Search - Miles Davis :: Four & More

The best album for Crayon Shinchan

Yutaka Otsuka | KASUKABE | 09/01/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is one of the famous recordings which Miles has played most technically; no albums would be recorded more excellently than this.

This review is the opinion of a fan who has dedicated in Modern Jazz from 1964 to 1970, but without recognizing the excellence of Monk, Ellington and John Lewis. The two groups are very different one another.

The art is a taste judgement(Geschmackurteil). It has no relation with intelligence or mind, that is, not universal, but has relation with sense or feeling, that is, special or individual. Every evaluation has its value.

This phenomenon makes professional critics very at a loss as to how to recognize what they do not like. I don't know how they evaluate the albums. This is the best riddle that I still don't resolve.

I think you cannot help listening to this album.

Except one tune the album is constituted of the five tunes of super up-tempo. There are theme tunes in the album, which is very rare and pretty good. When I listen to this ending theme, I feel content to have listened to Miles.

After the play of the topics, each tune is very like to each other and it will be impossible to extingwish them.

In addition to the genius drummer Anthony Williams, George Coleman plays very beautifully. Though Wayne Shoter is people think very wonderful, but he is not fit to the album. Davis himisef wrote in his autobiography that he "played better that night than I ever heard him play."

This album has one more thing of like kind: Miles Davis in Europe.



"

Light Speed Jazz

Robert Moran | Redding, CT | 03/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw Miles play at least 10 times but sadly, not on the night of February 12, 1964 at Lincoln Center, the night his group created light speed jazz at tempos bordering on the unconscious. Tony Williams, the 18 year old prodigy, just took over and made these guys move in a way that simply is astonishing given just how experienced and talented a group this truly was. Every time I listen to this, I am struck by the spacing and openness of the sound and the power this group had in playing tunes they know by heart. It is a masterpiece that, in a round about way, is an up tempo salute to Kind of Blue, the greatest jazz album of all time as many of the compositions here are the same ones that Miles and Bill Evans penned for the earlier work. Absolutely one of the best jazz albums Davis ever did in this humble reviewer's opinion."

Another summit

B. J Robbins | La Quinta, CA United States | 03/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well, here goes. I like this album better than "Kind of Blue". Certainly, the personnel is its equal. A 19 year old Tony Williams is brilliant on percussion, setting a new standard for jazz drumming. A young Herbie Hancock, is wonderful on piano, at times playing sensitively, at other times very muscular, with a complex harmonic and melodic sense. And Ron Carter fills Paul Chambers' shoes quite adequately, actually much better than adequately; he is a joy to listen to. Miles? Well, he has never sounded better. How many times has he played "My Funny Valentine"? A million? Here, he has never played it better, like it was his first time. From his melody statement, and then solo, he brings out his bag of effects, half valved notes, mumbles, and the rest to produce a performance without peer.



George Coleman? Well, he is certainly no John Coltrane, but he does not try to be. If you listen to him, he is a unique blend of Hawk and Prez, with the sharp tone of Hawkins and the laid back rhythm at times of Prez. He can certainly run the changes, but he also capable of extremely lyrical passages.



Tony Williams is the driving force. He is much more subtle than Philly Joe, and his drumming is much more interesting. He is fascinating to listen to.



Ron Carter is a superb bassist and owes no one any apologies. As was the custom back then, the bass was another voice in the group, not just a time keeper, and Carter does it better than anyone, with uncanny intonation and feel.



The whole is much more than the sum of its incredible parts here, and that is why this concert was so great, and why this album belongs in any Miles Davis lover's collection. I bought the LP some 40 years ago, and the playing sounds as fresh and luminous as it did back then.



There were 865 reviews of "Kind of Blue" and 3 of this album. "Blue" was a landmark. But so was this album. As Miles (among others) said: "There are only two kinds of music. Good music and bad music." This here music is GGRREEAATTT!!!"