Customer Reviews

Sorcerer

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May 1967 was the beginning of an amazing burst of studio creativity for Miles Davis; the first recordings in that burst are on this album. Sorcerer is even darker and moodier than its predecessor, Miles Smiles. (And even for a Miles Davis album, this is very moody and very dark.) It features less memorable tunes but the improvisations go even further away from the jazz mainstream. "Masqualero", a Wayne Shorter tune, is essentially an anything-goes performance with a Spanish tinge; there's a lot of fireworks in Miles's solo as the rhythm section rumbles under him, and Herbie Hancock's solo is a textbook example of tension and release. Another one of Shorter's compositions, "Vonetta", takes a quirky ballad and marries it to martial drumming by Tony Williams. There's also "Pee Wee", a Williams ballad with some beautiful playing. The other three tunes are similar -- haunting, dreamy themes coupled with complex group interaction. "Nothing Like You" is an odd vocal tune, a leftover from Gil Evans/Miles Davis sessions five years later that offers a bit of comic relief after the ominous music that precedes it; and two alternate takes ("Masqualero" and "Limbo") round out the album. If you like Miles Smiles and E.S.P., this is essential. But try those albums first.

[This review is based on the 1998 reissue; both versions have identical tracklists.]

This is a magnificent recording, marred only by Davis' regrettable decision to include a seventh track by way of a coda: the horrendous "Nothing Like You". Beyond that one minor misstep, Sorcerer rates as a worthy successor to Miles Smiles, and may well surpass its predecessor, if only because of Sorcerer's inclusion of what is arguably the second Quintet's finest performance: Wayne Shorter's "Masqualero". Not to be missed.

Miles Davis' 1967 album SORCERER is one of the last efforts by the trumpeter and his quintet in consistent post-bop, with only NEFERTITI coming next before the music shifted towards experimentation and fusion. As with other albums in this period, the music is generally sober and finely crafted, eschewing the wildness of other jazz scenes for a jewel-like perfection. Wayne Shorter wrote the bulk of the cuts here, with "Pee Wee" being a Tony Williams composition and "The Sorcerer" by Herbie Hancock.

While the music of this period can often seem limited, with it hard to keep some tracks apart in one's memory, this is still supremely entertaining music, and I pull albums like SORCERER down from the shelves more often than earlier phases of Davis' career. SORCERER is especially notable for "Masqualero", one of the most complex tunes ever played by the Second Great Quintet, it offers a great pleasure in following its labyrintine twists and turns. Herbie Hancock's piano solo begins with wide glissandi across the keyboard, a fresh sound for him. "Limbo" has unusually fierce drumming for Tony Williams.

The only real downside of SORCERER is its closing track. "Nothing Like You" was recorded in 1962 and features vocals by Bob Dorough and a vastly different lineup of which of the SORCERER-era musicians only Davis and Shorter appear. Not only are Dorough's vocals annoyingly flamboyant, but the song gives the instrumentalists no real space to work within.

Sorcerer has been given short shrift in Ian Carr's otherwise excellent Miles biography. Others have typecast this recording as being self indulgent abstraction, insular chamber music that is not 'down with the people'. I don't buy any of that.

This is the sound of musicians listening to each other, enlivening and feeding each other, imbued with a seventh sense. "Masqualero" is a particular fave, but any of the others track could be. Don't believe the cold reviews, on "Sorcerer" these lads create a magical world of their own, they play as a band of equals .. it is a true 'group recording' where Miles is a member .. not particularly leading anything. It's all very transporting, engaging, satisfying .. I can't believe that I refrained from getting this for years .. but am making up for it now, set disc to multiple repeat.

If it weren't for the absolutely awful closing track, this would easily be another 5 star Miles album, but whomever let that track be included should have been banned from all future musical endeavors. It is just hard to believe that someone actually thought that it was appropriate to end the album with that song - a Metallica track wouldn't be any more out of place than that horrible dreck.