E.S.P. - Miles Davis | Jazzbo Notes

Mar

28

E.S.P. - Miles Davis

≡ Category: 1960s, Hard Bop, Music Reviews, Recommended |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Rating:

The studio debut of Miles’ Second Great Quintet (Miles, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums; Herbie Hancock, piano), E.S.P. is far more abstract than anything Miles had recorded up until that time. The relative accessibility of that earlier music may explain why the First Great Quintet is more popular to this day. Indeed, it can be pretty hard to find your way into the music on E.S.P., but you’ll find yourself being drawn in by the extraordinarily emphathetic, extrasensory perceptive quality of the interaction between the members of the quartet. The album’s name is well chosen.

With the Second Great Quintet, Miles used the studio to add to his songbook, and he was fortunate in that all the members of the quintet were excellent composers in their own right.

Shorter’s E.S.P., which leads off the album, boasts a parallel harmony scheme with an eliptical melody based on the interval of a perfect 4th, which is ambiguous by its nature. The feel is straight up swing, which gives E.S.P. at least the sheen of familiarity. But listen to what Hancock is doing with his comping under Miles’ solo. It’s rhythmically very free, with all sorts of unexpected accents. Harmonically, he’s using a great deal of chord substitution. Miles, Hancock and Shorter follow this same pattern in their solos. It’s exhilarating, but a bit exhausting. There is very little of a conventional nature to hang onto.

Ron Carter’s Eighty-One is much less demanding on the brain. It’s a 24-bar blues, with some interesting rhythmic displacements and a startling melodic outburst at one point, but it’s still a blues.

With Herbie Hancock’s Little One, we’re back in dangerous territory. The melodies and harmonies are once again elusive, owing to the extensive use of pedal points. However, even if it is hard to follow the structure of the tune, one can sense the careful structuring of the solos, with plenty of space and form, so even if you don’t know where the quintet is going, you’re confident that they do.

Carter’s R.J. and Davis’ Agitation are similarly inscrutable, but Shorter’s Iris is a lovely ballad, in the style that we are so familar with from his albums as a leader. Frankly, it’s a bit of a relief, after so much challenging material.

The date ends with Carter’s Mood, a subdued, unhurried, ruminative exploration similar in tone to Miles’ work on Sketches of Spain.

For those who are intimidated, it might be wise to pick up Davis’ Highlights From the Plugged Nickel first, which features the Second Great Quintet playing tunes from Miles’ earlier groups. The sophistication of the group interplay is the same, and the solos are every bit as adventurous, but it’s in the context of tunes that are more intuitively obvious and easier to follow. Once you get your head around what the Second Great Quintet is doing with simpler tunes, it’s easier to go back to E.S.P. and unlock it’s intricacies.

Many of you will be outraged that I’ve only given E.S.P. 3 1/2 stars when it is clearly so brilliant. You’ve got a point. But as embarassing as it might be, I’ve got to be honest and admit that I find it much easier to admire E.S.P. than to love it. At the same time, I would be abdicating my responsibility as a reviewer if I didn’t point out that you should own this CD if you are any kind of serious jazz fan.