Latest Miles Davis Box Set Arrives in September

SEVEN STEPS: THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA RECORDINGS OF MILES DAVIS, 1963-'64, the seventh box set in Columbia/Legacy's much-honored series of Davis collections, will arrive in stores September 28th. The previous six boxes have won a combined total of 8 Grammy Awards.

In March 1963, Miles Davis (1926-1991) was, for the first time in years, without a band. Eighteen months later, in September 1964, he had perhaps the finest small group in the world. This CD box set chronicles the quintets led by the trumpeter-bandleader during that crucial year-and-a-half period. Presenting forty-seven selections (seven of which are previously unissued, with three more heard for the first time in unedited form) on seven discs, Davis and his colleagues create the style that came to be known as "freebop."

Four different five-piece units are heard both in the studio and in concert, for the most part performing the repertoire of standards and jazz originals -- such as "All of You," "Milestones," "Bye-Bye Blackbird," and "So What" -- that Davis made famous during the second half of the 1950s with his first "great quintet." All of the music on this set's first disc and the first half of the second, including two wonderful up-tempo originals by pianist Victor Feldman, were at the time new to the Davis canon, but the trumpeter's incandescent balladry, featured on numbers like "I Fall In Love Too Easily," "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home," and "Basin Street Blues" was, of course, hardly novel to his legion of fans.

What is particularly striking about this set is (a.) the leader's aggressive forays into his horn's upper register; (b.) the very different tenor saxophone approaches of Davis' three front line partners, George Coleman, Sam Rivers and Wayne Shorter, and (c.) an entirely fresh approach to stating and stretching the flow of times by the audacious young rhythm section of pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams, who was all of 17 when he joined what became known as Davis' "second great quintet." Their collective efforts inspired the trumpeter as never before.

Co-produced by Bob Belden and Michael Cuscuna, and with new liner notes by Bob Blumenthal, the SEVEN STEPS box set is an invaluable addition to one of the 20th century's definitive musical statements.

SOURCE: Columbia/Legacy

CONTACT: Don Lucoff at DL Media, +1-610-667-0501, for Columbia/Legacy

Web site: http://www.legacyrecordings.com/