Jazz is sometimes a foreign language to me. I’m not necessarily
\nreferring to the music; rather, the way that many other writers can
\nbreak down a song or arrangement into such minute details that it
\nalmost feels like I’m reading Scientific American rather than a
\nmusic review. Nevertheless, I find myself in awe of these writers,
\nfor they seem to hear more than I can. They break down the nuances;
\nall I can do is go with my gut instinct.<\/p>\n
When it comes to
\nRound About Midnight<\/i>, the debut release on Columbia for jazz
\nlegend Miles Davis, that gut instinct tells me that I’m listening
\nto something that’s magical, yet still somewhat in development.
\n(Note: Since I first got my copy of this disc, it has been
\nre-issued with bonus tracks originally included on
\nThe Complete Miles Davis\/John Coltrane Sessions<\/i>, a set in my
\n“someday I’ll get to it” pile.)<\/p>\n
If anything, this disc is less of a showcase for Davis (who
\nknows when to take the forefront in the music and when to let his
\nsidemen take the spotlight) than it is for saxophonist John
\nColtrane, who gets what turns out to be his big break on this disc.
\nWithout upstaging his boss, Coltrane delivers some powerful
\nsaxophone work that quickly cements his place as a legend in the
\nworld of jazz. Where Davis seemed to play things low-key in his
\nsolos for the most part, Coltrane wasn’t afraid to turn the burners
\nup and let things start cooking.<\/p>\n
Take the title track, “‘Round Midnight,” for starters. A slow
\nbuild on Davis’s muted trumpet leads to a transitional chorus and
\nthe more powerful showcase of Coltrane’s solo. That statement seems
\nto bolster the performances of pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul
\nChambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones, as the energy level is
\nraised by more than a few degrees. Yet this isn’t all due simply to
\nColtrane’s performance; rather, it is the wisdom of Davis to
\ncontrol how the energy built in the performance that is just as
\nimportant.<\/p>\n
In a similar way, performances like those on “Bye Bye
\nBlackbird,” “Dear Old Stockholm” and “Tadd’s Delight” demonstrate
\nthat while Davis was undoubtedly a master on the trumpet, he knew
\nthe right moment to let his bandmates step forward and push the
\nmusic to new levels.<\/p>\n
Still, there are times when it feels like the chemistry is still
\nin the experimental stage, and it takes a long time for the
\nlistener to grasp even a partial understanding of what Davis and
\ncrew were trying to accomplish. “All of You” is one of these
\nmoments; a beautiful performance in and of itself, it requires a
\nlot of concentration on the listener’s part to fully appreciate
\nwhat is going on. For that matter, the whole album is cerebral in
\nmany facets, and is not really suited for just putting on as
\nbackground music while you clean the house. Like the members of his
\nband, Davis demands that you think.<\/p>\n
The highlight of the set is “Ah-Leu-Cha,” a Charlie Parker piece
\nthat captures the frantic energy of jazz that I happen to love.
\nWhile I do wish that Chambers had been pushed up a little in the
\nmix, what the listener is presented with here is an almost
\nsix-minute slab of raw power, sounding as fresh today as it did
\nnearly 50 years ago. It’s almost a good thing that this track
\ndidn’t open the album, as that much energy so soon could have had a
\nnegative impact on the rest of the disc.<\/p>\n
\nRound About Midnight<\/i> turned out to be just one transition in
\nDavis’s career; by the time the album was released, the band had
\nbeen broken up. (It would come back together a year later, adding
\nCannonball Adderley to the mix.) While I don’t pretend to be an
\nexpert in all things related to Davis, this disc does seem like a
\nvery comfortable place for my fellow neophytes to start from. This
\nalbum gives the listener a good foundation in what Davis was about
\nwithout overwhelming them right from the get-go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7400],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37514","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-miles-davis","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37514"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}