Customer Reviews

Highlights From Plugged Nickel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have about 15 of Miles' albums, and this is one of the ones I play most often. I am a classically trained musician and composer, and have developed a passion for jazz in the past 5 years. While I have for the most part quickly developed an understanding of jazz forms, rhythms and harmonies, this album has been my greatest listening challenge! For many listenings, I found myself unable to follow the structure and melodic ideas in several of these songs - in particular Stella and Yesterdays. However, after repeated listenings, I am understanding and appreciating what I hear in this so-called "free form" jazz. The tonal centres, metric shifts and group interplay grew more discernible. Also, I have become increasingly aware of each band member's genius.

I am amazed by the transformations in Miles Davis style during his career. (Too bad there wasn't more personality transformation in step with that, but I digress!) The stylistic changes were largely determined by his choice of new bandmates over the years, but also by his own restless quest for originality. To me however, this album represents his greatest work. It isn't the most immediately accessible, and will never be popular like Kind of Blue, or the fusion stage (which seems simplistic in comparison), but it is jazz created by a combination of great intellects who evidently felt their music together as close as a group can. Is is also music that pushes the boundaries of experimentation and creativity, without delving into foolish extremes.

If there's anything lacking in this great live recording, perhaps it's a sense of fun. Nor do these songs move me on an emotional level. I do find these qualites in Kind of Blue and in other of Davis's earlier material. Having said that, perhaps I'll discover these qualities as I continue to listen to this outstanding highlights disc, and as it's depth and complexity continue to grow on me.

This is a major work by Miles Davis and band. Actually, this is one of the albums I play the most of him. Every time I listen to it, I just get something new. The music is kind of 'free form', so probably not recommended for someone new to jazz or new to miles. I'd suggest trying Kind of Blue, Miles Ahead, In a silent way, before getting to this one. The remastering is very, very good, and so the sequence of the CD, which takes the best from all performances from Miles at the Plugged Nickel.

The Plugged Nickel sets seem to bring out very strong reactions in people. Some believe the music to be among the most complex and creative of Davis' career; others find it poorly executed and often meandering. Few reviewers note that when Davis recorded this material, he was still recovering from a grueling eight month lay off due to having his hip replaced in the spring. He was still a long, long way away from anything approaching top form technically when he played the Plugged Nickel sets, but he made a virtue out of necessity. To me, lacking resources that he probably once took for granted, he finds another way to play that does not shy away from his limitations but transforms them into fresh ideas and challenging experimentations, reconfiguring his music into a kind of abstract painting in the process. Davis' statements of theme and solos are all angles and fragments and shards, with familiar shapes and patterns often only barely discernible, if at all. Not easy listening by any means, but fascinating and compelling in its own way nonetheless. This is not Miles Davis for everybody, but it is still remarkably acute and probing music.

If you can't afford the complete box set, this is a great substitute. The sonic quality is incredible. It's like you're sitting in the club. The playing is first rate. You can hear people laughing, glasses clinking, and the cash register ringing in the background. Don't hesitate. Buy it.

I was in the audience during this Chicago stand, and apart from the spectacle of the indomitable Miles (more off the bandstand than on) the recording beats the live performance for one reason: you can hear all the musicians (my table was next to Tony Williams' ride cymbal).

This live date and "Miles Smiles" are, in my opinion, the best by Miles' "second great quintet." And no doubt there are many fans who will not be satisfied by anything less than the complete box set. My hunch is that listeners who prefer this music to the earlier group with Coltrane along with Garland, Evans, or Kelly are likely to have little to no affinity with standards from the "Great American Songbook." In fact, one of the hallmarks of the 2nd quintet is its virtual disregard of the chord progressions to a familiar tune (e.g. "Stella") once the head has been stated. The compensating gain is optimal ensemble interaction, evidenced by rapid, mid-stream changes in tempo, texture, and dynamics. The piano's role is very much like that of a horn, replacing comping and chorded solo structures with fleet, polytonal single-note lines. It can be engaging, even exciting, music, but for this listener it's never warranted much repeating. Nonetheless, some version of this session is probably essential to any complete representation of Miles' career.

While the tracks on this cd are amazing, they will hopefully whet the listener's appetite to go and purchase the Complete Plugged Nickel Box set that is available to be had. These tracks are tasty, but are a mere appetizer for the full 9 course meal that is that box set.

An amazing period, and amazing shows that can not be simply chopped into tiny pieces like this cd has done. Get the box set at all costs.

I have the boxed set and pull one out and listen every once in a while.What a great band.They were really starting to experiment at this point.The solos sound like they are not worried about any kind of structure at all,they are just messing around but listen mindfully and this grows on you fast.You cant hear Wayne Shorters solos on the samples but that is what you must hear. This was 4.99 at borders books and music so I got this to have in addition to the box.Did I see right? It is 1.99 or something here? A STEAL! This is one of the best Miles Davis CDs to have.

