Customer Reviews

The Complete Columbia Studio Sessions, 1965-68

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This is my favorite of the box sets that I own by Miles. By far, when the package says "complete" it is COMPLETE. Miles Davis never sounded better along with Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Wayner Shorter providing the sax, and Tony Williams on drums. The set is remastered 20-bit digital and never sounded so silky. You can feel Ron Carter pluck away on the bass hitting you square in the chest. Mr Williams excellent brush/stick work shines. You feel as if you are there. There are 56 tracks to be heard, of which 43 are "master takes" with the other 13 Alternate, Rehearsal, etc. tracks (which, compared to the other sets it a great plus). The cover art on the discs are beautiful...my only complaint is that it was a book like feel. You can't see the disc..they should have made some sort of foldout package was you can lay the discs out in front of you with a seperate book with its materials. However the print is finally done right (see my other reviews on miles davis box sets "w/John Coltrane" & "Gil Evans"). You can read the print without feeling you are going to break the spine. With such beauty (content and packaging) it's no wonder it won a Grammy. If you're asked, "what music would you want to have on a desert island"....this is it!

The box set is nothing short of amazing. Mere acolades do it no justice. This musicians and music within the confines of a mere box....

The quintet could not have been more diverse-

Miles, the old school legend who is not old school, who shaped jazz several times already before 1965, knowing he has found THE group..innovative, cool, self-assured, has the jazz world at his feet, but never satisfied to stand around...he has that restless itch again...

Wayne Shorter, the tenor sax player who pushed Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers to new heights of hard bop yet at the same time a sensitive, lyrical player and composer...the cayalyst for change with his writing, the perfect solo foil to Miles..

Herbie Hancock, the young, gifted pianist and composer from Blue Note..already a seasoned session veteran while still in his early 20's..young, gifted, innovative, restless...has played with some of the avant garde and "New Thing" players, sees their merits, pushes for looser structures...loves electronic instruments and will help to re-define jazz with them...

Ron Carter, the intellectual bassist who held the group together with his solid bass structures. Classically as well as jazz trained, Carter in some ways is old school, but is no less lyrical or radical in the way he presents his tool of the trade,,can hold the fort down or can run away with the rest of the group..structured yet unafraid..

Tony Williams- the kid. A veteran and prodigy at a mere 18 years old..flies in the face of convention, throws inhibition to the wind..speeds things up with reckless abandon, flailing his cymbals, upping the ante..destroys and re-defines tempos...is new school, sees the changes in both jazz and pop music and will evolve with it, forming jazz's first fusion band...

The results of the convergence of these 5 men are some of the most startling lps in jazz history..."ESP" introduces the band; "Miles Smiles" showcases the band's power and ferocity; "Sorcerer" and "Nefertiti" show the band's emerging lyricism- Wayne Shorter's songs are deep and lyrical; "Miles In The Sky" and "Filles de Killmanjaro" show the band in transition-the songs are becoming more pop like, electronic keyboards and electric bass introduced..Miles and Shorter's ideas transposed by Hancock and Williams (and later Chick Corea and Dave Holland, George Benson and Joe Beck and Joe Zawinul) into hybird pieces of jazz and pop rock.

The fact that this all happened in 6 lps (7 if you count the hard to find "Water Babies" lp) over the course of a mere 3 years is astounding..the growth of these men is like watching an old film of Babe Ruth galloping at supersonic speed around the bases after a mammoth home run, knowing he will hit another one his next time at bat...

Folks, it goes without saying that these lps and unreleased tracks are beyond pivotal pieces of jazz. To not have this collection in your home is denying yourself a slice of true Americana- 5 men on their own make good and then some. This perfect a confluence of time, space, place, and alignment of the Sun, Earth, and ... will never happen again. And we have these recordings for all times. They can never leave. And we are fortunate for that. Get these recordings at any cost. Your life will be for the better.

