively exhausted, touring with a repeatedly imploding sextet, he was also trading in a form of modal jazz that was rapidly becoming old hat compared to the frenetic, discursive innovations of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor. However, there were signs of promise. For three tracks on the inconsistent studio LP, Seven Steps To Heaven Davis recruited 17-year-old Chicago drummer Tony Williams, 23-year-old pianist Herbie Hancock and Michigan-born bassist Ron Carter (an ancient 26). Allied to the relentless skitter of Williams’ drums, Carter’s regal, mellifluous bass, and Hancock’s background melodic conversations, Davis was able to expand and contract his sound, allowing for more abstractions outside the main notes. Even allowing for exquisite live performances like the dreamlike title track on 1965 live album, My Funny Valentine (recorded at New York’s Philharmonic Hall, February 1964) there was still the sense that Miles was trading on past glories.
What changed all that was the recruitment of visionary tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter in September 1964, and a revolutionary decision instigated by a tour-weary Tony Williams, tired of playing the same crowd-pleasing standards every night. On the plane to the Christmas dates at The Nickel, Williams asked Shorter, Hancock and Carter, “What if we made anti-music?! Whatever someone expects you to play, that’s the last thing you play?” It’s uncertain whether Williams informed Davis or the evening’s producer Teo Macero, but listening to the opening track on the recording, the December 22 performance of Frank Loesser’s If I Were a Bell suggests not. After a frantic, buzzing intro, bassist Ron Carter plays a slow, low note and Herbie Hancock follows suit with something peripheral and introspective. Eventually, Williams and Shorter decelerate further, as if stretching out in slow motion behind Miles’ frenetic jollity. Davis quickly responds, first with questioning blasts, then by leaving tense gaps in which the four instigators might either fail or succeed. By the second number, Stella By Starlight, Davis appears fully on board, spitting out jagged abstractions and leaving confrontational silences for Shorter and Hancock to fill with slivers of ghostly melody. The pattern is set.
For the duration of the seven sets on this 8CD/10LP boxset, recorded over two nights, the quintet lose themselves in a provocative consensus of curveballs, an unstable fusion of the known and unknown. Sometimes the audience are into it, other times you hear stirrings of revolt.
This is not, however, the free experiments of Coleman and Coltrane. For despite Williams’ “anti-music” imperative, the foundations of Miles’ road-worn jazz standards remain. The result is an act of seductive deconstruction, five fierce musicians placing themselves in a state of eloquent high-wire crisis, stretching themselves to their limit every night and discovering new worlds in the process.
Miles Davis - The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965 is out now on Columbia/Legacy
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Tracklisting:
LP1 - December 22, 1965 – 1st Set
Side A
If I Were A Bell 16:42
Side B
Stella By Starlight 13:09
Walkin’ 11:01
LP2 - December 22, 1965 – 1st Set (cont’d)
Side C
I Fall In Love Too Easily 11:43
The Theme 10:19
Side D - December 22, 1965 – 2nd Set
My Funny Valentine 16:33
LP3 - December 22, 1965 – 2nd Set (cont’d)
Side E
Four 15:05
When I Fall In Love 10:44
Side F
Agitation 13:13
‘Round Midnight 8:42
LP4 - December 22, 1965 – 2nd Set (cont’d)
Side G
Milestones 14:04
The Theme 0:38
December 22, 1965 – 3rd Set
I Fall In Love Too Easily 11:53
Side H
All Of You 14:38
Oleo 6:05
LP5 December 22, 1965 – 3rd Set (cont’d)
Side I
No Blues 17:35
Side J
I Thought About You 11:03
The Theme 8:05
LP6 - December 23, 1965 – 1st Set
Side K
If I Were A Bell 13:29
Stella By Starlight 13:09
Side L
Walkin’ 11:01
I Fall In Love Too Easily 12:07
The Theme 2:50
LP7 - December 23, 1965 – 2nd Set
Side M
All Of You 10:39
Agitation 10:48
Side N
My Funny Valentine 13:52
On Green Dolphin Street 12:48
LP8 - December 23, 1965 – 2nd Set (cont’d)
Side O
So What 13:36
The Theme 3:28
Side P - December 23, 1965 – 3rd Set
When I Fall In Love 13:39
Milestones 11:49
LP9 - December 23, 1965 – 3rd Set (cont’d)
Side Q
Autumn Leaves 11:56
I Fall In Love Too Easily 11:43
Side R
No Blues 20:06
The Theme 0:22
LP10 - December 23, 1965 – 4th Set
Side S
Stella By Starlight 14:16
All Blues 12:18
Side T
Yesterdays 15:00
The Theme 4:51
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