The New Sounds | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1951 | |||
Recorded | October 5, 1951 | |||
Studio | Apex Studio New York City | |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Length | 23:35 | |||
Label | Prestige PRLP 124 | |||
Producer | Bob Weinstock | |||
Miles Davis chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [1] |
The New Sounds is the debut solo studio album by the American jazz musician Miles Davis. Released in late 1951 as a 10-inch LP, it is his first album as a bandleader and his first full album for Prestige Records. Davis had previously contributed three tracks to the Prestige compilation LP Modern Jazz Trumpets and appeared as a sideman on the 10-inch LP Lee Konitz: The New Sounds . [2]
Prestige would be Davis' label for the next five years, with occasional recordings for Blue Note and Debut, until he signed with Columbia in 1955. His previous label, Capitol, had been disappointed with the sales of the nonet recordings released in 1949/50, and they had not offered Davis more work, when he was contacted by Prestige's Bob Weinstock. Weinstock had just started his new jazz specialty record label, and wanted Davis on his label so bad he tracked him across the country, to Chicago where he was performing with Billie Holiday, and offered him a one-year contract. [3]
The four tracks on this album were recorded at New York's Apex Studio on October 5, 1951, along with two tracks ("Bluing" and "Out of the Blue") that would later be used on his next Prestige album, Blue Period , (PRLP 140), and a seventh track, "Denial", which would later appear on the 12"LP Dig (PRLP 7012). [4] Davis' friends Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus both attended this recording session, with Mingus contributing an uncredited bass part to "Conception". Parker watched from the engineering booth, and his presence is said to have unnerved alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, for whom this was his first ever recording session. Sonny Rollins, Davis' favored tenor saxophonist during this period, was again used for this recording session.
Ira Gitler's liner notes stress the advantage of the 10" LP in allowing a jazz musician to stretch out. "This album gives Miles more freedom than he has ever had on record for time limits were not strictly enforced. There is opportunity to build ideas into a definite cumulative effect. These ideas sound much more like air-shots than studio recordings." [5] For Davis, this was his first recording to use the new microgroove technology, and he was eager to transcend the 78rpm format's three-minute limit and stretch out his solos like he could while playing in the clubs. Weinstock assured him he would be one of the first jazz musicians to take advantage of the potential of microgroove technology. [6]
After the 10" LP format was discontinued in 1956, the tracks "Dig" and "It's Only A Paper Moon" would reappear on the 12" album Dig (PRLP 7012), and "Conception" and "My Old Flame" on the various artists compilation Conception (PRLP 7013).
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Conception" | George Shearing | 4:03 |
2. | "Dig?" | Miles Davis | 7:33 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
3. | "My Old Flame" | Sam Coslow, Arthur Johnston | 6:36 |
4. | "It's Only a Paper Moon" | Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg, Billy Rose | 5:23 |
Total length: | 23:35 |
Rudolph Van Gelder was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including Booker Ervin, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green and George Benson. He worked with many different record companies, and recorded almost every session on Blue Note Records from 1953 to 1967.
Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them on subsidiary labels. The company's first release was in July 1960 and the Prestige label includes the 13000 and 25000 cat# series. Prestige International was a sub-label of Prestige, active from 1960 to 1969, that mostly released folk music. In 1971, the company was sold to Fantasy, which was later absorbed by Concord.
Blue Haze is a compilation album of tracks recorded in 1953 and 1954 by Miles Davis for Prestige Records.
Bags' Groove is a jazz album by Miles Davis, released in 1957 by Prestige, compiling material from two 10" LPs recorded in 1954, plus two alternative takes.
Miles Davis and Milt Jackson Quintet/Sextet, also known as Quintet/Sextet is a studio album by trumpeter Miles Davis and vibraphonist Milt Jackson released by Prestige Records in August of 1956. It was recorded on August 5, 1955. Credited to "Miles Davis and Milt Jackson", this was an "all-star" session, and did not feature any of the members of Davis's working group of that time. Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean appears on his own compositions “Dr. Jackle” and “Minor Apprehension”.
