Miles Davis Filles De Kilimanjaro CD

W/ One Bonus Track 1968

Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea (electric piano); Dave Holland (bass); Ron Carter (electric bass); Tony Williams (drums).
Recorded at Columbia Studios, New York, New York between June 21 and September 24, 1968. Originally released on Columbia (9750). Includes liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason and Lawrence Kart.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Since it's billed as "Directions in Music by Miles Davis," it should come as little surprise that Filles de Kilimanjaro is the beginning of a new phase for Miles, the place that he begins to dive headfirst into jazz-rock fusion. It also happens to be the swan song for his second classic quintet, arguably the finest collective of musicians he ever worked with, and what makes this album so fascinating is that it's possible to hear the breaking point -- though his quintet all followed him into fusion (three of his supporting players were on In a Silent Way), it's possible to hear them all break with the conventional notions of what constituted even adventurous jazz, turning into something new. According to Miles, the change in "direction" was as much inspired by a desire to return to something earthy and bluesy as it was to find new musical territory, and Filles de Kilimanjaro bears him out. Though the album sports inexplicable, rather ridiculous French song titles, this is music that is unpretentiously adventurous, grounded in driving, mildly funky rhythms and bluesy growls from Miles, graced with weird, colorful flourishes from the band. Where Miles in the Sky meandered a bit, this is considerably more focused, even on the three songs that run over ten minutes, yet it still feels transitional. Not tentative (which In the Sky was), but certainly the music that would spring full bloom on In a Silent Way was still in the gestation phase, and despite the rock-blues-n-funk touches here, the music doesn't fly and search the way that Nefertiti did. But that's not a bad thing -- this middle ground between the adventurous bop of the mid-'60s and the fusion of the late '60s is rewarding in its own right, since it's possible to hear great musicians find the foundation of a new form. For that alone, Filles de Kilimanjaro is necessary listening. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
FILLES DE KILIMANJARO is one of the most singular, compelling works in the entire Miles Davis discography. It marks the continental divide between the trumpeter's classic '60s quintet, and the furious period of experimentation which led to BITCHES BREW, ON THE CORNER and AGARTHA.
By 1968, Miles was feeling creatively restless, and stalwarts Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter were preparing to leave (to be replaced by Chick Corea and Dave Holland). So FILLES DE KILIMANJARO is a transitional work, suffused in the heady abstraction of the '60s, but with an ear out for the blues tonalities, electronic textures, and dancing rhythms of the jazz-rock epoch to come. Nevertheless, FILLES is neither avant-garde jazz nor fusion; it occupies a space of its own aural design--a magnificent new direction in music.
Miles' fascination with the Fender/Rhodes electric piano, and its potential for new chordal voicings, is at the heart of FILLES DE KILIMANJARO. Herbie Hancock treats it percussively on the relentlessly driving "Frelon Brun," and with bell-like elan on the winsome title tune. Corea, meanwhile, feeds the horns guitar-like strums on the edgy, martial "Petits Machins," and bluesy washes of sound on the eerie "Mademoiselle Mabry." Bassists Carter and Holland find new harmonic possibilities within their vamp-like structures, freeing Tony Williams to engage Davis and Shorter in some remarkable airborne conversations: From the "All Blues"/James Brown references on "Toot De Suite" to the free-form mystery of "Mademoiselle Mabry" where all the strong rhythmic beats are air-brushed away, the trumpet and tenor saxophone are allowed to create soRolling Stone (4/19/69, p.28) - "...No amount of track-by-track description here can begin to convey the beauty and intensity. There are five songs, but really they fit together as five expressions of the same basic piece, one sustained work..."
Uncut (11/02, p.139) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...A masterpiece of tropical exoticism..."