Miles & Pres together!

[Jazzrook]

I was astonished to discover recently a live version of 'How High The Moon' with the unique line-up of Miles Davis, Lester Young & the MJQ!
It was recorded in Freiburg, Germany on November 12, 1956 and can also be found on 'Miles Davis European Tour '56'(DEFINITIVE DRCD 11294).
This rare meeting of jazz masters can be heard here:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_rADMwo_j8

[Serial_Apologist]

I was astonished to discover recently a live version of 'How High The Moon' with the unique line-up of Miles Davis, Lester Young & the MJQ!
It was recorded in Freiburg, Germany on November 12, 1956 and can also be found on 'Miles Davis European Tour '56'(DEFINITIVE DRCD 11294).
This rare meeting of jazz masters can be heard here:-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_rADMwo_j8

I tend to hear things best first thing in the morning, but.... what a terrific track!!!

Obviously I've done a lot of listening since I first heard Ornette (on record around '63) - "Blues Connotation" - and realized one did not have to deliver fusillades of notes when improvising at a fast tempo. (Still being fixated on Bird I felt a capitalistic relationship between the worth of a performance and the numkber of notes it contained ) But here was Lester doing just that messing with rhythmic structure in 1956!!! Whatever Pres was on - and I know there's some will put this performance down to that or exhaustion - to me, today, it makes complete sense. And I guess it made sense to Sony Rollins, who must've heard this performance before putting down his own HHTM a year or so later with Barney Kessell, which has remarkable similarities. Well well

Pretty fine solo from Miles too - very high register a short way into his solo, still unusual up to that time. Goiod to know the MJQ could still really cook when it needed to!

Great start for Saturday - thanks for this, jazzrook!

S-A

[Jazzrook]

Glad you liked the track, Serial-Apologist. Lester's solo knocks me out. Wouldn't it be great to hear this track on JRR sometime?

[Jazzrook]

More Miles & Pres ~ 'Lady Be Good'
With Rene Urtreger(piano), Pierre Michelot(bass) & Christian Garros(drums)
Recorded Switzerland, November 19, 1956

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xewzFyT5WuA

[Ian Thumwood]

This is incredible and thanks for posting the links. I never appreciated that Miles and Pres played together. It must have been pretty radical at the time albeit the passage of 55 years doesn't make the music sound as incongruous as it may have seemed then.

I'm a fan of both musicians but I think that the second track is much the better of the two with Miles being in mazaingly good form. I'm not so sure about Lester Young. He seems badly out of sorts on "How high the moon" and the phrases don't really swing. His timing isn't that good either and this track seems demonstrative of how his powers had declined by then. I agree with SA's comments about YOung's ability to play with time but don't think this is a particularly good example as Young sounds poor on this track. However, this is some of the most consistent early Miles I've heard - prior to the formation of the first Quintet and the Gil Evans stuff, I find he can be a bit hit and miss in this era - no doubt due to his drug addiction. Odd to hear a band with three very "minimal" soloists (John Lewis being the other) in it.

Fascinating to hear Rene Urtreger with the second group. Nice solo, almost akin to someone like Sonny Clark. I saw him at Vienne several years ago in a mainstream / modern group with, I think, Dany Doriz on vibes. Young is much better on this track and the whole band seems tighter. It is a much better band, in my opinion. Young and Davis

Thanks for posting these links.