Bob Weinstock was an American record producer best known for his label Prestige Records, established in 1949, which was responsible for many significant jazz recordings during his more than two decades operating the firm.
"Airegin" is a jazz standard composed by American jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins in 1954. Rollins chose the name "Airegin", as it is an anadrome of "Nigeria".
Conception is a compilation album issued by Prestige Records in 1956 as PRLP 7013, featuring Miles Davis on a number of tracks. The album, compiled from earlier 10 inch LPs, or as 78rpm singles, also features musicians such as Lee Konitz, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, and Zoot Sims. The cover was designed by Bob Parent. In particular, the entirety of the 10"LP Lee Konitz: The New Sounds makes up all of side 1.
Blue Period is the third studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis. It was released in 1953 as a 10" LP, his second released by Prestige Records, recorded over the course of two 1951 recording sessions at New York's Apex Studio.
Dig is an album by Miles Davis on Prestige Records, catalogue number 7012. It features tracks from a 1951 session at Apex Studios. First released in the 12-inch LP format in 1956, The original album was later released as Diggin' with the catalogue number PR 7281 and a different cover. Dig was reissued as a compact disc with additional tracks.
Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet is a 1956 compilation album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, featuring his earliest recordings for the Prestige label under his leadership, including four tracks performed by Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet, eight tracks where Kenny Drew and Art Blakey replace Lewis, Jackson, and Clarke, and one track with Miles Davis on piano.
The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions is a four compact disc box set of recordings by the Miles Davis Quintet released in 2006 by the Concord Music Group. It collates on three discs the entire set of recordings that made up the Prestige Records albums released from 1956 through 1961 — Miles, Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin'. The track "'Round Midnight" was released on the album Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants. The fourth disc contains live material from a television broadcast and in jazz club settings. It peaked at #15 on the Billboard jazz album chart, and was reissued on December 2, 2016, in a smaller compact disc brick packaging.
The Compositions of Al Cohn is a 10" LP by jazz musician Miles Davis, recorded on February 19, 1953 and released later that year on Prestige, his third album as leader for the label, and fourth altogether, following 1952's Young Man with a Horn for Blue Note.
Miles Davis Quartet is a 10 inch LP album by Miles Davis, released in 1954 by Prestige Records. The first four tracks that comprise Side 1 were recorded at New York's WOR Studios, on May 19, 1953. The last three, heard on Side 2, were recorded nearly a year later, at New York's Beltone Studios, on March 15, 1954.
Miles Davis All Star Sextet is a 10 inch LP album by Miles Davis, released in 1954 by Prestige Records. The two side-long tracks were recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, April 29, 1954.
Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins is a 1954 10 inch LP album by Miles Davis, released by Prestige Records. The four tracks on this LP, along with a second take of "But Not For Me", were recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, on June 29, 1954.
Miles Davis All Stars, Vols. 1 & 2 are a pair of separate but related 10" LP albums by Miles Davis recorded by Rudy Van Gelder on December 24, 1954 and released on Prestige Records as Miles Davis All Stars, Vol. 1 and Miles Davis All Stars, Vol. 2 the following year.
Miles Davis, Vol. 3 is the sixth 10" studio album by musician Miles Davis, recorded on March 6, 1954 and released by Blue Note later that year, the third and last of his three ten-inches published for the label. Davis would once again record at Blue Note, but as a sideman on Cannonball Adderley's Somethin' Else, several years later.
Modern Jazz Trumpets is an album released by Prestige Records in 1951 with music by four jazz trumpeters: Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Kenny Dorham. The album was released on the 10" LP format and includes the first recordings by Davis for Prestige.
The Brothers is a studio compilation album by American saxophonists Stan Getz and Zoot Sims released in 1956 via Prestige label.