TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. In 1965, Miles Davis led one of the all-time great jazz groups with four younger players, including saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Herbie Hancock, but they rarely worked that year while Miles dealt with medical issues. But that December, they recorded seven sets over two nights at the Chicago nightclub the Plugged Nickel. The complete recordings went unreleased for decades. Well, now comes a new addition. Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead says the music is all over the place in the best way.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS QUINTET'S "WHEN I FALL IN LOVE (LIVE AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL)")
KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Before they played Chicago's Plugged Nickel with Miles Davis in 1965, drummer Tony Williams famously challenged his fellow sidemen to play anti-music on the gig, the opposite of what a listener or even the other players might expect. They hadn't known they'd be recording live, and they didn't clue in Miles, but they went for it anyway, sometimes. Two versions of the same tune might sound radically different. Tony Williams, who just turned 20, was the main instigator. Jazz drummers typically favor steady tempos, but Williams had other ideas. On "No Blues," pianist Herbie Hancock and bassist Ron Carter follow him all the way down.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS QUINTET'S "NO BLUES (LIVE AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL)")
WHITEHEAD: The players' anti-music stance pushed back against Miles Davis' stale and limited live repertoire. The quintet had broken new ground on their current album "E.S.P.," recorded earlier in '65. But on gigs, they played only one tune from it in simplified form. Mostly, they did songs he'd been doing for years, some since the 1950s. Miles usually took the first solo, with the rhythm section generally well behaved. After that, things might advance into more open territory with more floating rhythm. This is from "Agitation," that lone tune from "E.S.P."
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS QUINTET'S "AGITATION (LIVE AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL)")
WHITEHEAD: Tony Williams is the band's spark plug, but on the 7 1/2 hours of Miles Davis' "Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965," the star soloist is Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone. Miles could play sparsely, leaving lots of space. Shorter, by contrast, might overflow that space, as John Coltrane had with Miles. Shorter might echo Coltrane's drive but had a more variable tone.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS QUINTET'S "FOUR (LIVE AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL)")
WHITEHEAD: He goes on like that for five minutes. Then on the very next number, Wayne Shorter is relaxed, lyrical and full bodied - a total turnaround. It's the ballad "When I Fall In Love."
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS QUINTET'S "WHEN I FALL IN LOVE (LIVE AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL)")
WHITEHEAD: In truth, the quintet's weak link is Miles Davis. The trumpeter had been sidelined for most of the year with hip problems and sounds out of practice. Miles' greatness isn't about sterling technique, but the ingenious ways he works around his limitations. But here, when his lips tire, he may fall back on pure bluster. One static episode prompts belated heckling from Tony Williams. The band didn't always play nice with the boss.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS QUINTET'S "NO BLUES (LIVE AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL)")
WHITEHEAD: Miles' chops would soon improve just to keep up. And at the Plugged Nickel, he does have his moments. The trumpeter starts his "Green Dolphin Street" solo with his signature Harmon mute stuck in the bell. When he takes the mute out, you can just hear him do it. The change in sound and attitude is so dramatic, it's like a different soloist steps up. Call it his own anti-music turn.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS QUINTET'S "ON GREEN DOLPHIN STREET (LIVE AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL)")
WHITEHEAD: During their two-week stand in Chicago, Miles neither called out his players on their antics, nor did he fire their mutinous asses. Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams had thoroughly modernized the leader's sound, and that Quintet had a few excellent years and classic albums still ahead. And at the Plugged Nickel, Miles Davis did show he could hold his own in such fast company on stretched out versions of their set closing "Theme." There, he and Shorter would improvise together as close as Miles had inched toward free jazz. Many, many bands would imitate this quintet over the decades. But precious few ever get as rambunctious as things got at the Plugged Nickel Christmas week, 1965.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS QUINTET'S "THE THEME (LIVE AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL)")
MOSLEY: Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead is the author of "New Dutch Swing," "Why Jazz?" and "Play The Way You Feel." He reviewed Miles Davis, Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965. If you'd like to catch up on interviews you've missed, like our conversation with journalist Gabe Sherman, who's covered the Murdochs for nearly two decades and has a new book about the succession fight, or with historian Robert Kagan, who says we're heading into a dictatorship if we're not already in one, check out our podcast. You'll find lots of FRESH AIR interviews. And to find out what's happening behind the scenes of our show and get our producers recommendations on what to watch, read and listen to, subscribe to our free newsletter at whyy.org/freshair.
FRESH AIR's executive producers are Danny Miller and Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman, and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSETTE EXPLOSION'S "SWING 39") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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