Miles Davis Miles In Tokyo CD

Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); Sam Rivers (tenor saxophone); Herbie Hancock (piano); Ron Carter (acoustic bass); Tony Williams (drums).
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); Miles Davis; Sam Rivers (tenor saxophone); Ron Carter (bass instrument); Tony Ruption Williams , Toni Williams, Tony Williams (drums); Herbie Hancock (piano).
Liner Note Author: Takao Ogawa.
Recording information: Kohseinenkin Hall, Tokyo, Japan (07/14/1964).
Photographer: Akiyoshi Miyashita.
Recorded live in Germany at the Berlin Philharmonic, Miles in Berlin represents the first recording of trumpeter Miles Davis with tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter. For various reasons, saxophonists George Coleman and Sam Rivers had both come and gone as members of Davis' band. With the addition of Shorter in 1964, Davis had found the lineup of musicians that he would stick with until 1968 and produce some of the most influential albums of his career -- collected on The Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68: The Complete Columbia Studio. Eventually known as the "second great quintet," most of the players here, including pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams, had been with Davis for just under a year. In that time, they had taken his traditional repertoire of standards and originals and reworked them with a more adventurous, edgy approach that flirted with the avant-garde. While there isn't a huge difference in the sound of this band or choice of songs from the group that recorded Seven Steps to Heaven or Miles Davis in Europe, there is a palpable sense of creative abandon in Davis' performance as well as synergy to the group sound that seems to foreshadow the innovative music to come. ~ Matt Collar
After George Coleman left the Miles Davis Quintet, tenor-saxophonist Sam Rivers took his place for a short period including a tour of Japan. Davis did not care for Rivers's avant-garde style (they failed to develop any chemistry) and soon replaced him, but this live LP (originally only issued in Japan) survived to document this brief association. The music (five lengthy versions of standards) is actually of high quality with both Davis and Rivers in fine form and the young rhythm section (pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams) pushing the trumpeter/leader to open up his style. ~ Scott Yanow
Miles Davis's most successful groups--his first great quintet with John Coltrane, for example, and his mid-1960s outfit with saxophonist Wayne Shorter--are well known, but the ensembles in-between are also notable. On this 1964 concert, recorded in Tokyo, Japan, Miles was already working with the rhythm section he would maintain until 1970--drummer Tony Williams, bassist Ron Carter, and pianist Herbie Hancock. The saxophonist, remarkably enough, is subsequent avant-garde legend Sam Rivers.
Rivers is a unique and under-appreciated player not bound by stylistic constraints; he plays with great verve, humor, and invention. Though Rivers seems a bit out of place on this set of mostly standards (which includes "My Funny Valentine" and "All of You"), it is interesting to hear how his sound changes the group, pushing it toward more flexible rhythmic and harmonic structures. "So What," for example, grows to skittering near-cacophony, with a series of complex solos. Hancock's blinding right hand and the propulsive rhythms of Carter and Williams also drive Davis to some of the edgiest playing of his career at that point. MILES IN TOKYO is a fascinating document of Davis in transition, but is also worth picking up for the chance to hear Rivers in such unique company.
MILES IN BERLIN, recorded in September of 1964, is the first recording trumpeter Miles Davis made with what would be regarded as his "second great quintet." Though Davis had been working with pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams for about a year, the addition of tenor saxophonistMojo (Publisher) (p.124) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Miles himself is definitely in a routine...Rivers is delightfully slithery and unpredictable..."