Four and More
With its sister recording 'My Funny Valentine,' 'Four and More' is the first recording of the "New Quintet" with Herbie, Ron and Tony. George Coleman is soon to be replaced with Wayne Shorter, but plays great on this record, although a bit outclassed, but only compared to later Shorter recordings with Miles which didn't exist yet.
Tony Williams is only 17yo on this recording. Just released from a short stint with Jackie McLean's band, he had only recently moved from Boston where he studied with the great drummer, teacher and my own mentor, Alan Dawson. All the big name bop drummers would come to see him play and dig the new sound of jazz drumming. Other drummers were playing like this too, like Joe Chambers, but Tony was the first to get it on record.
This is the last recording date on which Miles played anything but his own compositions. It is also arguably his finest playing, artistically and technically. Although his earliest west coast bebop trumpet recordings are technically better, this concert has him already established and comfortable being "The Miles Davis."
A reviewer on Amazon says this concert was a fund raising benefit for NAACP, CORE and SNCC months after MLK assassination and was unexpectedly pro bono.
I first heard this at the home of jazz pianist and Jazz Messenger James Williams. He couldn't believe that I had never heard it before and made a tape of it for me. He really dug it and thought miles was the shit. I just thought he was Bird's trumpeter and didn't have much use for him. as a trumpeter I still don't have much use for him, but this record and a couple others that it introduced to me by association opened my eyes to Miles the brand, and Miles the bandleader and music maker. So many younger trumpeters bought into the brand and didn't know the trumpet was BS. Eventually they figured it out, but hard to undo a jazz style once learned. A mixture of Woody Shaw licks with Miles attitude and inflection is the norm for young trumpeters today. They have all spent many many hours listening to this record. To many of them it is the genesis of modern jazz trumpet.
This is the best actual jazz blowing of "The Second Quintet" on record. They are pissed to play for free, they are all new in the band and want to impress Miles, they are recording live for Columbia Records for the 1st time, and they are young and at the peak of their technical power. There is a measure of humility, even in William's playing that adds to the magic. There's really nothing else like it.