Love Songs (Miles Davis album)

Love Songs
Compilation album by Miles Davis
Released	February 2, 1999
Recorded	May 10, 1957 - February 12, 1964
Genre	Jazz
Length	60:29
Label	Sony
Producer	George Avakian, Bob Belden, Cal Lampley, Teo Macero, Seth Rothstein
Miles Davis chronology

Last updated April 20, 2019

Love Songs is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released on February 2, 1999, by Sony Music Records. The songs it compiles were recorded between May 10, 1957, and February 12, 1964.

Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Jazz is seen by many as "America's classical music". Since the 1920s Jazz Age, jazz has become recognized as a major form of musical expression. It then emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as "one of America's original art forms".

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz.

Critical reception

Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice , gave Love Songs an "A" and said that "Miles's quiet cool and taciturn affection for the limits of the melody at hand" summons a "consensual intimacy" that "definitely won't kill the mood."^[1] Matt Robinson of All About Jazz felt that it explores Davis' "trademark poise and lyricism" that was best expressed in ballads and credited the compilation for "revealing a diversity even in the broad unity of the love song."^[2] Q magazine gave it four out of five stars and stated, "The master of the art, Davis could push an entire universe of fragility into a simple love song and play the trumpet with such disarming candour it hurt".^[3]

Robert Thomas Christgau is an American essayist and music journalist. One of the earliest professional rock critics, he spent 37 years as the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice, during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop poll. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music, and was a visiting arts teacher at New York University.

<i>The Village Voice</i> American weekly newspaper

The Village Voice was an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the Voice began as a platform for the creative community of New York City. It still is kept alive online.

All About Jazz is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, Jazz Near You, about local concerts and events.

In a mixed review for Allmusic, Scott Yanow gave the album two-and-a-half stars and said that, because of "the slow tempos and the lack of variety in moods, this set is really designed more for background music than for close listening."^[4] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), J. D. Considine gave Love Songs three-and-a-half out of five stars and found it "quite sweet" for a "theme-oriented collection".^[5]

Scott Yanow is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author.

Background music refers to a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behavioral and emotional responses in humans such a concentration, relaxation, distraction, and excitement. Listeners are uniquely subject to background music with no control over its volume and content. The range of responses created are of great variety, and even opposite, depending on numerous factors such as, setting, culture, audience, and even time of day.

<i>The Rolling Stone Album Guide</i> book

The Rolling Stone Album Guide, previously known as The Rolling Stone Record Guide, is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from Rolling Stone magazine. Its first edition was published in 1979 and its last in 2004. The guide can be seen at Rate Your Music, while a list of albums given a five star rating by the guide can be seen at Rocklist.net.

Track listing

"I Fall in Love Too Easily" (Cahn, Styne) – 6:48
"I Thought About You" (Mercer, VanHeusen) – 4:56
"Summer Night" (Dubin, Warren) – 6:05
"My Ship" (Gershwin, Weill) – 4:34
"Someday My Prince Will Come" (Churchill, Morey) – 9:09
"Stella by Starlight" (Washington, Young) – 4:51
"My Funny Valentine" (Hart, Rodgers) – 15:09
"I Loves You, Porgy" (Gershwin, Gershwin, Heyward) – 3:40
"Old Folks" (Hill, Robison) – 5:17

Personnel

Cannonball Adderley – alto saxophone
George Avakian – producing
Danny Bank – bass clarinet
Bob Belden – producing
Joe Bennett – trombone
Frank Butler – drums
Johnny Carisi – trumpet
Ron Carter – bass
Paul Chambers – bass
Jimmy Cleveland – trombone
Jimmy Cobb – drums
George Coleman – tenor saxophone
John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
Sid Cooper – clarinet, flute
Miles Davis – trumpet
Gil Evans – arranging, conducting
Victor Feldman – piano
Howard Fritzson – art direction
Bernie Glow – trumpet
Herbie Hancock – piano
Dick Hixon – trombone

Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s.

