Search - Miles Davis :: Complete Quintet Box

Miles the Auteur

Richard B. Luhrs | Jackson Heights, NY United States | 05/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Miles Davis' mid-1960s quintet with Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums was not a typical leader-and-sidemen ensemble but a cooperative grouping of some of the most gifted and important musicians in all of postwar jazz. Sharing compositional duties, solo space, ambience and ideas, these five men crafted one of modern music's most distinctive and impressive bodies of work - sounds at once fully realized and ceaselessly probing, classic and cutting edge. By the end of their four-year association, they had reached a plateau of unified creative thought where few of their peers would ever join them, in the process doing as much as any other group or individual to forge a recognizable stylistic link between post-bop and fusion while somehow never quite slipping into either realm.

This six-disc set, covering the quintet's entire studio output, is noteworthy in that it can - unlike many of Columbia's other "complete" Miles packages - be recommended even to relatively casual fans. Almost nothing here is superfluous, including the handful of alternate takes, some stunning rehearsal nuggets and a couple of long-lost gems which were truly worth finding. Everything fits and makes sense.

Whether you've come to Miles via KIND OF BLUE and BIRTH OF THE COOL and are now looking to move forward, or along the other well-worn path leading back in time from BITCHES BREW and ON THE CORNER, THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA STUDIO SESSIONS 1965-68 is something you'll never regret adding to your collection. Modern jazz is as much about the music contained in this package as it is about that contained in any other; jump on in and hear it for yourself!"