Description
First in a Series of Modal Albums That Changed Jazz: Miles Smiles Features the Most Brilliant Playing of Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet, Bursts with Vitality and Spirit
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes: Mobile Fidelity's Numbered-Edition 180g 33RPM SuperVinyl LP Plays with Reference-Setting Sound, Features Stunning Transparency
1/4” / 15 IPS / Dolby SR analog remix master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe
The clarity afforded by history proves Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet vying for the unofficial honor of being the finest small jazz combo to ever record to tape. Originally released in 1967, Miles Smiles is largely responsible for the feat, as it commences a series of five groundbreaking albums — chronologically rounded out by Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky, and Filles de Kilimanjaro — guided not by chordal patterns but open responses to melodies. Music would never again be the same. Neither will Miles Smiles once you hear this reference-setting pressing.
Like the other Davis titles in Mobile Fidelity's reissue series, this collectible version puts a premium on tonality and preservation of notes, which arc and decay with uncanny realism. The brilliance of Teo Macero's original production springs forth from every passage. Experience this standard-setting record burst with a verve, energy, and spirit you can feel. Davis and Wayne Shorter's horns crackle with electricity. Ron Carter's bass attains unprecedented fluidity and dimensionality. Tony Williams' drums pop, splash, and swing with terrific fervor. Herbie Hancock's 88s dance with a communal dynamic.
Despite all the headway the ensemble made on its subsequent albums, many jazz cognoscenti and Davis diehards believe the Grammy-nominated Miles Smiles remains the apex of the group’s time together. The evidence is found within the thrills, adventurousness, and curiosities tied to each composition. Accessible and unpredictable, songs reflect an ever-changing mentality, edgy moodiness, and triumphant will — with each corner the band rounds a new opportunity to integrate and interact, anticipate and respond, investigate open spaces and establish contagious, broad, striding grooves.
For Davis — and the music world at large — the importance of Miles Smiles cannot be overstated. "The synthesis of complete abstraction with more or less straightforward blues-playing was to sustain [Davis] right through the darkness of the 1970s bands to the later period," write experts Richard Cook and Brian Morton. To their point, everyone from DownBeat to Q to TIME have deemed "Footprints" as one of the greatest compositions of the 20th century.
