Nile's Miles

I remember back in the late sixties a school friend who was a couple of years older than me had the album Nefertiti by Miles Davis and it seemed to come form such a cool, sophisticated world with a striking photo of a brooding Miles on the cover shot in such a way as almost to resemble the Egyptian queen herself. it remains a great album to this day. By this time, Miles had moved on to another extremely important quintet lineup of younger musicians with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Shorter and Hancock take the composer credits here and Miles inverts the standard setup on several tracks, whereby the horns restate the theme repeatedly and the rhythm section are busy underneath them, shifting the beat's emphasis, stretching the time and offering a full dynamic and emotional range. As is becoming apparent from this journey through Miles's music, there isn't that much virtuoso soloing going on. The most virtuosic thing on offer here is the stunning drumming of the teenage Tony Williams. The title track has been described as almost a drum concerto. The album is still acoustic but the move away from standard jazz traditions of performance was under way.