''Quiet Nights'' is a studio album by

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 m ...

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 musi ...

, and his fourth album collaboration with

Gil Evans Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian–American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role i ...

, released in 1963 on Columbia Records, catalogue CL 2106 and CS 8906 in stereo. Recorded mostly at Columbia's 30th Street Studios in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, it is the final album by Davis and Evans.

Background

Keeping to his standard procedure at Columbia to date of alternating small group records and

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

studio projects with

, Davis entered the studio with Evans to follow up the latest studio LP by the working quintet, ''

Someday My Prince Will Come "Someday My Prince Will Come" is a song from Walt Disney's 1937 animated movie ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. It was written by Larry Morey (lyrics) & Frank Churchill (music), and performed by Adriana Caselotti (Snow White's voice in the ...

''. In 1961, Davis had also released his first live albums, two independent LPs entitled ''Friday Night at the Blackhawk'' and ''Saturday Night at the Blackhawk'', in addition to the studio set. Another live set from 1961, ''

Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall ''Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall'' is a live album by American jazz musician Miles Davis. Subtitled ''The Legendary Performances of May 19, 1961'', it was released by Columbia Records as CL 1812 in monaural and CS 8612 as "electronically re-cha ...

,'' also with both the quintet and a large ensemble conducted by Evans was issued in 1962. The genesis of this Davis/Evans album, however, encountered far greater difficulties than its three predecessors. Bossa nova had recently become a commercial success in 1962 with the single "

Desafinado "Desafinado" (a Portuguese word, usually rendered into English as "Out of Tune", or as "Off Key") is a 1959 bossa nova song and jazz standard composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim with lyrics (in Portuguese) by Newton Mendonça. Background "Desafin ...

" from the album ''

Jazz Samba ''Jazz Samba'' is a bossa nova album by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd released by Verve Records in 1962. ''Jazz Samba'' signaled the beginning of the bossa nova craze in America. Stan Getz was the featured soloist and the tracks were arranged by C ...

'' by Stan Getz, and Columbia executives may have pressured Davis and Evans to attempt something similar with this album. Sessions were also protracted over long stretches of time.

Recording

Two songs were recorded at the first session in July, "

Corcovado Corcovado (korcovádo) which means "hunchback" in Portuguese, is a mountain in central Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a 710-metre (2,329 ft) granite peak located in the Tijuca Forest, a national park. Corcovado hill lies just west of the c ...

" and "Aos Pés da Cruz" (the first refers to a famous sight in Brazil and the second means 'At the Foot of the Cross' in Portuguese), and released as Columbia singles 4-33059 and 4-4-42583; neither charted. The pair returned to longer forms for the subsequent sessions, Evans perhaps not given enough time to finish the charts for the earlier session. The attempt to mix potential hit singles and Evans' writing style for Davis, essentially concertos for jazz trumpeter, may have torpedoed the project. After three sessions spread over four months, the yield was approximately 20 minutes of usable music, enough for an album side but not an entire album. Evans and Davis never made it back into the studio to complete more recordings, and the project was shelved. Faced with the expenses from the large ensemble and the studio time, producer

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 ...

added a quartet track from an April 1963 session in Hollywood to complete the album and give the label something to show for its investment, ''Quiet Nights'', released two years after the start of recording.Cook, p. 141. Davis was furious at the release of what he viewed as an unfinished project, and did not work with Macero again until the October 1966 sessions for ''

Miles Smiles ''Miles Smiles'' is an album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released on February 16, 1967 on Columbia Records. It was recorded by Davis and his second quintet at Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York City on October 24 and October 25, 1966. It i ...

''. The added tune, "Summer Night", was an

outtake An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and D ...

by Davis' group as recorded for the album ''

Seven Steps to Heaven 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artis ...

''. "Time of the Barracudas"—recorded in Hollywood on October 9 and 10, 1963—was written as a commission from Peter Barnes to accompany a production of his play of the same name starring Laurence Harvey and

Elaine Stritch Elaine Stritch (February 2, 1925 – July 17, 2014) was an American actress, best known for her work on Broadway and later, television. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 and appeared in numerous stage plays, musicals, feature films a ...

. It is unknown whether the music was actually used for its intended purpose. The song was included as a

bonus track An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

when the album was reissued on CD by

Legacy Records In law, a legacy is something held and transferred to someone as their inheritance, as by will and testament. Personal effects, family property, marriage property or collective property gained by will of real property. Legacy or legacies may refer ...

on September 23, 1997.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for ''

Down Beat ' (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 ...

'',

Leonard Feather Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...

called ''Quiet Nights'' a "curious and not entirely satisfying album". He felt "Song No. 2" ended prematurely while the long-meter arrangement of "Wait Till You See Her" sounded unusual, but found "Once Upon a Summertime" to be brilliantly recorded and "Summer Night" highlighted by Davis and Feldman's "consistent level of lyrical beauty". In the '' Saturday Review'', ''Quiet Nights'' received praise for Davis' "wonderfully songful trumpet in a Latin-American vein", set against "piercingly lustrous curtains of tone and discreet Caribbean rhythms".

Loren Schoenberg Loren Schoenberg (born July 23, 1958) is a tenor saxophonist, conductor, educator, and jazz historian. He has won two Grammy Awards for Best Album Notes. He is the former Executive Director and currently Senior Scholar of the National Jazz Museum ...

later called it "a slightly flawed but worthy companion" to other classic Davis-Evans recordings. J. D. Considine was less receptive in ''

The Rolling Stone Album Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

'' (1992), dismissing the record as "halfhearted" bossa nova atypical from their otherwise exceptional work together.

Track listing

* Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–7 on CD reissues.