The alto saxophone, also referred to as the alto sax, is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s, and patented in 1846. It is pitched in E♭, and is smaller than the tenor, but larger than the soprano. The alto sax is the most common saxophone and is commonly used in concert bands, chamber music, solo repertoire, military bands, marching bands, and jazz. The fingerings of the different saxophones are all the same so a saxophone player can play any type of saxophone.

George Mesrop Avakian was an American record producer, artist manager, writer, educator and executive. Best known for his work from 1939 to the early 1960s at Decca Records, Columbia Records, World Pacific Records, Warner Bros. Records, and RCA Records, he was a major force in the expansion and development of the U.S. recording industry. Avakian functioned as an independent producer and manager from the 1960s to the early 2000s and worked with artists such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck, Eddie Condon, Keith Jarrett, Erroll Garner, Buck Clayton, Sonny Rollins, Paul Desmond, Edith Piaf, Bob Newhart, Johnny Mathis, John Cage, Alan Hovhaness, Ravi Shankar, and many other notable jazz musicians and composers.

Don Hunstein – photography
Taft Jordan – trumpet
Wynton Kelly – piano
Lee Konitz – alto saxophone
Cal Lampley – producing
Teo Macero – producing
Randall Martin – cover design
Tony Miranda – French horn
Hank Mobley – tenor saxophone
Louis Mucci – trumpet
Romeo Penque – clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute
Frank Rehak – trombone
Jerome Richardson – clarinet, flute, alto flute
Seth Rothstein – producing
Ernie Royal – trumpet
Willie Ruff – French horn
Gunther Schuller – French horn
Bill Steele – photography
Art Taylor – drums
Julius Watkins – French horn

Donald Robert Hunstein was an American photographer.

Taft Jordan was an American jazz trumpeter, heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong.

Wynton Charles Kelly was a Jamaican American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively, blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. He began playing professionally at the age of 12, and was pianist on a No. 1 R&B hit at the age of 16. His recording debut as leader occurred three years later, around the time he started to become better known as accompanist to singer Dinah Washington, and as a member of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's band. This progress was interrupted by two years in the United States Army, after which Kelly returned to Washington and Gillespie, and played with other leaders. Over the next few years, these included instrumentalists Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, John Coltrane, Roland Kirk, Wes Montgomery, and Sonny Rollins, and vocalists Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, and Abbey Lincoln.

Charts

Chart	Peak chart position
U.S. Top Jazz Albums (Billboard)	1^[6]

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References

↑ Christgau, Robert (December 28, 1999). "Consumer Guide: Cheap Gifts!". The Village Voice . New York. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
↑ Robinson, Matt (January 20, 2013). "Miles Davis: Love Songs (2000)". All About Jazz . Retrieved May 20, 2013.
↑ "Review: Love Songs". Q . London: 126. May 1999.
↑ Yanow, Scott. "Love Songs - Miles Davis". Allmusic . Retrieved May 20, 2013.
↑ Considine et al. 2004, pp. 215, 220.
↑ "Love Songs – Allmusic – Charts & Awards". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2011-06-22.

Bibliography

Considine, J. D.; et al. (November 2, 2004). Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian, eds. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition . Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.

J. D. Considine is a music critic who has been writing about music professionally since 1977.

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a subsidiary of CBS Corporation, is an American publishing company founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard Simon and Max Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

External links

Love Songs at Discogs (list of releases)

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[1] Christgau, Robert (December 28, 1999). "Consumer Guide: Cheap Gifts!". The Village Voice . New York. Retrieved May 20, 2013.

[2] Robinson, Matt (January 20, 2013). "Miles Davis: Love Songs (2000)". All About Jazz . Retrieved May 20, 2013.

[3] "Review: Love Songs". Q . London: 126. May 1999.

[4] Yanow, Scott. "Love Songs - Miles Davis". Allmusic . Retrieved May 20, 2013.

[FOOTNOTEConsidine_et_al.2004215,_220-5] Considine et al. 2004, pp. 215, 220.

[charting-6] "Love Songs – Allmusic – Charts & Awards". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2011-06-22.