1967

Miles Davis Quintet in Europe, 1967

1967 is the year when everything came together for the Miles Davis Quintet. Their musical power would burst apart at the seams, as they released two more classic albums plus an extraordinary tour that would later be recognized as their creative zenith. Their excellent, but sometimes conventional debut album E.S.P. would give way to much more intense and penetrating material, while drummer Tony Williams would continue to hone his otherworldly skills. 1967 was also a turning point for the entire musical world. The Monterey Pop Festival in June, and the subsequent Summer of Love, were major events that brought to the forefront a new ideology among young people for more freedom and personal expression. Psychedelic drug use would also influence the sounds of many rock bands that year. Miles said of this period: "Around that time everything was in flux. Music, politics, race relations... everybody seemed confused-- even a lot of musicians who all of a sudden seemed to have more freedom than we ever had to do our own thing." In the autumn of 1966 the Quintet recorded Miles Smiles, which to many fans and jazz critics is their unchallenged masterpiece. Released in January 1967, it was immediately recognized as a special accomplishment. Respected columnist Nat Hentoff said: "Miles Smiles is certain to remain an important part of the Davis discography, both for the trumpeter's persistent brilliance and for the lesson by Williams and Carter in how the functions-- and the dynamic range-- of the jazz rhythm section are being explored and changed." Tony Williams' drumming is amazing, and the sounds and textures he was able to summon from his kit border on the supernatural. The band followed Miles Smiles with Sorcerer, released in December 1967. Sorcerer was mellower and less exciting than Miles Smiles, but it's still an impressive album, and the group continued to probe the outer limits of jazz while simultaneously expanding their own harmonic vocabulary. In October and November of 1967, the Miles Davis Quintet toured Europe as part of producer George Wein's "Newport Jazz Festival in Europe." Wein himself said that this group "was not ahead of its time. They were the time." The dates that they played in Paris, Antwerp, Copenhagen, and Karlsruhe were recorded and released in 2011 as Live in Europe 1967, The Bootleg Series. By the end of '67, the Quintet had been together for about three years, and had seemed to merge into a single unit that displayed an almost telepathic power in their interaction with one another. In these shows, they played new material, but also old standards-- albeit in a much more radical and experimental fashion. During the following year, the Miles Davis Quintet would begin to break apart, as Davis became increasingly influenced by the new rock sounds that he heard. Yet a new era was about to begin, as Miles would go electric.