TRACK: “Straight, No Chaser”
ALBUM TITLE: Milestones
LABEL: Columbia
PERSONNEL: Miles Davis, trumpet; Cannonball Adderley, alto sax; John Coltrane, tenor sax; Red Garland, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Philly Joe Jones, drums
RECORDED: February 1958
REVIEW FROM: Jazz Bass Artists of the 1950s by Dave Hunt
The Milestones session by Davis is thought to be one of the greatest jazz recording events ever held. When the first vinyl version was originally released, musicians were scrambling to figure out what was really happening on these tunes with respect to the improvisational note choices based on the harmonic structure.
As is customary, the most popular, most memorable and, quite possibly, most melodic Thelonious Monk 12-bar blues is stated twice. Adderley immediately serves notice that he is going to confound listeners’ ears and executes 5 searing choruses. The alto saxist was under considerable artistic pressure at this stage of his career because of having to appear in the same group with the innovative Coltrane, often soloing just before or just after him and then possibly trading eights or fours with him over the course of several choruses. Such a format would be enough to unnerve just about every other saxist then or since.
Davis follows with 8 choruses and is both subtly playful and melodic in his extended outing. It is significant that his solo, occurring as it does between those of Adderley and Coltrane, provides a contrasting musical and emotional relief from the improvisational intensity of both saxists. As has been verified time and again, the trumpeter continued to remain true to his artistic instincts and musical integrity.
Well before reaching the first bar of the third chorus (out of a total of 8), Coltrane begins to show the complexity of his own technically intense world. Curiously, he doesn’t play many more choruses than Davis, exclaiming as he usually did that it took him longer than other artists to exhaust his idea bank.
Garland’s solo is understandably spare, executing Ahmad Jamal-influenced single lines in spaced simplicity for 5 choruses. Only in choruses 6 and 7 does he become more insistently articulate when block chording.
Chambers’ 5-chorus solo on Monk’s appealing blues could have been subtitled “A Lesson in Eighth Note Triplet Swing Concepts.” It consists of wonderfully spaced phrases of alternately short and long melodic motifs. Often, 2 or 3 shorter phrases introduce a longer one, as if Chambers is preparing the listener for a conclusive improvisational thought. By the beginning of the second chorus, he is magically swinging in his uniquely natural manner. The well-known Monk classic is his opportunity to showcase his fluid phrasing and natural virtuosity. Despite Chambers’ technical study of his instrument, his phrasing came intuitively from within; it was not learned and cannot be taught.