During the 1950s, the careers of trumpeter Miles Davis and saxophonist Sonny Rollins were ascending to their eventual legendary statuses, due to their great musical talents and in spite of their dangerous vices. Over the course of five days from 1951 to 1956, they recorded 25 tracks together for Prestige Records, and were backed at those sessions by well-known artists, such as saxophonist Charlie Parker; pianist Horace Silver; bassists Percy Heath and Paul Chambers; and drummers Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, and Philly Joe Jones. All of the material has been previously released over seven different albums, but now it is available in one glorious, two-disc set from Concord Music
Disc 1 opens with John Lewis’ “Morpheus,” an up-tempo piece that brings to mind the hustle and bustle of a city’s nightlife as the horns exchange leads. On the Rodgers and Hart composition “Blue Room (Take 1)” it’s apparent the masters weren’t cared for as a hiss can be heard. “(Take 2)” is much cleaner; however, Rollins sat out so Miles played throughout the piece. “I Know,” recorded for Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet, finds Miles delivering a more than adequate performance on piano as Rollins’ horn takes the spotlight.
Tracks 7-13 are from the October 5, 1951 session, a time when artists were now making full use of the potential LPs offered by allowing their compositions and performances to expand past the three-minute limit previously imposed by 78s. Unbound by time constraints, the pieces stretch to four, five, even ten minutes, and the musicians really soar when they take the lead. On Miles’ “Denial,” Blakey’s presence is the main force propelling the band at a solid pace. “Bluing” finds the band in a sweet, slow groove, almost too laid back as Blakely keeps playing after everyone and Miles can be heard chastising him, “Play the ending, man. You know the arrangement.”
Article comments
1 - Greg Barbrick
Nice piece, this sounds like an excellent package. I have always dug the Prestige stuff of Miles, Sonny, and Coltrane as it (to use your word) foreshadows what was to come from these artists.
Sounds worthy of checking out.
Greg
2 - El Bicho
Thanks. It is sweet having them altogether; I have both the recent Miles and Coltrane Prestige releases as well. Apparently when Glen told me you already reviewed this, he misspoke. Got to watch that guy.