A History Of Blue Note Records: 1954

Miles Davis Quartet – March 6 1954

Bob Blumenthal: Miles Davis Volume 1 RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes 2001

The March 6. 1954 quartet session was Davis’s first after overcoming his heroin dependency. It looks both backward and forward , focusing on many of the ideas that Davis would revisit throughout the decade; and it includes a rhythm section that was well attuned to his new directions. Horace Silver and Percy Heath would continue to record with the trumpeter throughout the year, and this identical quartet with Art Blakey on drums made a second studio appearance nine days later for Prestige. The present six titles formed the 10” LP Miles Davis Volume 3, with all but “Take Off” and “It Never Entered My Mind” also appearing on 45 rpm singles.

“Take Off” is a themeless inspection of the chord sequence that the Davis Nonet had recorded as “Deception” (credited to Davis) in 1950, and Davis had reprised as “Conception” (credited to George Shearing) on the 1951 sextet date that produced “Dig.” The changes are laced with harmonic suspensions that offer a preview of Davis’s late-fifties modal style, and the trumpet solos also reveal the growing concern for space that would mark his mature work.

Photos by Francis Wolff

“Lazy Susan” is another themeless track on a familiar set of chords — in this case the Tadd Dameron “Ladybird” sequence that Davis had used as the basis for his “Half Nelson” in 1947. There is a relaxed feeling here that allows Heath’s masterful walking lines to shine through, and a beautiful series of exchanges between Davis and Blakey after Silver has soloed.

Photo by Francis Wolff

“The Leap” employs a chorus based on the changes of “Get Happy,” then introduces a harmonic suspension that carries over into the first eight bars of the next chorus and lasts LS bars in all. The leap” takes place once the soloist moves back to the familiar harmonic pattern. Both Davis and Silver take quickly to the mixed form, each displaying an assertiveness that would quickly become associated with the hard bop style these musicians were pioneering.

Photo by Francis Wolff

Thelonious Monk’s “Well You Needn’t” had been introduced by the composer on Blue Note seven years earlier, but had yet to catch on as the jazz standard it would soon become. This version is more deliberate than the one recorded by the ’56 Davis Quintet, but no less inventive. Davis would also record a themeless take on these changes for Prestige a year later and call it “I Didn’t”.

Challenging altered blues changes had been a Davis specialty since his 1946 “Sippin’ At Bell’s” “Weirdo” is one of his most ingenious explorations in this vein, and turns the simple line “Walkin’”, that he would record for Prestige in the following month into a far more mysterious terrain. There are two great solos from the leader, as well as a provocative Silver chorus. This melody would reappear under the title “Sid’s Ahead”, with Davis playing both trumpet and piano, on the 1958 Columbia album Milestones.

Photo by Francis Wolff

“It Never Entered My Mind” was also revisited by Davis on Prestige in 1956. At that point, he had switched from the cup mute heard here to Harmon mute, and had expanded ideas that underpin this arrangement. While that later version is one of his ballad masterpieces, this earlier take also includes beautiful playing from the perspective of both sounds and ideas. Miles Davis was clearly back to stay.

Photo by Francis Wolff

Peter Losin – Session Notes

The original material on Peter Losin’s excellent Miles Davis Reference site here:

http://www.plosin.com/milesAhead/Sessions.aspx?s=540306

This is Davis's first recording session since returning from a several-month stay in the Midwest during which he finally overcame his heroin addiction. In the remaining months of the year he made some of the most memorable recordings of his career. And while the tunes performed here do not compare to the likes of "Solar," "Walkin'," or "Bags' Groove," they reveal a Davis well on the way toward his mature style and command of his instrument. This is also Davis's first collaboration with Horace Silver, who was to participate in several of the landmark Prestige sessions later this year. This same quartet recorded for Prestige on March 15.

"Take Off" uses the same chord changes as "Deception" and "Conception" from 1950-1951. There's no real melody here, but the repeated suspended-rhythm passages during the changes are effective and memorable. Davis takes two choruses, followed by Heath and Silver (Silver enters after the first eight); Davis returns for two more at the end.

"Lazy Susan" is based on the changes of Tadd Dameron's "Lady Bird," which Davis had used as the basis of "Half Nelson" for his first session as a leader in August 1947, and which he performed with Dameron several times in 1949. Davis takes two choruses, Silver one, followed by one of eight-measure trumpet/drums exchanges, and Davis takes it out.

Photo by Francis Wolff

"The Leap" is based on the changes of "Get Happy," but this tune adds a sixteen-measure suspension that overlaps the first eight bars of the next chorus. The structure is unusual but Davis and Silver both navigate it without difficulty. The solos are by Davis (0:41-1:36), followed by the eight-bar suspension; Silver (1:50-2:44), followed by the suspension; and Davis returns for the closing chorus. There is a splice at 1:16 during Davis's solo. Early on he quotes Monk's "Rhythm-a-ning" (0:21-0:25); Silver returns to that theme twice during his solo (listen at 1:52 and 2:05).

Davis performed Monk's "Well, You Needn't" many times in the 1950s -- perhaps the canonical version is the one recorded by the Quintet for Prestige in October 1956. Here it is taken at an usually slow tempo. Davis takes two choruses, Silver one (sounding very Monkish); Davis and Blakey play a half-chorus of eight-measure trumpet/drums exchanges, and Davis plays the remainder of the closing chorus.

Davis would return to the theme of "Weirdo" later under the title "Sid's Ahead." Both versions -- and also "Walkin'," credited to Richard Carpenter, which Davis would record for Prestige in 1954 -- are based on "Gravy," recorded by Gene Ammons in 1950. This an abstracted blues in F, with altered changes and masterful solos by Davis (2x), Silver (1x), and Davis again (1x) before the closing theme is re-stated.

Clifford Brown visits the session
Photo by Francis Wolff

This is Davis's earliest recording of "It Never Entered My Mind," a ballad he would perform many times throughout the 1950s, including the definitive version recorded for Prestige in May 1956. Here he plays with a cup mute, and the sound is less intimate than what he achieved with the Harmon mute he discovered soon afterward and introduced on "Oleo" recorded for Prestige in June. His solo is pretty, and Silver takes a short turn before Davis returns to re-state the melody.

Later in March, Davis participated in a Charles Mingus-led Jazz Workshop at Tony's Club Grandean in Brooklyn; he was joined by Gigi Gryce, Thelonious Monk, and Max Roach. Davis and Monk got into several altercations, and from then on the two were often at odds.