There is no trumpet solo in "I Can't Get Started," but judging from the phrasing
and choice of notes, Davis is among the soloists on "Rose Room" and "Night and Day."
On the former, he plays phrases that echo his solo on "Jump Call" from
another Carter date from around this time. On the latter, the phrase at 3:57-3:59
is the same as that from take 1 of "Don't Sing Me the Blues" (0:32-0:34), recorded
in Los Angeles in October. The abbreviated
solo on the incomplete "One O'Clock Jump" at the end of the set is probably Howard
McGhee: at 1:44-1:46 a phrase appears that is repeated at 1:48-1:50 of McGhee's
solo on "Back Bay Boogie" from the April 29
Jubilee session.
Davis joined the Carter band after a January 1946 engagement at the Riviera Club
in St. Louis, and traveled to Los Angeles in February. Looking back years later,
Carter remarked,
When Miles joined me it was quite clear that he was already thinking along
different lines. But he was a good reader and certainly had no trouble with
the book. (Quoted in Morroe Berger, Ed Berger, and James Patrick,
Benny Carter: A Life in American Music, Vol. 2, p. 123)
In addition to playing with Carter's orchestra and a smaller Carter group, Davis
began sitting in with Charlie Parker at the Finale Club. In March he became a
regular member of the Parker Quintet, and he participated in a Dial session on
March 28. He continued to play regularly
with Carter's bands, as evidenced by a March
31 broadcast from the Streets of Paris. Eventually the musicians' union
caught up with him and he was fined. He chose to leave the Carter group; but
exactly when this happened is not clear. On April 12 Parker brought an
eight-piece band -- Davis, Britt Woodman (tb), Parker, Lucky Thompson (ts), Dodo
Marmarosa (p), Arvin Garrison (g), Red Callendar (b), and Perc White (d) -- to a
concert at UCLA's Royce Hall Auditorium, sponsored by the Carver Club. Also on the bill were Lester Young, the Nat Cole
Trio, Herb Jeffries, and Kay Starr. There is a nice review in the June 1946
issue of Metronome magazine.
I am grateful to Craig Neilson for his help with this session, and to Tommaso Urbano
for his expertise in identifying the trumpet solos.
Thanks also to Robert Shoji for pointing me to the UCLA Carver Club photos
and for sharing with me the Metronome review.
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