Winter In Europe 1967

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ALBUM INFORMATION
EDITOR'S PICK // LIVE

Total Tracks: 12   Total Length: 75:14

eMusic Review

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Charles Farrell

eMusic Contributor

Since returning to active playing in 2005, after a career as a boxing manager, Charles Farrell has released seven CDs, recorded with Evan Parker (Glossolalia an...more »

04.22.11
It's been forty years, and jazz hasn't advanced beyond this point yet.
Label: Gambit Records / Disconforme

Can there be such a thing as "collective" genius? I think there can. Miles Davis's quintet with Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Herbie Hancock playing piano, bassist Ron Carter and the magnificent drummer Tony Williams proves it.

It's been forty years, and jazz hasn't advanced beyond this point yet. Winter in Europe 1967 captures the group at its incandescent best — the most vital, protean and restless jazz group ever. Tony Williams 'drum figures during the opening to the Stockholm performance of "Footprints" are alone worth the price of admission. If his jarring accents or the tempo he sets on "Gingerbread Boy" don't give you chills, don't bother listening to jazz; it's not for you.

The prizes on this album are endless. Wayne Shorter's cryptic discursions (the Stockholm version "Footprints" or the Karlsruhe "Walkin'"), Herbie Hancock's trend-setting amalgam of advanced harmony and funkiness (the Karlsruhe take of "Gingerbread Boy"), Ron Carter's unerring ability to anchor the disparate impulses of the others (every track), and Miles's own get-to-the heart-of-things solos ("Walkin'") are all inimitable, stunningly forward-thinking and dizzyingly interactive. "Round Midnight" — the most beautiful version I've ever heard — is a near-miracle of group telepathy.

Miles Davis had great bands before… read more »

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Magnificent

thirdpol

Of course there has been a huge amount of great music in jazz since 1967 - just think of what Andrew Hill was doing then, and would later do, not to mention Henry Threadgill, Julius Hemphill, William Parker, Cecil Taylor, Tomasz Stanko and some great 'mainstream' players like Warne Marsh - but we can all agree that these are exceptional performances. I don't think that the quintet was ever captured better than in these concerts: five virtuosi at their peak, with incredible interplay between them. This disc is a fine complement to the recent Sony four-disc Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series, which is equally essential. For some reason the Karlsruhe and Stockholm concerts are only represented in that box on DVD.

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Simply Beautiful

ackneyladd

I'm not that much of a jazz fan but this album is worth a year's subscription on emusic alone.....I saw the footage these performances are from over 20 years ago... the highlight for me is the version of Footprints in Germany just stunning.

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Great Music But....

daerp

Glad I had the foresight to download this album before it suddenly became unavailable in Canada. What's up with that? If you love this version of Miles' band as much as I do, this is definitely a must have. If you live north of the 49th parallel, apparently there are restrictions (wha da fuh) on what we can download now. P

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Progress in Jazz?

apweiss

Well, I wouldn't believe everything you read-especially when the reviewer claims jazz hasn't progressed since 1967! Talk about hyperbole! Hard to believe in just a year or two Miles Davis will make "In a Silent Way", "Bitches Brew", "Tribute to Jack Johnson", & then later confound everyone with his funky stew of groove- based music in "On the Corner". All excellent records that stretch jazz way beyond its boundaries. In fact, by this point Miles refused to even call his own music jazz. (Cf. Bill Laswell, Toshinori Kondo, Nik Baersch's Ronin for some examples of jazz's progress) At any rate, you can bid a fond farewell to the cool 60s quintet era with this excellent live performance that captures the five at their peak, before the the heady days of fusion exploded everyone's expectations of what jazz could be.

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This is the stuff

coltrane65

Very under-recorded band. Live anyway. And this sounds great, and is great. Wow. Herbie Hancock is wonderful on this. And Tony Williams. Awesome. Can you tell I like it? And Miles? He's good too. This is an essential album.

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more from the great quintet

beatmeister

It's wonderful to have more live performances from one of THE definitive bands in jazz history. Whether or not you think jazz gets any better than this, it's certain that few bands ever equaled the intensity, communication, and fervent creativity of this quintet. The band continues to be highly influential, yet no band has sounded quite like this before or since. A real treat for fans of this great band.

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The most idiotic sentence ever put in a review

newmusicbass

"It's been forty years, and jazz hasn't advanced beyond this point yet" Talk about irresponsible Journalism! This person should never be published again. It is great band, but there are tons of advancements in many different directions even during the time of this performance. Anyone who would make such an adolescent statement obviously has no knowlege of jazz history.

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Live and in fine form

lemurcrow9

As might be anticipated from the second great Miles Davis Quintet these performances are astonishing for the level of talent and communication between the musicians. These tracks appear to be two complete live sets from the tour. The sound quality is quite good for the period. NOTE however, that there are a few anomalies that appear to be digital. On Track 9 in particular there are a few pops and drop outs and a few seconds of noise about nine and a half minutes in. On the remainder, Tracks 10-12, there are also occasional glitches, but nothing severe. None of these problems should discourage you from downloading the entire album. These are fine recordings of one of the most influential ensembles in jazz history. An essential document and a joy to hear.

user avatar

Wow!

milesman

Great stuff here from the second classic quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. There's not a lot of live stuff out there from this era, so most definitely worth it. Williams, in particular, is in rare form on these recordings.

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