Product Description

NEFERTITI represents the final "straight-ahead" offering byMiles Davis' legendary '60s quintet, the culmination of a creative arc which began with E.S.P.. On four subsequent albums--MILES IN THE SKY, FILLES DE KILIMANJARO, IN A SILENT WAYand BITCHES BREW--Davis forged a fresh creative arc in which he allowed elements of electronics, blues, funk and rock to intermingle with his own post-modernist sensibility to launch the jazz-rock fusion era.
NEFERTITI was the fruition of all Davis' experiments in free form, bebop, cool and modal jazz. Davis's signature as an improviser and musical editor is writ large on each composition, particularly in the provocative use of space. On Shorter's famous title tune, the trumpet and tenor saxophone shadow each other's line in a deliberately inexact manner, almost like a form of silkscreening, as Hancock's piano tolls away suggestively and Tony Williams drops percussive grenades all over the canvas--as if thedrums were the lead voice (and don't think they aren't).
Shorter's floating melody on "Fall" and his boppish figureson "Pinocchio" have also become essential elements of the modern jazz lexicon, and listen to how bassist Carter and Williams suspend, subdivide and generally subert the traditional 4/4 swing pulse on the later. Williams' "Hand Jive" and Hancock's "Madness" offer cubist shards of melody as the take off point for more resounding swing interplay with Carter and Williams, while the pithy "Riot" redefines Afro-Cuban in adecidedly modern manner. NEFERTITI is a mysterious, meliflouous, enduring classic.

Track Listing

1. Nefertiti
2. Fall
3. Hand Jive
4. Madness
5. Riot
6. Pinocchio

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63587 in Music
• Released on: 1998-10-26
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Miles best with Tony Williams
As a drummer I have to hold this in high regard, there are a lot of drummers that love this recording, Tony Williams is still untouchable and with this recording in my car, house and my work van I know that I'm gonna be happy all week every week, it's beautiful and haunting and yet when the action hits it's exactly what I want from jazz. If your not into jazz but want to try it, put this on repeat and let it convert you as it did me.....The other reviewers already say enough I just want to say...Listen to Tony Williams!

Darkly beautiful - a stunning album
My favorite Miles studio album. Dark, sensuous, exciting, mysterious, fluid. Miles never sounded better. His sound is strong & rich and he refrains from using the mute. Shorter twists & turns, caressing & lingering, turning each phrase inside out. The rhythm section is simply the best in jazz - Williams' drumming is beyond compare. The compositions are beautiful & break new ground. The overall effect is of a volcano about to explode - you can sense the hot magma churning. The extra tracks add much. The recording is top notch & the album cover perfectly reflects the music. A perfect album.

Addictive shivers from the great Miles 60s quintet
A lot of improvising in and around the melody on this one - including a bass solo from Ron Carter (it's not Dave Holland as the first reviewer suggested) on 'Pinocchio'.

Shorter wrote 'Nefertiti', 'Fall' and 'Pinocchio', Herbie Hancock wrote 'Madness' and 'Riot', and Tony Williams 'Hand Jive'. But in the greater scheme of things I'm not sure what that really means - maybe they came up the melody and handed it over to the band for the creative fires to flare. For sure, it's the interaction and apparent fluidity (even telepathy) of the five musicians that is so addictive.

Nefertiti - like much of the work of the 1960s Miles quintet - is beloved by jazz musicians more than mass audiences, but don't let that worry you. This is hypnotic stuff, and there's always some twist to keep you coming back. The switch from Miles' trumpet to Wayne Shorter's sax on Hand Jive always gives me the shivers. And, yes, Tony Williams is extraordinary, a freefloating jazzer rather than someone beating out the time.

Has to be four stars, though. There's the complete Quintet recordings box set !!