Nefertiti

Artist: Miles Davis
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording reissued
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 074646568125
EAN: 0074646568125
ASIN: B00000DCH0

Release Date: 1998-10-13

Related Categories:

Avant Garde & Free Jazz

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General

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Modern Postbebop

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Hard Bop

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Listmania:

Best albums ever
Miles Davis Box Sets -- get his entire career in box sets
The Ultimate Miles Davis
Lynns Top recordings !!!
Important Jazz Recordings
Miles Davis Columbia Years
NPR Basic Jazz Record Library Part 1
The 20 Best Jazz Albums of All Time
JAZZ that is moving ahead
Top Ten Miles in Chronological Order

Tracks:

Nefertiti
Fall
Hand Jive
Madness
Riot
Pinocchio
Hand Jive (First Alternate Take)
Hand Jive (Second Alternate Take)
Madness (Alternate Take)
Pinocchio (Alternate Take)

Similar Items:

Sorcerer
Miles Smiles
E.S.P.
Filles De Kilimanjaro (Deluxe Edition) (Bonus Track)
In a Silent Way

Customer Reviews:

Whoa man..........2007-02-12

Miles' '60's quintet made some great music, and this is arguably their best ever. Nothin' here by Miles, but Shorter; Hancock and Williams make up for that. Wayne especially, his title track SMOKES. You'd expect a song that repeated a melody, without solos, for eight minutes to be a piece of crap, right? Well, when the melody's that awesome, when the groove's that hypnotic, when Tony Williams is proving himself the best drummer ever to walk the face of this Earth, you're wrong. It's pure dynamite. Same with his Fall, he's channeling Coltrane here. I love Coltrane, so of course I love Fall. Makes sense, no? Tony gives us the brilliant modern-bop Hand Jive, while Hancock provides the short-but-sweet Riot. Really, Miles kinda takes a backseat and lets the rest of his group show off, and of course I won't complain about that, but his trumpet's still great throughout. But it's Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter who make this record the near-masterpiece (I reserve "masterpiece" for the VERY best of the best) that it is.

An overlooked gem.......2006-12-31

Nefertiti would be the fourth album recorded by the second Miles Davis Quintet and would further point to the fusion era that began with Davis' album In a Silent Way. While its predecessor, Sorcerer, was steeped in hard bop and has a lot more soloing, Nefertiti is more about mood. The title track boasts one of their most memorable themes played over a shuffle while Tony Williams' rapid fills become more prevalent as the track progresses. The next track, "Fall", is simply a beautiful piece of music. While the restraint taken by Williams and bassist Ron Carter help the song gel, it is Wayne Shorter's solo and Hancock's exquisite playing, that make it a work of art. "Hand Jive" finds the band returning to hard bop as Shorter bounces between expression and rapid flurries of notes while Carter and Williams provide a relentless pace. "Madness" is more dramatic and features great bass work from Carter and a cool solo, some of it unaccompanied, from Hancock. "Riot" is another moody albeit short track where Shorter, Davis, and Hancock all belt out strong solos. "Pinocchio" is very melodic, similar to the tunes on Miles Smiles, and finds Williams playing like an absolute monster. The remastered version includes four alternate takes including two versions of "Hand Jive" that are even hotter than the original and a subdued version of "Pinocchio" taken at a slower tempo that works very well. All told, while it doesn't get the attention of E.S.P. or Miles Smiles, Nefertiti is another gem from the second Miles Davis Quintet. Highly recommended.

Remaster is STUNNING.......2006-12-17

Miles shook things up by reversing the role of the melody and rhythm instruments. On the title track, Miles and Wayne play a repeating figure while the rest of the band, especially Williams, "solo" over the repitition. Miles would take this approach on future sessions like the ones that yielded 'Great Expectations" and "Quiet Fire" (from "Big Fun"). All of the tunes are killer and you get some alternate takes that are as good, maybe even better in some cases, than the master takes. I also liked the way they changed up the tempo on the alternate take of 'Pinocchio" giving it a whole new feel. The alternate takes of "Hand Jive" are very good, the 2nd may even exceed the master take.

