Miles Davis Quintet - Newport Jazz Festival ‘66 - CD

Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet at the height of its powers. Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, the group described by poet LeRoi Jones as the “all-time classical hydrogen bomb and switchblade band”.

This concert took place just six months after the infamously abstract and ragged Plugged Nickel residency. For the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival things had been reined in a little and the tight 40 minute set was perfectly focussed. What remains is the ferocious soloing and the breath-taking time shifts achieved by the rhythm section. As the 1960s advanced Miles had been quick to dismiss so-called “free jazz”, believing that the abolition of any kind of swing or groove made music meaningless. He was still searching though and keen to push the music he loved to its meaningful limits.

Performed live at the Newport Jazz Festival, Festival Field, Newport, Rhode Island, July 4th, 1966, for broadcast on Voice Of America radio

1. Intro / Gingerbread Boy / 2. All Blues / 3. Stella By Starlight / 4. R.J. / 5. Seven Steps To Heaven / 6. The Theme