Miles Davis - In Person at the Blackhawk, San Francisco (Friday Night, Volume 1)

If you ever took the time to check out all of Miles Davis’ recordings and looked into how vast it is, you’d be stunned. Wikipedia has it broken down into studio recordings, live recordings, compilations, by record label and so much more and on Allmusic’s site, when you click on either Albums or Compilations, the page takes a good while to load. So it goes without saying that Davis' catalog is deep and still, so much of it is considered essential to this day.

His 1961 performances at the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco must have been something special to watch. He performed on a Friday and Saturday on April 21 & 22 with his quintet which consisted of him on trumpet, Hank Mobley on sax, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums – tremendous musicians for sure. Not only was this groundbreaking for a jazz musician to take his combo to a club but the music was a brilliantly rendered thing of beauty. Check out “Bye Bye Blackbird” and its amazing rendition:


The entire set was re-issued on what appears to be an excellent release and recording back in 2003 but sadly, I only own the Friday performance on vinyl. I was fortunate to even find just that first volume because even at just six compositions, you can really sense the unity and cohesiveness in the band. Davis was THE master at surrounding himself with talented musicians that were sometimes, better than him (check out all his stuff with John Coltrane) but in a live setting, he never held back. His rhythm section creates memorable patterns and the type of jazz he was playing at the time (straight ahead and fierce) is truly felt on this live recording. Probably the most important musician in the 20th century, here is another song off the Friday set, “Love, I’ve Found You” – Bryan

Miles Davis – Sketches of Spain

So old music huh?

I’ve always felt that 1959 is still, arguably, the best year for music of all time. And I know that people scoff or laugh at me for even thinking in such a way but when certain years like that come up, they need to be discussed. I mean you had releases by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, TWO albums by Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman. And again, arguably, one could make the case that for each album those respective artists put out, they never released anything better. And when you think of the most ‘famous’ one, Miles Davis, Kind of Blue is most definitely, the most easily loved/regarded/mentioned album of his. And he had the most prolific, the deepest and one of the best discographies of all time.

And for the longest time, I always assumed that Sketches of Spain, one of my favorite albums of his was released in 1959 – that lasted for a good five or so years until someone politely pointed out that it was released in 1960. And with that, there is this masterful album that finds the American jazz composer/trumpeter paired with Gil Evans to collaborate on a jazz album composed and derived from the Spanish music itself. In many ways, it’s his most accessible album in that it strays so far from the standard jazz feel and sense. I mean, a jazz album has to be freely moving and fluid enough to know that half of it was pure improv but Sketches of Spain moves as if two brilliant composers entirely created it themselves. Naturally, this is not a complaint but merely, a point of observation but in other words, you’ll find many that love this album just as much and if not more than the aforementioned Davis album.

Regardless of where it stands in terms of styles of music, it’s gorgeously rendered through the lens of a creative genius that was hitting on all cylinders. The use of an orchestra is immense here with sounds of a tuba, bassoon and string bass all riding high on the album’s opening magic, “Concierto de Aranjuez” (Adagio),” [found below (one piece but split into two)], which was actually borrowed by Davis and Evans from Joaquín Rodrigo. While the second side consists of three exceptional pieces all written by Evans, it is the both of them that present an album that is just as memorable now, as it was fifty years ago.

I loved it when Davis answered, after being questioned on the album’s sounds and if they could even be considered jazz if not another style of music, “It’s music, and I like it.” – Bryan