Well folks, here it is. This is definately the best box set of Miles Davis. It has one of the best bands in the history of jazz and one of the most famous transition periods of the genre. The set covers the first 5 albums(E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky) of this awesome group plus three songs and an outtake from the beautiful 1968 album, Filles de Kilimanjaro, and three songs from the 1976 archive release, Water Babies. Although all the songs are great, some of the best include: E.S.P, Eighty-One Gingerbread Boy, Footprints, the Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Masquelero, Madness, Filles de Kilimanjaro, Petitis Machins, Tout de Suite, I Have a Dream, and Black Comedy. Probably the best song on the whole set is the final recording of this incredible band which is Filles de Kilimanjaro, recorded on June 21, 1968. Throughout this beautiful song, there is a soft, dreamlike tone and after the theme, Ron Carter plays this beautiful, yet haunting set of notes which are just PERFECT.

One of the great things about this band was that all the members contributed songs and went on to successful careers after this recording(except, unfortunatley bassist Ron Carter). All of the members were at the top of their game. Wayne Shorter was the best saxophonists of all time and if that wasn't enough, he wrote some of the group's most beautiful songs such as Nefertiti, Footprints, and Fall. Herbie Hancock pretty much redefined the jazz piano with his innovative rhythm stylings and impressive solos. The great electric material on the set shows that Hancock was also adventurous(like the rest of the band) and was flexable enough to change. Hancock, too contributed to this awesome song list: Little One, Madness, I Have a Dream, Speak Like a Child, and the Sorcerer. Ron Carter was an innovative, but seasoned professinal and is usually pushed into the corner, unfortunatley, by the success of the other members in their careers after 1968. Ron Carter was a great soloist too, as documented on the awesome Jimmy Heath cover, Gingerbread Boy. Near the end of the song, he plays a very memorable solo. Although Carter is usually forgotton he, along with Miles wrote the coolest song the band ever played: the 60's bungalo, blues song, Eighty-One. I was just blown away by this song and Wayne Shorter's solo near the end was one of the best of his career. Probably my favorite member of the band next to Miles is the late, Great Tony Williams(1945-1997) who played the drums; and MAN did he play! He was one of the most influential drummers of all time and definatley, without question, the Greatest Drummer of ALL TIME. The three songs he contributes to the band's immortal legacy are: Hand Jive, Pee Wee, and Black Comedy. The latter was his best. It has a great, bluesy theme that the brothers improvise on and they smoke it! Then there's the Prince of Darknes himself; the great, incomperable, Miles Davis(1926-1991) Since the band was a great extension of the sideman, Miles was kind of like Duke Ellington in a sense-he just strutted with confidence and let the sideman do most of the song writing because he knew he had the baddest crew on the planet that could play ANYTHING! Miles contributes some of the best songs such as Circle, Filles de Kilimanjaro, Stuff, and others.

The Miles Davis Quintet of 1964-1968 ranks among the greatest small bands in the history of jazz. I'm talking about a crew of cats that are in the league of the John Coltrane Quartet of 1961-'65, the Dave Brubeck Quartet of 1959-'67, Art Blakey's Jazz Messingers from 1958-1964, the Miles Davis Sextet of 1958-'59, the Miles Davis Quintet from 1955-'56, Louis Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7 from 1925-'28, the Charlie Parker Quintet of 1945-1948, the Modern Jazz Quartet in the mid '50's; I could just go on and on about how great this treasure trove of beautiful, soothing sounds is, but I'll end this review by saying that this is music for the ears and soul. Get this even if you are just getting into Miles and you won't regret it. You, like me will treasure this bountiful set for the rest of your life.

THis set is blazing. This group was far ahead of their time, and maybe even farther ahead of our time in terms of creativity.

Miles Davis' 2nd Classic Quintet emerges strong with a fine debut, ESP, showcasing the whimsical Hancock jaunt that became a touchtone in this period, and on Hancock's solo efforts. Obscure tracks from "Water Babies" show up,

"Nefertiti" and "Sorcerer" are respectively strong albums, but "Miles Smiles," featuring the great tunes "Orbits" and "Freedom Jazz Dance" is one of this group's better albums.

