Description
For Sam Cooke it was the Copa supper club in midtown Manhattan; for James Brown, it was Harlem_s Apollo Theater. For Miles Davis, the place was New York City_s leading symphonic house, Carnegie Hall, and the date was May 19, 1961. The venue was no stranger to jazz performances, but for a solo jazz musician to have his own night there_a career overview of a sort_was indeed a rarity, and the recording of the event further elevated the trumpeter to a mainstream level of acceptance.
The evening was a benefit for the African Medical Education and Research Foundation_a relief organization that some thought supported existing colonial systems, like the South African government. One of those critics, drummer Max Roach, staged a one-man protest that evening. Meanwhile, the concert was recorded with the highlights released in mid-1962 as a single LP with a strange, op-art image on the cover: a bright green dinosaur-like figure holding a stylized Miles aloft against a blood-orange background. In the CD era it was reissued as a double-disc album with the entirety of the evening_s music.
The performances_a mix of tracks from big band collaborations with arranger Gil Evans, and recent small-band albums_stunned a crowd that surely included some non-jazz goers with its rhythmic explosions and emotional range. _Walkin,__ _Teo,_ _Oleo,_ all burn with a focused intensity, featuring Miles_ quintet of the day. Hank Mobley especially stands out, his solo on _So What__which opened with an orchestrated version of the dream-like piano-and-bass introduction on the original recording_is a marvel of extended improvisational building, quoting liberally (_March of the Siamese Children_ from The King and I, and _Ah-Leu-Cha_) and Kelly_s ensuing piano solo is of equally impressive for similar reasons, ceaselessly inventive and swinging. And that was just the first number.
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