The Definitive Miles Davis on Prestige

By Magda Underdown-DuBois

For the most part, I tend to be attracted to bluesy lyrics that grip my gut and pull me involuntarily into sound and words. Instrumental jazz, like classical music, usually blends into background for me. Yet, I was introduced to the trumpeter/band leader Miles Davis by a dear ex-housemate, whose taste for adventure extends from Frank Zappa to Hot Chip. With that recommendation in mind, I committed to the experience of a two-disc set—The Definitive Miles Davis on Prestige.

Originally recorded during the early 1950s while Davis was under contract with Prestige records, disc one is a five-year compilation of various sessions with ad-hoc ensembles, including such familiar names as John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. Although each song features a different set of players recording during various time periods, the coherence of Davis’s band leadership yields smooth transitions and a consistent and holistic feeling.

Many of these works were contributed by individual players and demonstrate originality in composition and style, such as “Walkin'” (which inspires images of a confident person taking a stroll, head up, one foot in front of the other and taking one’s time) or “In Your Sweet Way” (which comes off both seductive and soft, featuring Davis playing with a Harmon mute).

While the liner notes include reproductions of album cover images and biographical commentary for each song on the first disc, the second disc is treated as a whole work, featuring the Prestige history of the band Davis established around 1955: Sonny Rollins, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, and then later, John Coltrane.

By the mid-1950s, Davis was focusing more on the standards and ballads of the time rather than original compositions. Still, one may not expect Oklahoma’s “Surrey With a Fringe on Top” to be included as the second track. The piece is neither the traditional interpretation as belted out by Hugh Jackman in 1999 nor the karaoke version from When Harry Met Sally. Like bluegrass, jazz takes the rules and breaks them. Under Davis’ direction, his bandmates twist the melody and add their own improvisation with precise, brassy attitude.

Again, the unexpected is delivered with the tune “Salt Peanuts”, which brings to mind majestic elephants under a circus tent, but instead diverges toward a mad frenzy of fast-paced notes and ever-changing melodies tossed back and forth between trumpet and percussion. Perhaps the song would have been better titled “Sugar High.”

Both discs feature long songs—averaging five to seven minutes apiece—with a few exceptional extremes swinging from two to over ten minutes. Running through sound like a giant jam session, it is amazing that the gifted players never run each other over. Time is allowed for everyone’s personal interpretation, as long as the foundation of rhythm and melody are kept holy.

My ex-housemate, as well as many other jazz experimenters, will be pleased with this release of rarely heard early treasures, but the liner notes were the key to giving value to someone like me, a lyrics-based blues girl. As Frannie Kelley of NPR recently wrote in her piece “Everything You Know About This Band Is Wrong”, “[W]e NEED stories about music, and those stories really do change how we hear the music.” Because of the text accompanying the CDs, I was able to relate to the stories behind the music, personalizing it for my own perspective: from recognizing that “Bags’ Groove” reminds one of The Odd Couple TV theme, to seeing the cleverness of “Airegin” as Nigeria spelled backwards, and valuing “The Theme” as Davis’ band’s traditional short, but sweet closer.

The Definitive Miles Davis on Prestige was released by Concord Music Group on April 5.