Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra, conducted by Justin DiCioccio David Liebman, saxophone soloist

10 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Big Band, JAZZ: Traditional Jazz Combo



Details:
Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra, conducted by Justin DiCioccio
David Liebman, saxophone soloist

Credits:
Recording Info: November 10, 2005, Borden Auditorium, MSM
Recorded by Charles Myers Recording Studio, Manhattan School of Music
Recording Engineer: Tom Lazarus
Assistant Recording Engineers: Richard H. Kim, Matthew Blostein, Noriko Okabe
Mixing & Mastering: Tom Lazarus and Tony Gillis, Classic Sound, Inc.
Producer: Justin DiCioccio and David Liebman
Production Coordinator: Mark Micklethwaite
Manager of Jazz Administration: Chris Rosenberg



MILES AHEAD: THE MUSIC OF GIL EVANS
Liner notes by Ira Gitler

When Miles Davis played his way out of his contract with Prestige Records, by doing two famed marathon recording sessions in 1956, he became free to sign with Columbia Records. Actually, he had already recorded for Columbia in 1955 with the same quintet with which he taped for Prestige a month later in â55 and the two dates in â56âJohn Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jonesâbut under the agreement that fulfilled his obligations to Prestige came a restraint clause stating that Columbia could not release its sessions until 1957.

Columbia was a major label with a publicity arm and strong distribution machinery able to market Davis to a much wider audience. It also had the capacity to finance the types of projects that were impossible for the smaller, although important, independents such as Prestige.

So while the Davis quintet was breaking out on the two above-mentioned labels in 1957, Columbia began to hatch a plan to increase Davisâs listenership to even greater proportions. He was a featured soloist in an album called Music For Brass, a forerunner in the style to be dubbed âthird stream jazz,â recorded late in 1956 but released in â57. Playing compositions by John Lewis and J.J. Johnson, Miles appeared on both trumpet and flugelhorn. His sound on the latter horn convinced producer George Avakian that it should be his sole instrument on a large undertaking which would reunite Davis with Gil Evans, the arranger who had played a major role in the extremely influential Davis Nonet of the 1948â50 period, the band that had recorded what came to be known as the âbirth of the coolâ sessions.

Here, however, he wanted them to expand on the size and, henceforth, the sound of the Nonet with Miles as the only soloist. Miles Ahead, named for a piece cowritten by Gil and Miles, became the title of the album. It was a huge success, leading to two more Davis-Evans collaborations: Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain. These sessions comprise a Bermuda Triangle of music in which not many are disinclined to get lost.

Miles Ahead includes âSpringsvilleâ by Johnny Carisi, another of the participants in the âbirth of the coolâ; two pieces arranged (Delibesâs âMaids of Cádizâ) and written and arranged (âBlues For Pabloâ) by Evansâeach in its own way presages Sketches of Spain; âNew Rhumba,â reflecting Milesâs strong interest in the music of Ahmad Jamal; Bobby Troupâs âThe Meaning of the Bluesâ; J.J. Johnsonâs âLamentâ; Dave Brubeckâs âThe Dukeâ; Kurt Weillâs â My Shipâ; and âI Donât Wanna Be Kissed (By Anyone Else But You), an older pop song by Spina & Elliott that, if Iâm not mistaken, Miles picked up on from Clark Terry.

In addition to arranging these numbers, Evans also wrote transitional interludes to be played between the selections, giving the entire work the feeling of a suite. It is a culmination of Gilâs work for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra and the Nonet brought together in a new orchestral setting.

Dave Liebman has already recorded a successful concert version of Sketches of Spain with the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra under the baton of Justin DiCioccio. Here he brings that same saxophonic acumen and individuality to Miles Ahead. Those of us who are used to hearing this music played by the flugelhorn of Miles Davis will discover new joys, as will Liebman himself in the playing.