''Jazz at the Plaza Vol. I'' is a live album by The Miles Davis Sextet. It was recorded in 1958 and released in 1973 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

was recorded at the same event and released as the second volume ''( Jazz at the Plaza Vol. II)''.

Background

The album features the famed sextet that recorded ''

Kind of Blue ''Kind of Blue'' is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by Co ...

'' six months later. The concert was recorded in 1958 but not released in full until 1973. The last three songs would reappear (in reverse order) in 1974, on ''

1958 Miles ''1958 Miles'' is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 1974 on CBS/Sony. Recording sessions for tracks that appear on the album took place on May 26, 1958, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio and September 9, 1958, ...

'', but on ''Jazz at the Plaza'' all the tracks are of much better sound quality. The musicians did not know they were being recorded at the time. The event was a party thrown by Columbia to celebrate the healthy state of their jazz division. Indeed, it was not meant to be a record session: "it was a party. We taped it because we wanted to remember it, in case it never happened again." Pianist

Bill Evans William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block ch ...

later stated the musicians who were still alive at the time of release were offered payment at the 1958 scale. "

My Funny Valentine "My Funny Valentine" is a show tune from the 1937 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart coming of age musical ''Babes in Arms'' in which it was introduced by teenaged star Mitzi Green. The song became a popular jazz standard, appearing on over 130 ...

", which had become a staple in the sextet's play book, is played by Davis in his new modal style. On " Straight, No Chaser", he plays the

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

faster than usual and alternates the groove between full and

cut time ''Alla breve'' also known as cut time or cut common timeis a musical meter notated by the time signature symbol (a C with a vertical line through it), which is the equivalent of . The term is Italian for "on the breve", originally meaning tha ...

, while Bill Evans quotes " Blue Monk" in his own solo. The original LP misidentified the tune "Straight, No Chaser" as "Jazz at the Plaza", the drummer as Philly Joe Jones, and the location as the Edwardian Room.

Critical reception

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 ...

's Thom Jurek gave the album four out of five stars and felt that, despite Sony's remastering, it "succeeds mightily on the level" of a "remarkable" band's "fine performance". He recommended it strictly to jazz listeners as a "curiosity piece" because of its "dodgy" and "dubious sound quality." In its four-star review of the album, ''

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 ...

'' magazine found the music "engaging" and stated, "The intrigue from the redefined

hard-bop Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gosp ...

here has everything to do with Davis' elliptical phrasings and seeming impatience with the latter-day offspring of bebop".

Track listing

Personnel

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 ...

– trumpet * John Coltrane – tenor saxophone * Julian "Cannonball" Adderley – alto saxophone *

– piano *

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

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jazz at the Plaza Vol. 1 Miles Davis live albums 1973 live albums Columbia Records live albums Albums produced by Teo Macero