Miles Smiles

Love this CD. Excellent playing and music by Miles and his mates. I have all regular releases of Miles and this band.

Opinionated as I generally am, I have a lot of trouble deciding what my favorite Second Quintet album is. It's between Miles Smiles and Nefertiti, that I know. From there, it's a tough call. The only thing I know for certain is this contains my favorite Wayne Shorter song: "Footprints". It's really hard to say what genre that one is. Ron and Tony make it sound Latin, but Hancock's playing almost sounds classical, and Miles and Wayne? Well, they're all over the place. And it is awesome. Then Miles and Wayne play beautiful solos, too, but what really makes it work is the rhythm section's genre-fusing. Speaking of the rhythm section, they're great throughout. If you ask me, "Orbits" and "Dolores" would be little more than very good but generic "modal-bebop" -they hadn't quite entered the "acoustic fusion" phase yet - if it weren't for the backing that Carter and especially Williams provide. Carter actually does do a bit of funky bass playing on "Dolores", sometimes playing off the beat and sometimes just sticking to pentatonic. But hey, cool bass line. I don't know if the little gap between Tony and Ron (which is so slight, it's barely noticeable) was intentional or not, but it adds a lot to the piece. I mean, your soloists are playing nicely, but it's the rhythm track I'm paying the most attention to here. "Orbits" is, as I said, good as well, but this time it's more for Miles, Wayne and Herbie's innovative, slightly disjointed solos. Anyhoo, the obligatory muted trumpet ballad ("Circle") is drop-dead gorgeous as usual. "Freedom Jazz Dance" isn't great, but I like it, again because of the slightly off-kilter rhythm section, and for Hancock (who kinda sits in the back)'s chord progression, though I gotta say bits of Shorter's solo are interesting. Nonetheless, the song does run a bit too long - but if you're listening just for the rhythm section, as I am, you may not notice. And despite the title, it's too slow to dance to. I get this feeling that the bass and drums are playing different time signatures, though, if that's worth anything. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Not much happens in the last song, "Gingerbread Boy", other than a Mingus-inspired melody (it was written by Tony, who was a better drummer than songwriter). Forgetting about that one, this is one great album.

Fantastic is absolutely Top Album

本作のバックは、ロン・カーター（ベース）、ウェイン・ショーター（テナー・サックス）、ハービー・ハンコック（ピアノ）、トニー・ウィリアムズ（ドラムス）である。本作は1967年発表で、“Circle”はマイルズ・ディヴィス作、“Orbits”、“Footprints”、“Dolores”の3曲はショーター作、“Freedom Jazz Dance”はエディ・ハリス（テナー・サックス奏者）作、“Gingerbread Boy”はジミー・ヒース（テナーとアルト・サックス奏者）作。マイルズは1926年にイリノイ州オールトンで生まれた。翌年に同州のイーストセントルイスに移っている。ニューヨークのジュリアードに入学するが中退し、チャーリー・パーカーに1945年に起用された。1947年に初のリーダー・セッションを行っている。1959年に”Kind Of Blue”を発表。本作はキャリア中盤の秀作である。1969年には“In A Silent Way”、1970年には“Bitches Brew”を発表している。1970年代後半に引退していたが、1980年にカムバック。1991年に65歳で死去している。

苦手なアルバムなので星3でレビューしようと、一応聴き直してみた。カーターが他のベーシストだったら成立してないのではと…楽しく聴く鍵を見つけられた。全編にわたってうなりをあげるベースこそ鍵だったのだ。

最高のクインテットならではの余裕の快作。緻密に練り上げられた芸術的名盤もいいけれど、普段着でさらりと実力を発揮した名演も素晴らしいものです。『マイルストーン』ともども大好きです。

まだ、エレクトリックに移行する前で、ドラムのトニーも素晴らしいし、メンバー全員が楽しみながら演奏していますね。曲も親しみやすく聞きやすいです。