The Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-1968
By Keith Waters, professor of music theory and composition
Oxford University Press
The "Second Quintet" - the Miles Davis Quintet of the mid-1960s - was one of the most innovative and influential groups in the history of the genre. Each of the musicians who performed with Davis- saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams- went on to a successful career as a top player. The studio recordings released by this group made profound contributions to improvisational strategies, jazz composition, and mediation between mainstream and avant-garde jazz, yet most critical attention has focused instead on live performances or the socio-cultural context of the work.
Keith Waters' “The Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-1968” concentrates instead on the music itself, as written, performed and recorded. Treating six different studio recordings in depth- ESP, Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro- Waters has tracked down a host of references to and explications of Davis' work.
Waters' analysis takes into account contemporary reviews of the recordings, interviews with the five musicians, relevant larger-scale cultural studies of the era and two previously unexplored sources: the studio outtakes and Wayne Shorter's Library of Congress composition deposits. Only recently made available, the outtakes throw the master takes into relief, revealing how the musicians and producer organized and edited the material to craft a unified artistic statement for each of these albums.
The author's research into the Shorter archives proves to be of even broader significance and interest, as Waters is able now to demonstrate the composer's original conception of a given piece. Waters also points out errors in the notated versions of the canonical songs as they often appear in the main sources available to musicians and scholars. An indispensable resource, “The Miles Davis Quintet Studio Recordings: 1965-1968” is suited for the jazz scholar as well as for jazz musicians and aficionados of all levels.
"Advances the field of jazz analysis through its thoroughness and analytical insight, applying creative approaches to explain music that has often seemed structurally opaque and mysterious and that has often been discussed only in superlatives. The study has few counterparts for comparison and stands in a rather lonely position in the world of contemporary jazz analysis."
"Every music library should have a copy of Keith Waters' new book. It goes beyond a purely descriptive analysis of the workings of the great Miles Davis Quintet of the mid- 1960s, providing technical analysis that includes in-depth notated musical transcriptions of solos and accompaniments...This is the first book-length account devoted entirely to unearthing the nitty gritty in this remarkable band's music. Bravo for Waters!"
Oxford University Press
The "Second Quintet" - the Miles Davis Quintet of the mid-1960s - was one of the most innovative and influential groups in the history of the genre. Each of the musicians who performed with Davis- saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams- went on to a successful career as a top player. The studio recordings released by this group made profound contributions to improvisational strategies, jazz composition, and mediation between mainstream and avant-garde jazz, yet most critical attention has focused instead on live performances or the socio-cultural context of the work.
Keith Waters' “The Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-1968” concentrates instead on the music itself, as written, performed and recorded. Treating six different studio recordings in depth- ESP, Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro- Waters has tracked down a host of references to and explications of Davis' work.
Waters' analysis takes into account contemporary reviews of the recordings, interviews with the five musicians, relevant larger-scale cultural studies of the era and two previously unexplored sources: the studio outtakes and Wayne Shorter's Library of Congress composition deposits. Only recently made available, the outtakes throw the master takes into relief, revealing how the musicians and producer organized and edited the material to craft a unified artistic statement for each of these albums.
The author's research into the Shorter archives proves to be of even broader significance and interest, as Waters is able now to demonstrate the composer's original conception of a given piece. Waters also points out errors in the notated versions of the canonical songs as they often appear in the main sources available to musicians and scholars. An indispensable resource, “The Miles Davis Quintet Studio Recordings: 1965-1968” is suited for the jazz scholar as well as for jazz musicians and aficionados of all levels.
"Session by session, composition by composition, what was once a profound mystery destined for eternal analytical purgatory has been freed...within this text are the keys to immediate and future musicological discoveries and exciting individual artistic developmental possibilities."
-Bob Belden, composer and producer
"Advances the field of jazz analysis through its thoroughness and analytical insight, applying creative approaches to explain music that has often seemed structurally opaque and mysterious and that has often been discussed only in superlatives. The study has few counterparts for comparison and stands in a rather lonely position in the world of contemporary jazz analysis."
-Journal of Jazz Studies
"Every music library should have a copy of Keith Waters' new book. It goes beyond a purely descriptive analysis of the workings of the great Miles Davis Quintet of the mid- 1960s, providing technical analysis that includes in-depth notated musical transcriptions of solos and accompaniments...This is the first book-length account devoted entirely to unearthing the nitty gritty in this remarkable band's music. Bravo for Waters!"
-Mark C. Gridley, Notes