My Funny Valentine (Album)

Occupation

My Funny Valentine is a jazz album by Miles Davis, recorded at a concert at New York's Lincoln Center, on 2 February 1964 and in the same year by Columbia Records.

Background to the album

After a transitional phase with a Californian band ( "Seven Steps to Heaven " ) Davis presented in New York with Ron Carter and George Coleman, a new quintet, which included the pianist Herbie Hancock and the 17-year- old drummer Tony Williams. In summer 1963, the new lineup went on a European tour and made ​​guest appearances on the Jazz Festival in Antibes ( Miles Davis in Europe). On February 12, the band played at the Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall ) at a charity event organized by the NAACP, the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for voter registration in Mississippi and Louisiana. Miles Davis understood his participation in the concert as well as its shape the memory of the murdered in November of last year John F. Kennedy. This act had zunichtegemacht the hopes of many members of the civil rights movement. Miles Davis had repeatedly expressed his admiration for the Kennedys expressed.

The album

The concert footage of the evening appeared on Columbia Records on two different albums; The " up-tempo " pieces were published under the title Four & More, while the album My Funny Valentine contained the slower and played in a mid-tempo tracks.

Davis biographer Peter Wießmüller wrote that the " Four More " titles were played too fast, which affects monotonous in the long run, while the title track Funny Valentine was of a great depth and brilliance that had not been achieved by Miles Ian Carr keeps the album for one of the largest real recordings of a live concert. The album contained all those beautiful and presented in subdued tempos Ballads of Miles Davis that were missing on " Four & More". Especially this falls under the changes, which over the recording from September 1959 with Bill Evans learns the 15 minute long version of "My Funny Valentine": this version is determined by a powerful movement away from Romanticism ( the Evans version) to more abstraction. The profit of a differentiated emotional expressivity is unmistakable. Despite the occasionally only hidden references to the original melody and the very free harmonic approximation ( Davis: " We use the entire title as a tone scale " ) is held by the structure. In contrast to previous recordings Miles plays with open horn in the highest registers, without his personal touch to lose the lyrical sound.

The speed of some pieces of the evening was also partly due to the tensions that arose in matters of free playing. Some band members would rather have their fees and then decide for themselves how much they donated, but Miles Davis remained in the matter stubborn Herbie Hancock would later describe the psychological pressure weighing on the young band members because they for the first time in the new Carnegie Hall played.

The tenor saxophonist George Coleman soon left on the tape. Following an interim solution with Sam Rivers, Davis accompanied with a Japan tour, but did not fit into the band's concept, reached Miles Davis that his favorite Wayne Shorter was able to come across. This was created in September 1964, the classic " second Miles Davis Quintet ", which was active until 1968.

Disco Graphic Comments

The live recordings from the " Philharmonic Hall " appeared first in 1964 under the title "Miles Davis: Four & More - recordes Live in Concert" (Columbia CS 9106 ) and " My Funny Valentine - Miles Davis in Concert" (Columbia CS 9253 ). The two albums were titled "The Complete Concert 1964: My Funny Valentine Four & More" The CD release summarized. The recordings also appeared along with another ( live ) recordings of Miles Davis formations of 1963/64, on the Columbia compilation " Seven Steps - The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis 1963-1964 " ( C7K 90840 )

The title

  • The album " Four & More" contains the title:

Literature / Sources

  • Ian Carr: Miles Davis - The Definitive Biography. Revised edition 1998 HarperCollins ISBN 0-00-6530265
  • Richard Cook & Brian Morton The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD 6th edition. ISBN 0-14-051521-6
  • Miles Davis: The Autobiography. Munich, Heyne, 2000
  • Erik Nisenson: Round About Midnight - A portrait of Miles Davis. Vienna, Hannibal, 1985
  • Peter Wießmüller: Miles Davis - His life, his music, his records. Gauting, Oreos ( Jazz Collection ) 1985

Comments

  • Album ( Jazz )
  • Live album
  • Miles Davis album
Record label Genre Miles in Tokyo Carnegie Hall Lorenz Hart Cole Porter Stella by Starlight Ned Washington Victor Young Johnny Mercer There Is No Greater Love Richard Cook (journalist) Jazz at the Plaza New York Philharmonic
589688
de