Miles Ahead

 

P R O G R A M  N O T E S
 

Once again, as when I recorded “Sketches of Spain” at Manhattan School of Music, I found myself facing the incredible challenge of playing a piece that is intrinsically linked to the sound and style of Miles Davis during the golden period of his collaboration with Gil Evans in the late 1950s. “Sketches” takes the musician into a programmatic and very atmospheric environment, tinged with modal flavors and exotic moods. In “Miles Ahead,” the material is much more jazzlike, with traditional chords and melodies and more than the usual number of ballads, much of it saturated by the blues. In some ways, this “Ahead” is easier for a jazz musician like myself to handle, although in many cases, the diversity of material and its
delicacy demands a different set of skills. Exchanging the soprano sax for the trumpet allows me to shape the music in some ways, but the specter of Miles is always there. I have tried my best to be true to his approach. That means not playing more than is necessary, concentrating on tone and color, and above all staying lyrical. The challenge is daunting, and I thank Justin DiCioccio, who has come to understand my style over the years, for allowing me to experience a piece of jazz history once again. And I owe much gratitude to the incredible students who gave so much to get the music right.
Dave Liebman

 

In 1956, Miles Davis played his way out of his contract with Prestige Records by doing two famed marathon recording sessions. In so doing, he was free to sign with Columbia Records. Actually, he had already recorded for Columbia in 1955 with the same quintet with which he taped for Prestige a month later in ‘55 and the two dates in 1956—John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. But under the agreement that fulfilled his obligations to Prestige came a restraint clause stating that Columbia could not release its sessions until 1957. Columbia was a major label with a publicity arm and strong distribution machinery able to market Davis to a much wider audience. It also had the capacity to finance the types of projects that were impossible for the smaller, although important, independents such as Prestige. So while the Davis quintet was breaking out on the two above-mentioned labels in 1957, Columbia began to hatch a plan to increase Davis’s listenership to even greater proportions. He was a featured soloist in an album called Music for Brass, a forerunner in the style to be dubbed “third stream jazz,” recorded late in 1956 but released the following year. Playing compositions by John Lewis and J.J. Johnson, Miles appeared on both trumpet and flugelhorn. His sound on the latter horn convinced producer George Avakian that it should be his sole instrument on a large undertaking that would reunite Davis with Gil Evans, the arranger who had played a major role in the extremely influential Davis Nonet of the 1948–50 period, the band that had recorded what came to be known as the “birth of the cool” sessions. Here, however, Avakian wanted them to expand on the size and, henceforth, the sound of the Nonet with Miles as the only soloist. Miles Ahead, named for a piece cowritten by Gil and Miles,
became the title of the album. It was a huge success, leading to two more Davis-Evans collaborations: Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain.
These sessions comprise a Bermuda Triangle of music in which not many are disinclined to get lost. Miles Ahead includes “Springsville” by Johnny
Carisi, another of the participants in the “birth of the cool,” as well as two pieces arranged (Delibes’s “Maids of Cádiz”) and written and arranged
(“Blues For Pablo”) by Evans. Each in its own way presages Sketches of Spain. In addition, the CD includes Bobby Troup’s “The Meaning of the Blues,” J.J. Johnson’s “Lament,” Dave Brubeck’s “The Duke,” Kurt Weill’s “My Ship,” “New Rhumba,” reflecting Miles’s strong interest in the music of Ahmad Jamal. and “I Don’t Wanna Be Kissed (By Anyone Else But You),” an older pop song by Spina and Elliott that, if I’m not mistaken, Miles picked up on from Clark Terry.

In addition to arranging these numbers, Evans also wrote transitional interludes to be played between the selections, so that the entire work would
take on the feeling of a suite. It is a culmination of Gil’s work for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra and the Nonet, brought together in a new orchestral setting.

Dave Liebman has already recorded a successful concert version of “Sketches of Spain” with the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra under the baton of Justin DiCioccio. Here, he brings that same saxophonic acumen and individuality to Miles Ahead. Those of us who are used to hearing this music played by the flugelhorn of Miles Davis will discover new joys, as did Liebman himself in this performance.

Ira Gitler

C R E D I T S
Recorded on November 10, 2005,
John C. Borden Auditorium, Manhattan School of Music
Recorded by Charles Myers Recording Studio,
Manhattan School of Music
Recording Engineer: Tom Lazarus
Assistant Recording Engineers: Richard H. Kim, Matthew
Blostein, Noriko Okabe
Mixing and Mastering: Tom Lazarus and Tony Gillis,
Classic Sound, Inc.
Producers: Justin DiCioccio and Dave Liebman
Production Coordinator: Mark Micklethwaite
Manager of Jazz Administration: Chris Rosenberg
Photography by R. Andrew Lepley