Customer Reviews

More Blues

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I ordered this disc, Amazon had yet to post any audio samples or a description regarding its content. I hoped it might be a 1967 concert that was issued on CD in the 90's under a similar title (THAT fantastic disc is called "No Blues" and was released on JMY). Well, it wasn't what I had hoped, but it looked promising! "No (More) Blues" features 3 tunes from a concert recorded in St. Louis, MO. at Jazz Villa, June 1963 and 3 tunes recorded in Portland, OR at Oregon State College, May 1966. The band at its core is Miles, Tony Williams & Herbie Hancock. Ron Carter & George Coleman are on the 1963 set (tracks 1-3), and Wayne Shorter and Richard Davis are on the 1966 set (tracks 4-6).

The music and performances are absolutely incredible! Ferocious, even! That being said, big issues for me are the lo-fi, bootleg sound quality and low volume output of the disc (more evident on the '66 set). While it was of great interest for me to hear the phenomenal Richard Davis with this group (indeed a rarity!), I found it a shame that I couldn't hear him better through the muddy mono mix.

In conclusion, the music gets 5 stars and the sound quality, a generous 2. This disc is for completists only. There are plenty of other dynamite official/non-official live discs by this general line-up. You may want to seek them out instead.

This is a fantastic live recording. The first half of the CD are from 1963 and feature George Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. The band is in fine form, with excellent solos all around.

The second half replaces George Coleman with Wayne Shorter, creating the 2nd classic quintet. Again the band is in great form, with interesting solos from Miles and Shorter.

Apart from the Live at the Plugged Nickel, live recordings of the 2nd classic quintet, esp. from 66-68, before they went electric are rather rare. And the songs here have a different feel from the Plugged Nickel recordings. The band is more cohesive and together.

The sound quality is not as clear as some of his other live recordings, but very listenable. Miles' fans will enjoy this one

5 stars for the music / 2 for the actually sound quality.

While the sound it not up to the standards we might expect, it was the early 60s, and live stuff. Overall though I have to rate the music at nine of ten stars. (OK, four for Amazon). The thing is this album has some of the greatest musicians presenting there earliest work with the Davis (Hancock, George Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Carter, Williams back him up). And each time one of them breaks into a solo it's is a great experiment. The album is worth it just to have the second cut, "All Blues", on hand (for those times when actually HAVE the blues and want to get rid of them!) This is just a wonderful album that will provide great pleasure for the serious jazz fan. Others might want to stick to higher quality engineering.