 Miles Davis One of the few great Miles Davis albums that is not easily available in the States, Miles in Tokyo documents the short-lived membership of Sam Rivers in the classic Miles quintet of the mid-60s. This was right before Wayne Shorter joined and the band started making record after record of simply incredible music. Miles was in a sort of transitional phase, slowly letting go of his conservatism and beginning to really push things further out. This band (Herbie Hancock on piano, Tony Williams on drums, Ron Carter on bass, Rivers on tenor and of course Miles on trumpet) was just beginning to change the classic Miles Davis sound – he was still playing lots of the same old standards in his set, but the band is playing them much further out than usual. Miles apparently did not gel at all with Rivers, who is still one of the more underrated sax guys in jazz history. His later Blue Note records exemplify his playing much better (he's more straightlaced in the context of this Miles band), and if you want to hear some real screamin' from Rivers, check out his duet record with bassist Dave Holland on ECM. Lots of critics dismiss his brief sojourn in the Miles quintet as a holding pattern for the group, or a failed audition, but actually, it's pretty cool to hear him with Miles, 'cause it's almost like having '64 Coltrane play with '64 Miles. Sam's solo on "So What" is fucking riotous. That number in particular is pushed by the band (especially Williams and Rivers) into something almost totally unrecognizable from the classic Kind of Blue recording. It's nasty and glorious. The whole album is pretty glorious, actually. I think it was only released in Japan (I have a 90s CD reissue of it with carefully reproduced cardboard sleeve and everything – quite nice), but it's well worth seeking out (certainly Legacy wil release it in the US at some point). "If I Were a Bell" and "My Funny Valentine" are slow and moody, a bit darker with this band than with the previous quintet (George Coleman, Wynton Kelly, et al). "So What" tears like a motherfucker, "Walkin" is frantic and explosive like never before (Williams is INSANE on this one), and "All of You" closes things in more of a straightforward manner, almost cocktail jazz until a brief bit of "The Theme" bursts forth at the end. Miles himself, as with most recordings from this period, is pretty much 100% on the whole time, and Hancock is thoughtful and interesting throughout. I t's a great record, and you get the cheesy Japanese announcer introducing the band to boot. The only real drawback is that the programming is geared for "album" format, i.e. pauses between songs, rather than flowing like a concert. But that's a minor league complaint considering the total quality of the music itself. I love the Plugged Nickel recordings (with Shorter), and adore the Blackhawk albums (with Coleman) but Miles in Tokyo may be my secret favorite Miles live album. Listening to this makes you wonder what the hell people were thinking in 1964, screamin' about those lads from Liverpool when all this great jazz was happenin'.
Review by Alan Aldo |