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Miles Ahead session details

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May-June 1963 (4 items; TT = 31:14)
Jazz Villa, St. Louis MO
Audience recording (B-)

Miles Davis (tpt); George Coleman (ts); Herbie Hancock (p); Ron Carter (b); Tony Williams (d)

1 Seven Steps to Heaven (V. Feldman-M. Davis) 10:40
2 I Thought About You (J. Mercer-J. Van Heusen) 7:54

Coleman out
3 All Blues (M. Davis) 12:27
4 The Theme (M. Davis) 0:13

"The Theme" not listed on all issues


1 Seven Steps to Heaven
12" LP: VGM 0003
CD: Recording Arts (Golden Age of Jazz) JZCD 371, Magnetic MRCD 125, Soulard VGM-SOU CD 3, Jazz Door JD 1224, Jazz View 023, Lone Hill Jazz LHJ-10212

2 I Thought About You
12" LP: VGM 0003
CD: Recording Arts (Golden Age of Jazz) JZCD 371, Magnetic MRCD 125, Soulard VGM-SOU CD 3, Jazz Door JD 1224, Jazz View 023, Lone Hill Jazz LHJ-10212

3 All Blues
12" LP: VGM 0003
CD: Recording Arts (Golden Age of Jazz) JZCD 371, Magnetic MRCD 125, Soulard VGM-SOU CD 3, Jazz Door JD 1224, Jazz View 023, Lone Hill Jazz LHJ-10212

4 The Theme
12" LP: VGM 0003
CD: Recording Arts (Golden Age of Jazz) JZCD 371, Magnetic MRCD 125, Soulard VGM-SOU CD 3, Jazz Door JD 1224, Jazz View 023, Lone Hill Jazz LHJ-10212


This is the first extant live recording of Davis' new working quintet.

The new Miles Davis Quintet -- Davis, Coleman, Hancock, Carter, Williams -- went into Columbia's 30th Street Studio on May 14, then hit the road: Bowdoin College, Brunswick ME (May 17 -- listed as the Miles Davis Sestet); Jazz Villa, St. Louis (May 27-June 4); Sutherland Hotel Lounge, Chicago (June 5-16); Jazz Temple, Cleveland (June 20-23 -- listed as the Miles Davis Sextet); Village Vanguard, New York (July 2-14).

A review of the June 6 show (Davis was booked alongside Redd Foxx) was effusive:

There is a giant in our midst. More specifically, Miles Davis is at the Sutherland Hotel Lounge. He has a completely new group to play with on this trip (Tony Williams, drums; George Coleman, tenor; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ronald Jarrett, bass) but Miles' artistry remains at the same high level.

Caught during two sets Thursday, he romped through "Straight, No Chaser," "Autumn Leaves," "So What," "If I Were a Bell," and "Milestones" with more bubbling energy than we've heard in a long time. If, in the last few years, Miles has played with an economy of sound, building inner tensions with tone coloration, then the vault was opened Thursday and all those saved up notes, searing runs and pulsating rhythmic figures came flooding out. The tempos were more torrid than remembered...

"Ronald Jarrett" is probably a mangled reference to Ron Carter, though of course Donald Garrett was a well-known Chicago bassist. But Carter appears to have been with the group throughout this period.

I am grateful to Bill White for help with this session.

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