Sony
1958
At Newport 1958
About This Album
Thanks to the research that went into the box set The Complete Miles Davis/John Coltrane Sessions there's a the definitive Newport 1958 date that features the debut live performances to the Miles Davis Sextet's two newest members: drummer Jimmy Cobb and pianist Bill Evans. The gig was part of a festival tribute to Duke Ellington, but that didn't stop Davis from showing off -- aggressively -- what his new band was capable of (six months later he would show the world when the band went to record Kind of Blue). This is a revelatory performance for fans of Evans. When Cobb kicks off into Charlie Parker's "Au-Leu-Cha," the tempo is breakneck. Davis' solo is all fire, pure heat, and inspiration. The melody goes by in a blink, and Cobb and Chambers carry the dictum to go faster as Davis gives way first to Coltrane, already moving his angular lines to the harmonic breaking point and doing them not in scales but in modes, fast and footloose. He's down in the groove before giving it to Cannonball Adderley to show off his bebop chops -- which he possesses in spades. He's out of the Bird book to be sure, but his tone is stunning and he's loose, free as a bird as he leaps from one idea to the next before the melody shifts the tune back to Earth for only a second.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,5 and 6)

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