miles in the sky

this is the second quintet album i put on when i don't want anything but playing.

Knee jerk voted for Stuff but on reflection should have gone for Paraphernalia which is far more sustaining and the shit.

yeah i think this is "paraphernalia" but i'm revisiting

I got to meet george benson last week!

need to relisten to this record

i only just noticed today, in what, sixteen years of this record, that the title is one of the usual miles title puns

also that there are silhouettes of his face on the cover

the cover has got it going on, can't say the same for the music. if it were an option i'd vote for the hi-hat. TONY.MOTHER.LUVVIN.WILLIAMS.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

That's Hancock on electric piano, surely?

it is.

Cool record and set of tunes. I would have loved to heard John McLaughlin in this group.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I guess almost nobody ever makes it to the end of the album.

i do! i'm just… not thinking much by that point

i guess a record like 'filles' maintains a lot more drama/absorption

plus the beginning of 'stuff' is great

This isn't my least favorite album by the Classic Quintet (that would be Sorcerer, because that Bob Dorough track at the end is just a fucking nightmare), but it's definitely the one I have the most trouble making it all the way through. It's a weird bridge, or maybe a quickly abandoned tangent, between the acoustic exploding-hard-bop stuff and the 1969-70 studio stuff. Filles is definitely a vastly superior album.

i don't really compare them, it just seems like they're stretching out with that band rather than trying anything special with any of the writing or performances; but they don't really stretch out on any of their other recordings, so.

I like this album a lot and am surprised I didn't see the poll. Would potentially have voted for anything but "Country Son"

also that there are silhouettes of his face on the cover

― j., Wednesday, May 21, 2014 11:57 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

! never saw that before.

Me neither - thought it was just a stylized butterfly or eyeball.

I love how jazz album cover art started getting all pSyChEdEliC circa the rock-festival era

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/14/Albert_Ayler_in_Greenwich_Village.jpg http://www.jazzma.hu/media/images/content/regi_musoraim/2013/10/a-beatles-es-a-jazz-here-there-and-everywhere-/the-charles-lloyd-quartet-love-in.jpg http://p1.storage.canalblog.com/14/06/500408/29452842_p.jpg

there's a lot of quiet bass playing on this record for one that's got so much tony williams bashing. especially in the last number. seems most like an old-style miles throwback, maybe that's what makes it seem like an inconspicuous end to the set.

yeah that's a good point. Something about the mix on this record always hit me a little less hard than the others and I think that might be why.

well there's electric on some, definitely full bodied but they use it to allow for some quieter moments too.

i think it's just the writing on country son, reaching for an older sound. whereas the newer ones like 'stuff' seem sort of continuously composed, with those really long thru-melodies that are are also improvised, the bass allowed to groove, williams promoted to co-lead alongside the soloist, on country son it's often more like everyone drops back to standard positions.

The Benson presence on Paraphernalia kind of makes it sound like a CTI recording. It's good but I can see why they wouldn't want to have him appear more often with the quintet (assuming he even would have wanted to).

Also his solo doesn't exactly fit the color of the song harmonically

fuck

outrageously underrated and better than filles

"Stuff," man.

I was about to say that it's underrated but DEFINITELY NOT better than Filles, and falls off hard after 'Stuff'. But then I thought I should listen to it again, and it's sick. What a choice on Paraphernalia to ride on the hi-hat the whole time (more of an old-fashioned sound on a modern one-chord tune, where Tony could have been all over the kit if he wanted to be). The metric modulation on Black Comedy is peak quintet.

Some claim that if you play the tracks in reverse order the album is much improved. I’ve never tried it, though.

better than files??? No way. It’s a cool album, I love transitional works like this.

I know it's not fair since Water Babies didn't come out until 1976, but WB > Filles > Miles In The Sky.

I agree with that, water babies is one of my very favorite miles full lengths. can’t believe some of the stuff they sat on for so long.

I listened to an interview with Jonny Echols yesterday where he talked about hanging out with Miles during the mid 70s retirement. Probably wrong specific thread but thought I'd add it. Looking forward to reading his memoir, hope that is coming soon.

where was the interview?

think it was this one
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5rCSopnhYqr5nMick5mMW6?si=adc1ea8d0a17486f

THere's supposed to be a new one on Broken Record that I heard a trailer for but couldn't find. May be up now.
I think they often cut off earlier or jump from dissolution of original Love to him returning in the Love band.
There was a great one in Ugly Things a few years back too.

Speaking of interviews, I listened to Wayne Shorter on Questlove's podcast yesterday, and he was asked about the lack of solos on 'Nefertiti', just repeating the melody and letting the rhythm section shift around it.

I remember reading (maybe in the liner notes of the reissue?) that there had actually been a first take with killer solos, but it was lost due to a recording issue. So rather than try to recapture the magic of what they had just done, Miles decided to have no horn solos at all.

But Shorter just gave an answer about the melody being good enough that there was no improving on it.

I'm just glad that Quest didn't ask him about Ron Carter being a terrible bass soloist (and that being the reason that there are no bass solos on those Miles records), which he has been repeating a lot lately.

Wait, Wayne has been saying that?

No no, Questlove apparently heard that from an anonymous bass player (my guess is his old schoolmate Christian McBride???) and thinks it's a common opinion in the jazz community.

Is it? I never heard that, but what do I know.

No idea! I've never heard it before, and who cares if bass players are good soloists really, but I asked a bassist recently who said he just saw Ron Carter's group and that Mr. Carter was tearing it up.

I've seen Ron Carter a few times; I don't remember if he soloed or not. Maybe he doesn't like soloing. He's a classically trained cellist as well as bassist, and a fucking brilliant composer and arranger. He doesn't need to solo if he doesn't want to, and it's entirely possible that he doesn't see that as his role in the ensemble.

I've never seen or heard his group where he plays piccolo bass, but I guess I assumed he solos while Buster Williams or someone else plays bass?

Tony Wiliams drumming on "Stuff" is really wild. It would have never happened for a bazillion reasons, but in a fantasy baseball way, it would have been something to hear what it would have sounded like with Williams as the drummer for the JBs. "Stuff" I think gives an indication. Later on Tony Williams tried doing some stuff on his later records that was more R&B in the 70s, but it does not have edge like this track.

Oh yeah, there are plenty of Ron Carter records where the bass is more like a lead instrument. There is a nice version of "All Blues" he did that has him playing the main melody up on the upper register of the bass that is out on the Youtube. Jazz has such deep discographies, it's so hard to hear them all.

RON CARTER bass and leader, JOE HENDERSON tenor sax,
ROLAND HANNA piano, BILLY COBHAM drums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbSFOMBPJDU

better than files??? No way. It’s a cool album, I love transitional works like this.

― brimstead, Friday, June 10, 2022 9:11 AM

otm. one classic track ≠ a better album.

having seen ron carter live more times than any other musician (maybe six gigs? probably more) i can attest that he does, in fact, shred.

(highly recommend piccolo if you wanna hear some prime examples)