Spins: Miles Davis • The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965

Miles Davis

The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965

(Columbia/Legacy)

This impressive and immersive 10xLP set allows listeners to travel 60 years into the past to spend two midweek nights cozily ensconced indoors at the Plugged Nickel in Chicago, just before Christmas of 1965.

These recordings capture three sets on Wednesday, December 22, and four more on Thursday, December 23, by an exceedingly accomplished and influential version of Davis’s band, known as his Second Great Quintet. Joining the world’s most famous jazz trumpeter are Herbie Hancock on piano, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Tony Williams on drums, and Ron Carter on double bass. The group’s noted studio offerings include Nefertiti and Miles Smiles, and the high-wattage ensemble supported Davis’s transition toward fusion with Filles de Kilimanjaro until Carter’s departure. The band slashes and burns through the post-bop treatment of features like “Walkin’,” with Carter’s nimble fingers and Shorter’s electrifying runs. Ballads like the swinging “I Fall in Love Too Easily” ignite with slow-burning fire behind Davis’s free-jazz leads. Each set wraps a unique interpretation of the typical set closer “The Theme,” but the material varies broadly and satisfyingly otherwise.

The quintet offers improvisationally rich and rearranged versions of standards, including “My Funny Valentine,” “‘Round Midnight,” “On Green Dolphin Street,” and “Autumn Leaves,” often delivered at surprisingly high velocity. With his intuitive sense of propulsion at work, Williams sought to break the group’s recent habits of predictable interplay in order to upend expectations of the audience and his bandmates alike at these shows. The experiment was dubbed “anti-music.” However, the results are eminently musical, fascinating, and lively. Despite covering risky new ways of moving together, the accomplished group does not falter. On the contrary, they dance feverishly on the high wire without a safety net during three takes of “Stella by Starlight.” The Thursday crowd is treated to an uptempo interpretation of the signature Kind of Blue piece “So What.” Applause of recognition is heard as Davis launches skyward with his horn, underpinned by Hancock’s cool jazz chord voicings. The expanded song coalesces into an inventive, even brutishly aggressive, drum solo by Williams, followed by cartwheeling interplay between Hancock and Carter.

The band lunges through the faster arrangements toward energetic peaks, then abruptly transitions to quiet tension. The envelope-pushing results are edge-of-your-seat thrills for any new listener, and a touchstone marking the ensemble’s greatness for familiar fans. Davis was neither consulted nor debriefed about his bandmates’ new direction, but is heard moving with skill through each twist. Hancock himself has characterized the sets as anything but elegant, insisting that the music was naked and gutsy. The room’s intimacy is apparent, and listeners can occasionally hear remarks from the attentive Chicago audience.

This new issue of The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 marks the collection’s first physical vinyl release in 30 years. Its reverent treatment will delight vinyl aficionados with a very fine set of well-balanced pressings that allow each player’s work to shine. The CD format is also available. A new book includes insightful essays that dive deeply into song histories and the details of these historic sets.

– Jeff Elbel

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