This double-disc anthology Take Off: The Complete Blue Note Albums compiles tracks jazz trumpeter Miles Davis recorded for Blue Note Records during theĀ '50s.
These are recordings made after Davis left Prestige, but not including the 1949ā1950 sessions later released as the classic 1957Ā album Birth of the Cool. Here, instead, we get recordings that were initially released as 10" LPs titled Young Man with a Horn, Miles Davis, Vol. 2, and Miles Davis, Vol. 3.Ā Also included are all of the alternate takes that accompanied the original releases. Backing Davis on these sessions is a veritable who'sĀ who of future jazz hall of famers, including drummer Art Blakey, pianist Horace Silver, saxophonist Jackie McLean, and others.
Review:
The 2014Ā double-disc anthology Take Off: The Complete Blue Note Albums
compiles tracks jazz trumpeter Miles Davis recorded for Blue Note Records during
the ā50s. These are recordings made after Davis left Prestige, but not
including the 1949ā1950 sessions later released as the classic 1957Ā album
Birth of the Cool. Here, instead, we get recordings that were initially released
as 10" LPs titled Young Man with a Horn, Miles Davis, Vol. 2, and Miles Davis,
Vol. 3.Ā Also included are all of the alternate takes that accompanied the
original releases. Backing Davis on these sessions is a veritable who'sĀ who of
future jazz hall of famers, including drummer Art Blakey, pianist Horace Silver,
saxophonist Jackie McLean, and others. These recordings were made during a
comparatively fallow period in Davisā career, just as he was emerging from his
initial bout with heroin addiction. Here, cuts like the sanguine
āYesterdaysā and the poignant āIt Never Entered My Mindā reveal a
darker, if no less melodic, version of the trumpeter who had previously paid his
dues, chasing the shadow of Dizzy Gillespie in Charlie Parker'sĀ quintet. In
fact, Davis tackles several Gillespie-associated compositions here, including
āWoody āN Youā and āRay'sĀ Idea,ā delivering them in his own
understated, if no less bravura, style. This is the beginning of Davis the
minimalist, eschewing flowery asides for straightforward, unadorned melodic line
readings and improvisations played in a vibrato-free eighth-note style. In that
sense, these cuts prefigure the more aggressive hard bop and harmonically
challenging post-bop of the '60s; styles that Davis later helped to innovate
with his āfirst great quintet.ā Ultimately, the tracks on Take Off: The
Complete Blue Note Albums point the way toward Davisā landmark Columbia albums
that transformed him from one of the best jazz trumpeters on the N.Y.C. scene
into an international superstar.
All Music GuideĀ ā MattĀ Collar