Miles: The Lost Quintet

[Larry Kart]

Here's a Down Beat review I wrote of a 1969 performance by The Lost Quintet at the Plugged Nickel:

Outside of Charlie Parker’s best units, I don’t think there’s ever been a group so at ease at up tempos as Miles Davis’s current quintet. Their relaxation at top speed enables them to move at will from the “hotness” up-tempo playing usually implies to a serene lyricism in the midst of turmoil.

This “inside-out” quality arises from the nature of human hearing, since, at a certain point, musical speed becomes slow motion or stillness (in the same way the eye reacts to a stroboscope). Yet the group doesn’t move into circular rhythms wholesale. They generally stay right on the edge, and, when the rhythm does seem ready to spin endlessly like a Tibetan prayer wheel, one prodding note from Davis or Shorter is enough to send them hurtling into “our” time world, where speed means forward motion.

Recent changes in the group’s personnel and instrumentation have had important effects. Chick Corea is playing electric piano, and while this move may have been prompted by the variable nature of club pianos, Corea has made a virtue of necessity, discovering many useful qualities in the instrument. In backing the horns, its ability to sustain notes and produce a wide range of sonorities frees Holland and DeJohnette from these roles. Corea is now the principal pattern maker in the rhythm section, a task to which Ron Carter and Tony Williams previously had given much attention. As a soloist, Corea has found a biting, nasal quality in the instrument that can be very propulsive. I heard a number of first sets, and each time it seemed that the rhythm section really got together for the night during Corea’s solo on the first tune.

As mentioned above, Holland and DeJohnette don’t often set up the stop-and-go interludes of Carter and Williams. Instead, they burn straight ahead, creating a deep, luxurious groove for the soloists. Holland is as fast as anyone on the instrument, but it is the melodic and harmonic quality of his bass lines one remembers, as cohesive and austere as Lennie Tristano’s. Shorter, in particular, responds to this kind of musical thought, because it so closely resembles his own. At times it seems as if he and Holland could improvise in unison if they wished. Tony Williams had a greater range of timbres and moods under control than DeJohnette does, but the latter is just right for this group. He sounds something like Elvin Jones with a lighter touch, and he really loves to swing in a bashing, exuberant manner.

Wayne Shorter’s approach to improvisation, in which emotion is simultaneously expressed and “discussed” (i.e., spontaneously found motifs are worked out to their farthest implications with an eyes-open, conscious control), has a great appeal for me. The busyness and efficiency of a man at work can have an abstract beauty apart from the task. Of course, Shorter’s playing has more overt emotional qualities of tenderness or passion which can give pleasure to the listener.

The problem with such an approach lies in keeping inspiration open and fresh, maintaining a balance between spontaneity and control. Here, Shorter’s recent adoption of the soprano saxophone is interesting. A master craftsman of the tenor, he already has great technical control of the second instrument, and its newness seems to have opened areas of emotion for him on both horns. Often, while Davis solos, one can see Shorter hesitate between the soprano and tenor before deciding which to play. It’s a fruitful kind of indecision. Shorter once referred to his soprano as “the baby”, and I think I know what he meant.

About Davis there’s not much new to say, except to note that he is to some degree responsible for every virtue of the group’s members mentioned above, and that he uses all of them to achieve the effects he wants. He is the leader in the best sense of the term. Playing almost constantly at the limit of his great ability, he inspires the others by his example. There is no shucking in this band, and if Davis occasionally is less than serious in his improvising, as he was one night on “Milestones,” mocking the symmetrical grace of his mid-fifties style, one soon realizes that he is serious after all.

With this version of the Miles Davis Quintet, one aspect of jazz has been brought to a degree of ripeness that has few parallels in the history of the music. Now let’s hope that Davis and Columbia decide to record the group in person.

[sidewinder]

Thanks for that. All very true - particularly the comments about the virtues of Holland, Corea and DeJohnette in this band and the incredible mastery of time by all. I don't think Chick ever did anything better than his work on these live recordings. Astonishing.