Personnel

–

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 ...

– arranger, conductor *

Shorty Baker Harold "Shorty" Baker (May 26, 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, US – November 8, 1966) was an American jazz trumpeter. Baker began on drums, but switched to trumpet during his teens. He started his career on riverboats and played with Don Redman i ...

Bernie Glow Bernie Glow (February 6, 1926 – May 8, 1982) was an American trumpet player who specialized in jazz and commercial lead trumpet from the 1940s to 1970s. Glow's early career was on the road with Artie Shaw, Woody Herman and others during the las ...

, Louis Mucci, Ernie Royal – trumpets *

J.J. Johnson J.J. Johnson (January 22, 1924 – February 4, 2001), born James Louis Johnson and also known as Jay Jay Johnson, was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. Johnson was one of the earliest trombonists to embrace bebop. Biography ...

Frank Rehak Frank Rehak (July 6, 1926, in New York City – June 22, 1987 Badger, California) was an American jazz trombonist. He began on piano and cello before switching to trombone. He worked with Gil Evans and Miles Davis. He also appeared with Davis on ...

–

trombones The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

* Ray Alonge, Don Corrado,

Julius Watkins Julius Watkins (October 10, 1921 – April 4, 1977) was an American jazz musician who played French horn. Described by AllMusic as "virtually the father of the jazz French horn", Watkins won the ''Down Beat'' critics poll in 1960 and 1961 for M ...

–

french horns The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

* Bill Barber –

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

* Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone * Albert Block – flute * Ray Beckenstein,

Jerome Richardson Jerome Richardson (November 15, 1920 – June 23, 2000) was an American jazz musician, tenor saxophonist, and flute player, who also played soprano sax, alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute and piccolo. He played with C ...

–

woodwinds Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and reed ...

Garvin Bushell Garvin Bushell ''(né'' Garvin Lamont Payne; September 25, 1902 – October 31, 1991) was an American woodwind multi-instrumentalist. Biography Bushell was born in Springfield, Ohio, to Alexander Payne, Jr. (1875–1908) and Effie Penn ''( ...

, Bob Tricarico – bassoons * Janet Putnam – harp *

Paul Chambers Paul Laurence Dunbar Chambers Jr. (April 22, 1935 – January 4, 1969) was an American jazz double bassist. A fixture of rhythm sections during the 1950s and 1960s, he has become one of the most widely-known jazz bassists of the hard bop era. ...

– bass *

Jimmy Cobb Wilbur James "Jimmy" Cobb (January 20, 1929May 24, 2020) was an American jazz drummer. He was part of Miles Davis's First Great Sextet. At the time of his death, he had been the band's last surviving member for nearly thirty years. He was a ...

– drums *

Willie Bobo William Correa (February 28, 1934 – September 15, 1983), better known by his stage name Willie Bobo,Biography ''AllMusic'' was an American Latin jazz percussionist of Puerto Rican descent. Bobo rejected the stereotypical expectations of Lat ...

–

bongos Bongos ( es, bongó) are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. They are struck with both hands, most commonly in an eight-stroke pattern called ''martillo'' (hammer). The ...

Elvin Jones Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era. Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such widely celebrate ...

–

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

; Miles Davis Quintet on "Summer Night" only * Miles Davis – trumpet *

George Coleman George Edward Coleman (born March 8, 1935) is an American jazz saxophonist known for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s. In 2015, he was named an NEA Jazz Master. Early life Coleman was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was ...

–

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 ...

Victor Feldman Victor Stanley Feldman (7 April 1934 – 12 May 1987) was an English jazz musician who played mainly piano, vibraphone, and percussion. He began performing professionally during childhood, eventually earning acclaim in the UK jazz scene as ...

–

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 keybo ...

* Ron Carter – bass * Frank Butler – drums ; Orchestra on 1997 bonus track "Time of the Barracudas" * Miles Davis – trumpet * Gil Evans – arranger, conductor * Dick Lieb – bass trombone * Bill Hinshaw, Art Maeba, Richard Perissi – french horns * Gene Cipriano,

Buddy Collette William Marcel "Buddy" Collette (August 6, 1921 – September 19, 2010) was an American jazz flutist, saxophonist, and clarinetist. He was a founding member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Early life William Marcel Collette was born in L ...

, Paul Horn – woodwinds * Fred Dutton – bassoon * Marjorie Call – harp * Herbie Hancock – piano * Ron Carter – bass * Tony Williams – drums ; Production *

– producer *

Irving Townsend Irving Townsend (November 27, 1920 – December 17, 1981) was an American record producer and author. He is most famous for having produced the Miles Davis album ''Kind of Blue'', which is the best-selling jazz album of all time according to ...

– producer on "Time of the Barracudas" *

Fred Plaut Frederick Plaut (1907–1985) was a recording engineer and amateur photographer. He was employed by Columbia Records in the US during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, eventually becoming the label's chief engineer. Plaut engineered sessions for what wou ...

–

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

* Bob Belden – reissue producer and

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desc ...

Phil Schaap Philip van Noorden Schaap (April 8, 1951September 7, 2021) was an American radio host, who specialized in jazz as a broadcaster, historian, archivist, and producer. He began presenting jazz shows on Columbia University's WKCR in 1970, and hoste ...

, Mark Wilder – digital remastering engineer * Seth Rothstein – reissue project coordinator * Howard Fritzson – reissue art direction * Dan Hunstein –

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quiet Nights Miles Davis albums Gil Evans albums 1963 albums Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Teo Macero Albums produced by Irving Townsend Bossa nova albums Albums recorded at CBS 30th Street Studio Albums conducted by Gil Evans Albums arranged by Gil Evans