''Nefertiti'' is a

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

musician

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...

, released in March 1968. Recorded on June 7, June 22–23 and July 19, 1967, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio, the album was Davis' last fully acoustic album. Davis himself did not contribute any compositions- three were written by tenor saxophonist

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davi ...

, two by pianist

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

and one by drummer Tony Williams.

Music

The fourth album by Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, ''Nefertiti'', is best known for the unusual title track, on which the horn section repeats the melody numerous times without individual solos while the

rhythm section A rhythm section is a group of musicians within a music ensemble or band that provides the underlying rhythm, harmony and pulse of the accompaniment, providing a rhythmic and harmonic reference and "beat" for the rest of the band. The rhythm sec ...

improvises underneath, reversing the traditional role of a rhythm section. C. Michael Bailey of

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

cited it as one of the quintet's six albums between 1965 and 1968 that introduced the

post-bop Post-bop is a genre of small-combo jazz that evolved in the early to mid 1960s in the United States. Pioneers of the genre, such as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane and Jackie McLean, crafted syntheses of ...

subgenre. Shortly after this album, Hancock recorded a different version of "Riot" for his 1968 album '' Speak Like a Child.'' In 1978, Shorter recorded a new version of "Pinocchio" with

Weather Report Weather Report was an American jazz fusion band active from 1970 to 1986. The band was founded in 1970 by Austrian virtuoso keyboardist Joe Zawinul, American saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Czech bassist Miroslav Vitouš, American drummer and vocali ...

for the album '' Mr. Gone.'' This album, along with others by this particular group, demonstrates their willingness to fundamentally alter the basics of a composition during the recording process. For example, the quintet initially rehearsed 'Madness' as a slow waltz. On the next two takes (including the released version) it is rendered at a fast tempo in predominantly 4/4 time. Similarly, Pinocchio is a relatively fast composition on the released version and yet the group rehearsed it at a much slower pace, with the horns repeating the head whilst the rhythm section improvises underneath, in a similar manner to the master take of 'Nefertiti'. ''Nefertiti'' was the final all-acoustic album of Davis' career. Starting with his next album, ''

Miles in the Sky ''Miles in the Sky'' is a studio album by American trumpeter and composer Miles Davis, released on July 22, 1968, by Columbia Records. It was the last full album recorded by Davis' "Second Great Quintet" and marked the beginning of his foray int ...

'', Davis began to experiment with

electric instrument An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into a ...

s, marking the dawn of his electric period.

Critical reception

''Nefertiti'' has been received positively by critics. ''

DownBeat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'' writer Howard Mandel said it "seems perched on the cusp" of innovation, with "perfectly pitched" performances and trumpet ideas marked by "cyclical melodies, subdued in mood and sonically bejeweled". However, Mandel lamented the solos for "revert ngto regular rhythms", limiting the resulting music from more transcendent possibilities.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

considered it among the "great work" Davis recorded with his quintet of the 1960s, although he would later say that "the late-'60 Wayne Shorter edition of Miles's band is my least favorite Miles—not that I think it's bad, but I've always found Shorter too cool."

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

was more enthusiastic about its relatively subtler "charms" while finding it a clear forerunner to the

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

that would follow: "What's impressive, like on all of this quintet's sessions, is the interplay, how the musicians follow an unpredictable path as a unit, turning in music that is always searching, always provocative, and never boring."

Track listing

Columbia – CS 9594 * Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–6 on CD reissues.

Personnel

Musicians

–

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

–

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Ron Carter Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...

–

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

* Tony Williams –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Production

Teo Macero Attilio Joseph "Teo" Macero (October 30, 1925 – February 19, 2008) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years. Macero produced Miles Davis' ''Bitches Brew'', and Dave ...

–

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Howard Roberts – production * Fred Plaut, Ray Moore –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

* Rob Schwarz – mastering

Chart history

''Billboard'' Music Charts (North America) – ''Nefertiti'' * 1968:

Top Jazz Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...

– No. 8

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nefertiti 1968 albums Miles Davis albums Columbia Records albums Legacy Recordings albums Albums produced by Teo Macero Albums recorded at CBS 30th Street Studio Instrumental albums