An underrated Miles session?
What else could Miles Davis do after you've recorded the best jazz album (Kind Of Blue) and have your right hand man (sax player John Coltrane) leave to start his own band but to turn the page, but where to go? He begins with rebuilding a group he could be comfortable with and not have to carry with his playing quite so heavily (listen to his Live at the Nighthawk sessions to see this). By picking pretty sublime pieces of music like "Basin Street Blues" and "I Fall In Love Too Easily," Miles and the beginnings of his new Quintet (Herbie Hancock (p), Ron Carter (b), and Tony Williams (dr)--Wayne Shorter (s) would come later) begin to learn how to play with each other. To me, the tightness of the band is already in view here, and the incredibly young Williams takes steps here to lead the group in numbers like "Seven Steps To Heaven," "So Near, So Far," and "Joshua." A very pleasant listen as well as an interesting precursor to one of jazz's best quartets.
