Bluing was one of the first CD's I purchased of Miles, It was a logical entry point for me within the Miles Davis discography.
At the time I was into classic blues artists, such as Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. I was looking to broadened my musical horizons, I wanted to look to the past for inspiration.
I knew Bluing would be right up my alley: I remember listening to it on a daily basis for several weeks before I moved on to other Miles stuff.
Now having listened to all this music many times over in its original form, from the albums this CD is compiled from, Bluing is a fantastic compilation of the Prestige sessions. It's Just straight ahead Hard bop, 8 of the 9 tracks are actually from the 1954-1956 time period, and only one from 1951.
The title track is from an all-star compilation called Conception from 1951. The rest of the tracks are drawn from various Prestige albums like Bag's Groove, Conception and Collectors Items.
Ironically though, the most famous Blues possibly of all of his pre Columbia Records years "Walkin" is not included, which is a glaring omission in retrospect.
That Lucky Thompson composed tune just oozes with hard bop swagger, maybe their thinking was to not give away the store with one compilation, but it's nice to hear Jackie McLean and John Coltrane with Miles in their early stages of development.
Both McLean and Coltrane definitely still have influences of Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon in their sound on these 1950's tracks.
If you are just now trying to warm up to the sound of small group jazz, I think Bluing does an admiral job of easing you into the style. You can always go further into the catalog later on.
At the time I was into classic blues artists, such as Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. I was looking to broadened my musical horizons, I wanted to look to the past for inspiration.
I knew Bluing would be right up my alley: I remember listening to it on a daily basis for several weeks before I moved on to other Miles stuff.
Now having listened to all this music many times over in its original form, from the albums this CD is compiled from, Bluing is a fantastic compilation of the Prestige sessions. It's Just straight ahead Hard bop, 8 of the 9 tracks are actually from the 1954-1956 time period, and only one from 1951.
The title track is from an all-star compilation called Conception from 1951. The rest of the tracks are drawn from various Prestige albums like Bag's Groove, Conception and Collectors Items.
Ironically though, the most famous Blues possibly of all of his pre Columbia Records years "Walkin" is not included, which is a glaring omission in retrospect.
That Lucky Thompson composed tune just oozes with hard bop swagger, maybe their thinking was to not give away the store with one compilation, but it's nice to hear Jackie McLean and John Coltrane with Miles in their early stages of development.
Both McLean and Coltrane definitely still have influences of Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon in their sound on these 1950's tracks.
If you are just now trying to warm up to the sound of small group jazz, I think Bluing does an admiral job of easing you into the style. You can always go further into the catalog later on.
No comments:
Post a Comment