"Miles In The Sky" from '68 shows a pioneering early fusion leaning, including Ron Carter on electric bass, and the addition of guitar to one track. Hancock is first heard here on the electric Fender Rhodes keyboard.

Furthering the fusion effort, a couple tracks included on the "Filles de Killamanjaro" album appear as well.

The real treat for me is the inclusion of the trancey Indian influenced raga "Circle In The Round." This tune is absolutely captivating. Clocking in at over 20 minutes, this song is a journey into the unknown depths of jazz-what-could-bes.

If only other musicians besides the Marsallis' were heavily influenced by this, there would be a lot better live music floating around these days.

Tons of outstanding, inventive music.

Masterful.

As someone raised on rock I gradually became interested in Miles Davis after hearing covers of some of his tunes. So I availed myself of a deal which offered a free sampler of the MD Quintet's boxed set if I purchased another Miles album. I chose "Kind of Blue" which I'd never heard before. Well I don't need to elaborate on that classic! But, to me, the Quintet sampler was even better! The entire boxed set is almost too much to take. The power, inventiveness and range of emotion expressed in the set is beyond anything else I've heard in contemporary music. Telepathy is the only way to describe the communication between the players. There isn't a dud track. Even the alternate takes give you a different perspective on what the group was thinking. The documentation accompanying the discs is marvellous including detailed analyses of each track. Favourites? Well, I love "ESP", "Madness", "Stuff" ... in fact any of the discs on their own would be a must-buy. Forget the cost, you won't buy better than this! Do yourself a favour!

In my mind this is the greatest of all jazz ensembles, ever. Like the Bible of jazz, is the music can be listened to and examined endlessly, bringing new discoveries each time.

It was an interesting period for Miles. Long the catalyst of change, this time he did more riding on the vehicle designed by Wayne Shorter and driven by Tony Williams. The rhythm section, with Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock, was like nothing else before or since, endlessly fluid and supple, recreating meter and tempo in each tune in each bar and beat!

The Quintet remade the framework of the small group jazz performance. A 12 bar blues or 32 bar standard became incidental. They keys were sound and expression. The style, which furthered hard bop, still had a tonality and ease on the ear that made it accessible. And with Tony Williams on the drums, the excitement was always high. While the facade may sometimes be cool, underneath it was all molten lava. I sometimes pull it out, thinking I'll just listen to the first two CDs which cover the great records ESP and Miles Smiles, and then I spend all night listening to the whole package. Great documentation as well. And some of the greatest and most important jazz ever made. Own it, live it.

By 1965, the world of jazz had changed almost unrecognizably from just five years ago, and Miles Davis was in danger of being left behind. After the triumphs of his first few years with Columbia, it seems Davis had had enough. His past few records and his live performances found him falling back on old habits, exploring standards and hard bop pieces that he'd been playing for the past several years. Meanwhile, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler shook the foundations of jazz and John Coltrane in December of 1964 had just aligned himself with them by recording his masterpiece "A Love Supreme". All this time, Davis had been standing still, but he'd assembled a new quintet, completed by plucking his crown jewel and tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter from Art Blakey's band to add to his working band of pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drum prodigee Tony Williams. And while his band dutifully played the hard bop he was paying them for, they wanted to stretch out, to build on the innovations of Coleman, Taylor, Ayler and Coltrane, and remarkably, they inspired Davis to do so as well. In January of 1965, they went into the studio to record their first album together-- "E.S.P", and it was clear that, to steal an Ayler song title, change has come.