I notice that CD6 (which I'm just trying out) was recorded at Ronnie Scott's, allegedly as part of a TV broadcast. I was under the impression that the master tapes for this one had been wiped by the Beeb (like so much 1960s BBC jazz) - anyone know if the video still survives?

Edited April 15, 2006 by sidewinder

[tonym]

Tony - having saved the Torrent detals you then need to run file transfer software to actually transfer the files. I use 'Bit Torrent', which is available on the net as freeware.

The Miles set is 12CDs and about 3.5GByte in size so it takes a wee while, to say the least. The files are transferred in 'Shorten' compressed format so you will then need some software to decompress to 'wav' format to transfer to CD. I've found the 'mkw Audio Compression Toolkit' does the job nicely as it allows drag and drop instead of nasty DOS command lines.

All in all a real pain ( ) but the music is truly worth it in the end. The Duffy's Tavern CDs (first 2 in this set) are truly amazing stuff, really lo-fi but quite fascinating.

Some good cover art to run off on the printer too, making this collection something of a 'DIY Mosaic'.

Thanks mate, i'm trying the first part of this now!

[tonym]

Now...should I be getting a box appearing like this for hours on end, with no visible sign that info is downloading?

[sidewinder]

Afternoon !

Looks like it's now downloading properly. When functioning you should see a scroll bar showing progress and listing both download rate and upload rate (if you are also uploading to other machines).

As an example, here's one I have on the go:

[couw]

Now...should I be getting a box appearing like this for hours on end, with no visible sign that info is downloading?

no, it should actually download. What are you trying to download anyway? GTA.wmv?? GTA as in Grand Theft Auto? Check whether there are actual seeders for this torrent.

[tonym]

Now...should I be getting a box appearing like this for hours on end, with no visible sign that info is downloading?

no, it should actually download. What are you trying to download anyway? GTA.wmv?? GTA as in Grand Theft Auto? Check whether there are actual seeders for this torrent.

Hi John, no i'm trying to get the 'lost quintet' stuff which was discussed above, that is just a screenshot from Wikipedia! But it accurately displays what I'm seeing. Help!!!!

[Indestructible!]

Hi Tonym,

Are there any seeders online for that torrent? If not, then the image you attached is what you would see in BitTorrent (also often referred to as the "Mainline" client). Once a seeder jumps online, and is connectable to you, you will see some progress (i.e., the progress bar will fill in, and the "? remaining" will change to an actual estimated time it will take to complete the download).

If you'd like to discuss this more via PM, I'd be glad to do so... don't want to get into this too much, since many Torrent sites like to keep things on the down low.

Edit: Tony, if the screen shot you posted on the last page is really yours... where you were using the uTorrent client (I prefer this one myself, after years of using BitTorrent)... I can see that there are no seeders or leechers on the Miles Lost Quintet torrent you are trying to download. This would explain why you aren't downloading anything... there's nobody online that is sharing at the moment!

Cheers,

Shane

Edited April 17, 2006 by Indestructible!

[tonym]

Done!

Thanks fellas!

[sidewinder]

Splendid. It is indeed worth all of the aggro !

Now you just have to download those 7 or 8 live Miles DVDs and the Buddy Rich 'Talk of the Town' DVD

[tonym]

Splendid. It is indeed worth all of the aggro !

Now you just have to download those 7 or 8 live Miles DVDs and the Buddy Rich 'Talk of the Town' DVD

Aggro? nah, it was a piece of cake I'm now listening to the intro to Bitches Brew...whew!

now I need a decent printer to, like you said, compile a nice little set.

[sidewinder]

I've got all 12 disks in their individual plastic sleevs with the bespoke snazzy artwork and track listings. Just need to put them all now in a blank black box ( ). At some stage I'll add the custom CD labels.

[tonym]

I've got all 12 disks in their individual plastic sleevs with the bespoke snazzy artwork and track listings. Just need to put them all now in a blank black box ( ). At some stage I'll add the custom CD labels.

Anorak....

[sidewinder]