Sunday, July 5, 2009

Miles Davis & Gil Evans

1957-1968 Complete Columbia Studio Recordings

4 comments:

marram62 said...

Recordings with Gil Evans

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Davis recorded a series of albums with Gil Evans, often playing flugelhorn as well as trumpet. The first, Miles Ahead (1957), showcased his playing with a jazz big band and a horn section beautifully arranged by Evans. Songs included Dave Brubeck's "The Duke," as well as Léo Delibes' "The Maids Of Cadiz," the first piece of European classical music Davis had recorded. Another distinctive feature of the album were the orchestral passages that Evans had devised as transitions among the different tracks, that were then joined together with the innovative use of editing in the post-production phase, turning each side of the album into a seamless piece of music.

In 1958, Davis and Evans were back in the studio for the recording of Porgy and Bess, an arrangement of pieces from George Gershwin's opera of the same name. The orchestra lineup included three members of the sextet: Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. Davis named the album one of his own favorites.

Sketches of Spain (1959–1960) featured songs by contemporary Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo and also Manuel de Falla, as well as Gil Evans originals with a Spanish theme. Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall (1961) includes Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, along with other songs recorded at a concert with an orchestra under Evans' direction.

Sessions in 1962 resulted in the album Quiet Nights, a short collection of bossa nova songs that was released against the wishes of both artists. That was the last time that the two created a full album again. In his autobiography, Davis noted that ". . . my best friend is Gil Evans".

marram62 said...

http://rapidshare.com/files/252111090/_with_Gil_Evans__1957-1968_d1-d2.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/252120288/_with_Gil_Evans__1957-1968_d3-d4.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/252124351/5of6_The_Making_Of_Miles_Ahead.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/252133585/6of6_Alternate___Rehearsals.rar

Samuel said...

Wow, this is a pretty amazing blog... I'm quite fascinated by the rehearsal sequences - and these are very high quality audio - very nice of you to put them up here?

Anonymous said...

Nice post. Too bad links are dead and not avaiable. Need an update.