=> Making of:

1. "So What" – 9:22
2. "Freddie Freeloader" – 9:46
3. "Blue in Green" – 5:37
4. "All Blues" – 11:33
5. "Flamenco Sketches" – 9:26

• Miles Davis – trumpet, band leader
• Julian "Cannonball" Adderley – alto saxophone, except on "Blue in Green"
• Paul Chambers – double bass
• Jimmy Cobb – drums
• John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
• Bill Evans – piano (except "Freddie Freeloader") liner notes
• Wynton Kelly – piano on "Freddie Freeloader"

IMPROVISATION IN JAZZ by Bill Evans

There is a Japanese visual art in which the artist is forced to be spontaneous. He must paint on a thin stretched parchment with a special brush and black water paint in such a way that an unnatural or interrupted stroke will destroy the line or break through the parchment. Erasures or changes are impossible.

These artists must practice a part­icular discipline, that of allowing the idea to express itself in communication with their hands in such a direct way that deliberation cannot interfere.

The resulting pictures lack the complex composition and textures of ordinary painting, but it is said that those who see well find something captured that escapes explanation.

This conviction that direct deed is the most meaningful reflection, I believe, has prompted the evolution of the extremely severe and unique disciplines of the jazz or improvising musician.

Group improvisation is a further challenge.

Aside from the weighty technical problem of collective coherent thinking, there is the very human, even social need for sympathy from all members to bend for the common result. This most diffic­ult problem, I think, is beautifully met and solved on this recording.

As the painter needs his framework of parchment, the improvising musical group needs its framework in time. Miles Davis presents here frameworks which are exquis­ite in their simplicity and yet contain all that is necessary to stimulate perf­ormance with a sure reference to the primary conception.

Miles conceived these settings only hours before the recording dates and arrived with sketches which indic­ated to the group what was to be played. Therefore, you will hear something close to pure spont­aneity in these performances.

The group had never played these pieces prior to the record­ings and I think without exc­eption the first complete performance of each was a “take.”

Although it is not uncommon for a jazz musician to be expected to impr­ovise on new mat­erial at a record­ing session, the char­acter of these pieces represents a particular challenge.

Briefly, the formal character of the five settings are:

So What is a simple figure based on 16 measures of one scale, 8 of another and 8 more of the first, following a piano and bass introd­uction in free rhythmic style. Freddie Freeloader is a 12-measure blues form given new personality by effective melodic and rhythmic simplicity. Blue in Green is a 10-measure circular form following a 4 -measure introduction, and played by soloists in various augment­ation and dimin­ution of time values. Flamenco Sketches is a 6/8 12-measure blues form that produces its mood through only a few modal changes and Miles Davis’ free melodic conception. All Blues is a series of five scales, each to be played as long as the soloist wishes until he has completed the series.

Liner notes taken from the original analog release.

59 Rue des Archives 9 octobre 2016 (podcast TSFjazz.com)