No Miles Davis collection is complete without Nefertiti. Williams never played better with Miles. This is a very cool, at times searching release, the remastering is stellar, it's innovative, and it sounds as fresh as ever today. If I have one small quibble about this release it is that Bob Belden's liner notes and track analysis is a tad scant compared to some of the other Miles 75th anniversary releases.

Just a side note... Surely Manfred Eicher of the ECM label had this Quintet's records in mind when he started his own label. I find a parallel in the way these records sound to the exquisite releases on ECM.

The conclusion.......2006-09-07

Miles Davis, especially later in his career, treated his music's progress in such a way that was stated very well in one particular set of liner notes (to Agharta maybe?): he would take a current direction, sharpen it to a razor's breadth, and then move on, never looking back. Miles was never interested in rehashing the past, in reunions, or in playing anything in one style for too long. Granted, his earlier career had a few periods of relative stagnancy (the post-Coltrane/pre-Shorter period in the early 60s, during which some incredible music was still created, see "My Funny Valentine") but once this band, the Second Great Quintet, with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, was created, Miles kept pushing forward until health and frustration with the world finally caused him to retire in 1975. Even then he returned and kept extending his music. As a result, Miles's musical directions followed the pattern of creating a new concept, and then refining and extrapolating it, until finally it reaches its logical conclusion, then finding a new thread. This present album, cut in 1967, is the end of the thread known as Freebop, one that began with "E.S.P." and broke out with "Miles Smiles," was varied and darkened with "Sorcerer" and finally became fully realized here.

Much has been written about the title track, how the horns drone the angular melody with slight variation while the rhythm section shifts the beat and the harmony and eventually just goes nuts. This is one of my favorite single tune recordings and it's fascinating to hear how much they can do within the framework of a 16 bar tune repeated probably 20 times. Let it grow on you for a while and you won't think the repetition is boring.

But this album isn't just a single tune. "Fall," a ballad by Wayne Shorter, is a beautifully simple tune. The middle two tunes, "Hand Jive" and "Madness," are the full extension of Freebop, the loose, spare improvisational sound of the earlier two albums, but taken farther out rhythmically. It becomes clear listening to these two tunes that there's really nothing more to be done with this approach, so it's fitting that these are the last two. "Riot" is a short, ominous, quasi-Latin Herbie Hancock tune which sounds fresher and sharper here than on Herbie's album "Speak Like A Child" even if this version isn't fully developed yet. "Pinocchio" is Freebop with a twist; like "Nefertiti," the melody is repeated more than usual, but it's a faster tune and the solos do eventually start. But the reason to listen is for Tony Williams, who is bar none the most creative drummer in jazz history and shows it here. He's creating tunes within tunes on his own, adding all kinds of rhythmic and almost melodic dimensions to the drums that previously wouldn't have been thought possible.

This album is not particularly accessible to the average listener; there is danger in picking random Miles Davis albums as natural followups to "Kind of Blue" because most people could listen to two Miles Davis albums recorded 20 or even 10 years apart and not be able to tell that it's the same artist. This album will appeal to more adventurous jazz listeners with more experience hearing what's going on because it's easy to get lost if you don't really understand the music and where it has come from. If you're still interested in getting there, or you like earlier Miles, check out "E.S.P." to test the waters; the approach is a little more grounded in traditional jazz in that Hancock plays chords (even if those chords are a little strange). If you like that album, you might as well go right on up the line and get "Miles Smiles," "The Sorcerer," and "Nefertiti" to complete the thought. Where Miles went after this is the highly controversial electric period (where I believe he did a lot of his best work) though he eases in slowly with "Miles in the Sky," "Filles de Kilimanjaro," and "In a Silent Way." All three of those albums are fantastic and are the next place to go if you like this.

Average.......2006-05-05

Because of the title track, this album gets a lot more credit than it deserves. I mean, I've had it for about a year and a half, listening to it off and on, and I just don't see what all the hype is about. Nefertiti and Fall are great song. But Hand Jive, Madness, and Pinocchio are just repetitive. They all start with Miles and Wayne stating the theme. Then after that the two of them take turns soloing over Ron's Bass and Tony's drums. After a couple of minutes, it's like, "okay, what else are you going to do?" While all this is done for a reason, it still doesn't equal to entertaining music. But as always, try it for yourself and see.

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