This is the first extant live recording of Davis' new working quintet.
The new Miles Davis Quintet -- Davis, Coleman, Hancock, Carter, Williams -- went
into Columbia's 30th Street Studio on May 14, then hit the road: Bowdoin College,
Brunswick ME (May 17 -- listed as the Miles Davis Sestet); Jazz Villa, St. Louis
(May 27-June 4); Sutherland Lounge, Chicago (June 5-16); Jazz Temple, Cleveland
(June 20-23 -- listed as the Miles Davis Sextet); Village Vanguard, New York (July
2-14).
A review of the June 6 show (Davis was booked alongside Redd Foxx) was effusive:
There is a giant in our midst. More specifically, Miles Davis is at
the Sutherland Lounge. He has a completely new group to play with on this trip (Tony
Williams, drums; George Coleman, tenor; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ronald Jarrett, bass)
but Miles' artistry remains at the same high level.
Caught during two sets Thursday, he romped through "Straight, No Chaser,"
"Autumn Leaves," "So What," "If I Were a Bell," and "Milestones" with more bubbling
energy than we've heard in a long time. If, in the last few years, Miles has played
with an economy of sound, building inner tensions with tone coloration, then the
vault was opened Thursday and all those saved up notes, searing runs and pulsating
rhythmic figures came flooding out. The tempos were more torrid than remembered...
"Ronald Jarrett" is probably a mangled reference to Ron Carter, though of course
Donald Garrett was a well-known Chicago bassist. But Carter appears to have been
with the group throughout this period.
I am grateful to Bill White for help with this session.
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