MILES DAVIS ***** ALBUMS: MILESTONES

*****ALBUMS: 2) MILESTONES

“Of the Present and the Future”

MILES DAVIS: MILESTONES (1958) (Columbia) (Sextet) (New York) was recorded over three sessions.

TRACKS: Dr. Jackle, Sid’s Ahead, Two Bass Hit, Milestone, Billy Boy, Straight, No Chaser.

MUSICIANS: Miles Davis, trumpet, piano; John Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Cannonball Adderley, alto saxophone; Red Garland, piano; Paul Chambers: bass, Philly Joe Jones, drums.

NOTES: MILESTONES’ opening piece, Jackie McLean’s Dr Jackle, with its distant ‘vamping’ piano chords and Miles’s fluent trumpet lines flying at breakneck pace, breaking his own rules about the economy of notes, a hard shift for the rhythm section for sure, John Coltrane’s and Cannonball Adderley’s own soloing matching Davis note for note, the ‘sawed’ bass giving the players a well-deserved breather, piano echoing Miles’s trumpet lines, the brass men taking us out following a splendid drum break from Jones, a near six minutes of blissful jazz. The opening to Dr Jackle has been described appositely as ‘the big bang’ of jazz. The pace on the 13 minutes of the blues-based Sid’s Ahead, a tribute to a New York DJ, necessarily drops, a walking bassline, Coltrane taking the lead before Davis adds his own personal mark on ‘the new thing’, modal jazz. (Davis played the piano on Sid’s Ahead). Two Bass Hit, a John Lewis piece, follows on from Dr Jekyll in its propulsive dynamism, Coltrane’s tenor sax providing a highlight, Philly Joe Jones adding another articulate, multi-rhythmic performance on drums. The aforementioned title track is the standout, the catchy staccato-like trumpet lead line followed by a top notch alto sax solo by Adderley. Davis’s muted trumpet returns then Coltrane’s, with less assurance than Adderley’s but still accomplished (and complicated) by most standards. Billy Boy, based on a traditional folk piece, is perhaps the misfit of the album but it is enjoyable in its own way hosting a memorable Red Garland piano solo and outstanding bass playing by Paul Chambers (including an ‘arco’ bowed solo) and exhilarating brush and stick work from Jones. This piece is effectively the rhythm trio’s solo spot with no brass playing. For me creating the space to highlight Garland, Jones and Chambers was a master stroke showing that the leader could give way and enjoy the playing of his amazing rhythm trio. A rousing, swinging, bluesy hard bop interpretation of Thelonious Monk’s Straight, No Chaser is the icing on the cake. Miles’s solo is brilliantly executed and Coltrane also rises to the occasion with a mesmerising solo. Garland pulls off an entertaining solo with some rim shots from Jones.

In its evocation of traditional jazz and bop methodology and modal jazz (the title track was Miles’s first composition in this vein) and dispensing with reliance on chords to adopt the George Russell Lydian Chromatic Concept, Milestones was truly a ‘milestone’ album in being the only one made by this Sextet and in respectfully acknowledging the past while setting out a vision for the future. Sadly, as previously related Garland and Jones were fired for their unreliability (both were heroin addicts) and missed out on Kind of Blue.