Now granted, the music here isn't quite free jazz, but it's certainly a lot more adventerous than anything Davis had done since "Sketches of Spain". Davis by and large let his sidemen stretch their wings. Eschewing the previous use of standards and compositions by contemporaries, virtually all the material by the quintet came from within the quintet (in fact of the 45 or so compositions on this set, only two come from outside the quintet). Early on, Shorter carried the lion's share of composition with Davis taking this role later (as he began experimenting with electric instruments, his began composing more), but everyone contributes. By and large, they're extraordinarily adventerous hard bop tunes-- similar in vein to the kind of work Dolphy was doing, or perhaps even a less detailed Mingus (who tended to use larger ensembles). The performances are fierce and inventive, with fiery interaction between the members of the band and the rhythm section stealing the performances from the soloists at times. It's interesting to track the band's evolution-- the earliest material is loose and exciting (recorded in January of 1965 and October of 1966), the middle material (from the spring and summer of 1967) seems to pick up a denseness and an almost claustrophobic quality, and the later material, where Davis was driving composition and experimenting with electric instruments, becomes loose again. One thing is sure-- it's pretty much all essential material.

Sonically, the set is nothing short of superb, as all the Columbia reissues of Davis' catalog have been. An extensive booklet with biographical details, a history of the group, and a song-by-song analysis is provided as well, although it's rather hard to read in this box.

A set like this is a substantial investment, but it would serve most well who are interested to pick up the set. Try "Miles Smiles" for a taste of the quintet's material, but everything on here is essential. Highly recommended.

Forget that Davis is one of the greatest musicians of any era. Forget that this is six discs of great music. Forget it all. If you need one reason to buy this set, it is the track titled "Circle In The Round." At 33 minutes long, it is a whirlwind musical epic. However cheesy that sounds, those terms are all I can come up with, and they hardly do it justice. For its scope and power, "Circle In The Round" ranks right next Coltrane's circa 25 minute take of "My Favorite Things" on the Last Giant album. At first, you might think that you'll never get through a 33 minute jazz tune, but you'll listen to it again and again, and you will never cease to be amazed.

Miles Davis' mid-1960s quintet with Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums was not a typical leader-and-sidemen ensemble but a cooperative grouping of some of the most gifted and important musicians in all of postwar jazz. Sharing compositional duties, solo space, ambience and ideas, these five men crafted one of modern music's most distinctive and impressive bodies of work - sounds at once fully realized and ceaselessly probing, classic and cutting edge. By the end of their four-year association, they had reached a plateau of unified creative thought where few of their peers would ever join them, in the process doing as much as any other group or individual to forge a recognizable stylistic link between post-bop and fusion while somehow never quite slipping into either realm.
This six-disc set, covering the quintet's entire studio output, is noteworthy in that it can - unlike many of Columbia's other "complete" Miles packages - be recommended even to relatively casual fans. Almost nothing here is superfluous, including the handful of alternate takes, some stunning rehearsal nuggets and a couple of long-lost gems which were truly worth finding. Everything fits and makes sense.
Whether you've come to Miles via KIND OF BLUE and BIRTH OF THE COOL and are now looking to move forward, or along the other well-worn path leading back in time from BITCHES BREW and ON THE CORNER, THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA STUDIO SESSIONS 1965-68 is something you'll never regret adding to your collection. Modern jazz is as much about the music contained in this package as it is about that contained in any other; jump on in and hear it for yourself!

"Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-1968" features nothing less than some of Miles' best music. This box set showcases many of Davis' most innovative albums including "E.S.P.," "Miles Smiles," "Sorcerer," "Nefertiti" and "Miles in the Sky." While the music leans towards psychedelia and the impending fusion movement, this is still jazz by any stretch of the imagination. The mood is cool, intelligent and laid back. While the box set documents the inevitable introduction of electric instruments, it is a gentle preamble. The electric piano is a mere suggestion and the plugged in guitar seems light years away from squealing Jimi Hendrix type power chords. While [...] Brew would eventually pass the point of no return, these six discs suggest mind expansion, but never cross the line. If you've always wanted Miles' 'light trip' music in one place, the "Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-1968" is the perfect box set.

Around $30.00 can be saved by purchasing the 2004 reissue of this 1998 box set. The reissue has the same music and also comes with a handsome full-color booklet.