TRACK: “Blues by Five”
ALBUM TITLE: Cookin’
LABEL: Prestige
PERSONNEL: Miles Davis, trumpet; John Coltrane, tenor sax; Red Garland, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Philly Joe Jones, drums
RECORDED: October 1956
REVIEW FROM: Jazz Bass Artists of the 1950s by Dave Hunt
Beginning in 1956, Prestige Records, one of the historically significant labels to document jazz from the Bebop Era through the 1970s, released four albums by this group, which was the original Miles Davis Quintet. Titled Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’, and Steamin’, they were formatted to resemble actual performance sets.
A year earlier, at the time of the group’s formation, few knowledgeable observers expected this band to actually jell, especially when they realized that Davis had hired:
- A tenor saxist whose sound and harmonic direction were almost beyond comprehension
- A pianist who gave listeners the first impression of being an expert cocktail pianist
- A bassist whose experience primarily fit a bebop, straight-ahead mold
- A drummer whose wildly swinging, but unique, conception was thought to be so overbearingly loud that it bordered on the obnoxious. But John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones jelled into a finely tuned swinging machine. As a unit with radar ears, they became one of the most explosive rhythm sections ever to emerge in jazz.
“The rhythm section” of the mid-1950s, as they were appropriately known in critical circles, authoritatively shouts the memorable blues line in a kicking, big band style, assuring the listener that this is a performance of “Blues by Five” to be enjoyed many times over. Davis concentrates on being pleasingly melodic and alternately daring in his leadoff improvisation of 8 choruses. He knows full well that Coltrane, following him, would, at a minimum, take his tenor sax technical virtuosity to the outer limits of listener comprehension.
Surprisingly, during the first few of 7 choruses, Trane mimics Davis’ melodicism in his own innovative way before harmonically taking a fork in the improvisational road that separated him from all other name artists at that time.
Garland ripples across the top of these readily negotiable blues changes for 5 choruses with rhythmic simplicity and melodic consistency. He, more than any other pianist in the mid 1950s, with the exception of Ahmad Jamal, was conceptually misunderstood by the average listener. An appreciation of their artistry depends on more than just a cursory understanding of the musicianship involved in the development of their approaches. What is surprising and disappointing here is that, given the nature of this blues, Garland does not prominently feature melodically attractive block chords in his solo outing.
Chambers, the master of horn-style melodic bass solos, constructs one of the finest extended solos of his career. The 12-bar blues format remains a most enjoyable jazz form, and the bassist’s phrases are conceived just beautifully throughout all 5 choruses and are so memorable that one will easily begin to hum bits and pieces of their motifs. It becomes readily apparent that Chambers relies on the B flat blues scale in the first two-thirds of every chorus. Characteristic triplet-feel rhythmic figures do not occur until the last (fifth) chorus. Check out that insistent first phrase of his second chorus. It’s an emotional attention-getter!
Philly Joe Jones, easily the most dynamic and musically unpredictable drummer of the 1950s, executes startling, if not astounding, 4-bar exchanges with Garland for 7 choruses before the restatement of the theme. Any drummer who hasn’t heard Jones extensively will be blown away.