| 1. E.S.P. |
| 2. Eighty-One |
| 3. Little One |
| 4. R.J. |
| 5. Agitation |
| 6. Iris |
| 7. Mood |
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
E.S.P. marks the great divide between the conservative hard bop/soul jazz directions of Miles Davis's At the Blackhawk band and the freely inflected, collective explorations of his '60s quintet. Egged on by young firebrands Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, Davis extends his core melodic principles while making his peace with post-modernists such as John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Cecil Taylor--all the while on a collision course with the blues, R&B, funk, and freeform psychedelia of his post-Bitches Brew period (as presaged by the generic but spirited boogaloo rendition of a straight eight rock beat on "Eighty-One"). The arrival of Wayne Shorter galvanized this quintet, Hancock in particular. It is in the serpentine minimalism of his tenor, and the moody, impressionistic ambiguity of the pianist's chords on Shorter's ballads, such as "Iris," that this ensemble first hints at the kind of amorphous harmonies, rhythmic plasticity, and intuitive collective interplay that distinguished Sorcerer and Filles de Kilimanjaro. And in the jittery, urban sprawl of 19-year-old Tony Williams's prelude to "Agitation" is the seed-germ of the polyrhythmic, stop-and-go pulse time he and Carter perfected on Miles Smiles, and his arrival as a front-line solo voice on Nefertiti. --Chip Stern
E.S.P. marks the great divide between the conservative hard bop/soul jazz directions of Miles Davis's At the Blackhawk band and the freely inflected, collective explorations of his '60s quintet. Egged on by young firebrands Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, Davis extends his core melodic principles while making his peace with post-modernists such as John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Cecil Taylor--all the while on a collision course with the blues, R&B, funk, and freeform psychedelia of his post-Bitches Brew period (as presaged by the generic but spirited boogaloo rendition of a straight eight rock beat on "Eighty-One"). The arrival of Wayne Shorter galvanized this quintet, Hancock in particular. It is in the serpentine minimalism of his tenor, and the moody, impressionistic ambiguity of the pianist's chords on Shorter's ballads, such as "Iris," that this ensemble first hints at the kind of amorphous harmonies, rhythmic plasticity, and intuitive collective interplay that distinguished Sorcerer and Filles de Kilimanjaro. And in the jittery, urban sprawl of 19-year-old Tony Williams's prelude to "Agitation" is the seed-germ of the polyrhythmic, stop-and-go pulse time he and Carter perfected on Miles Smiles, and his arrival as a front-line solo voice on Nefertiti. --Chip Stern
Esp,Miles Davis,Sony,Jazz
Jazz Music:
- Get Up With It
- Going Places [Import] [Limited Edition]
- Greatest Hits
- Greatest Hits
- Greatest Hits
- Heavy Weather
- Hodge Podge
- I'll Be over You
- In a Silent Way
- Invitation
Jazz Music
Music: Shostakovich: Preludes & Fugues Nos. 17-24
Magnificent Dream People/Electricity Made Us [Limited Edition]
Big Joe Is Here/Big Joe Rides Again