The set-up here is about as great as you could hope for, with Miles' dream-team "second great quintet" (Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams) blowing their hearts out in a live date at the Plugged Nickel in 1965, recorded just after their definitive studio album, "ESP" earlier in the year. This disc is a "greatest hits" summary of their 2-day, 7-set, 39-song stint at the Chicago nightclub, with 6 selected numbers, mostly throwback re-vistations from the "first great quintet's" repertoire: 1) Milestones, 2) Yesterdays, 3) So What, 4) Stella by Starlight, 5) Walkin', and 6) 'Round About Midnight. Remastering has restored each track's sound quality and missing parts, and the total playing time nearly maxes out the capacity of a single CD at almost 80 minutes of music.

That's the good news. I'm going to have to agree with some reviewers here that, despite the potential for greatness, this album just doesn't sound like top-notch Miles to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Miles fan, including his classic band with Coltrane, the quintet featured here, and (almost) everything up through and including "In a Silent Way," "Pangaea/Agharta," and even Miles' cover of 'Time After Time' near the end of his career. I will admit that I find some of the "second great quintet's" era stuff a bit overly impressionistic and sedate, something I blame Wayne Shorter for, as on the "Nefertiti" album, or for that matter on Shorter's own "Speak No Evil" (I'm no Shorter hater either -- much of his tenor work is fantastic, and his recent "Beyond the Sound Barrier" is a great concert). And so, you'd think I'd love the Plugged Nickel music, since it's devoid of processed studio polish, and the extended playing times on these tracks (almost all over 10 minutes each) give room for some serious free-soloing. So, what's the problem? For me, it's Miles' playing. He foregoes the mute throughout, and so things are a bit more raw, but overall his tone sounds weak and frequently broken up by the sputtering of little spit bubbles through the mouthpiece. And while at least this part is probably intentional, his timing just seems off in places. Of course, it's sacrilege to say this, and I can see the "not helpful" reviews coming already, but listen to the album and tell me I'm wrong. As evidence, notice how Shorter, who frequently has the second solo behind Miles' opener, sounds imminently stronger and in control when he takes over.

As far as the tunes themselves, 'Milestones' is a solid rendition played at a brisk tempo, with a good solo opening by Miles, followed by Shorter, and then Herbie near the end. 'Yesterdays,' is rather more meandering and spare, with the same solo ordering as on Milestones, but it's somewhat lacking in energy for me. 'So What' picks up the pace, featuring some fiery solos, especially by Shorter in the middle, whose playing charges up the crowd. It's a high point on this album. Tony Williams also gets a solo on this one, before Herbie again finishes things off. 'Stella..." starts out balladic, but there's a directionless quality about Miles' playing, with the slow parts sounging particularly crackly and bubbly, and the fast parts limited to blustery trilling. At the end, he segues directly into 'Walkin,' and his tone improves for what is probably his best playing on this set and some interesting shifts in tempo. Shorter then steps in and takes over the show, with Herbie rounding things out with some solo space as well. And finally there's ''Round About Midnight'... one of my favorite Miles tunes, but here it just doesn't work for me. Miles starts out at a snail's pace, kind of lagging behind the rhythm section (the liner notes describe this as "out of tempo, at [a] daring crawl"), and maybe he's trying to bend the notes, but often it just sounds like he's having embouchure problems. Sometimes he seems to be on the verge of bursting into an ascending line, only to get hung-up and unable to hit the next note. At the 3:20 mark, it's the point in the tune where the solo ends and the band starts to join in with the vamp, but again Miles just stumbles over the high notes here. You'd think with a greatest hits album, they would have chosen to leave this one out, even if it was the only version of 'Round Midnight they played during the gig.

Not that this is all bad -- the band's playing is top-notch, with Tony Williams riding the cymbals and keeping things steady and propulsive, Shorter in fine form throughout, Carter as anchor-man, and Herbie solid, if a bit restrained and woefully under-miked. The more up-tempo numbers, 'So What' and 'Walkin'' are brash and adventurous, and even the okay tunes are way better than most of what passes as jazz today, and it's a lot of music on one disc. I still pull it out from time to time, though I'm always just a bit disappointed. If you disagree with me on Miles' performance here, then please do go ahead and purchase the entire 8-CD set.

Buyers hoping to find out if this CD will lead them to the boxed set need to know that this CD gives only the slightest of tastes to the boxed set. Though obviously in the same style, the music of the boxed set is music one can spend months with and never think of listening to anything else. Trying to judge it by this five-song selection is a little like trying to judge the ocean by the contents of a glass.

Ron Carter set the foundation, and both Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, masters of the alto sax and piano respectively, play with a deft touch, under the guidance of that subtle, soulful genius, Miles Davis. But the one who stood out to me is Tony Williams, on the drums, who takes musical ideas from Ornette Coleman and imbues them with a raw passion all his own, making the whole recording infectious and easily worth the money of any jazz fan.