A Remarkable Package

MILES DAVIS & GIL EVANS

“The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings”

Columbia

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Just about everything anyone could ever want to know about the classic Davis and Evans Columbia studio recordings is included in this extraordinarily comprehensive six-CD boxed set (retail price $109.98) chronicling every detail of the production of “Miles Ahead,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Sketches of Spain.”

Fascinating as the production details may be, however, it is the music that ultimately is the focus of the album. And it is superb. Columbia’s engineers, under the direction of reissue producer Phil Schaap, have extracted every ounce of sound possible from the original tapes. The LPs offered a singular listening experience; the restorations are even better.

The first three of the six CDs are devoted to “Miles Ahead,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Sketches of Spain.” Disc 4 includes the music from the less successful bossa nova oriented “Quiet Nights,” as well as Davis-Evans tracks composed for the Peter Barnes play “The Time of the Barracudas,” and alternate takes from “Miles Ahead.” Disc 5 adds more elements, including rehearsals, from “Miles Ahead.” Disc 6 concludes the “Miles Ahead” pieces, appending rehearsals and alternate takes from “Porgy and Bess,” and an orchestral run-through of “Concierto de Aranjuez” (from “Sketches of Spain”) without Davis’ trumpet.

Davis is never less than remarkable, even on the many outtakes that are included. There are many small group recordings, from his bebop years to his electric bands, in which he generated more complex and challenging solos. But the lyrical Davis, the Davis who used his musical intelligence to shape his playing into the context of a larger musical environment, rarely performed with more depth and richness of feeling than he does in these outstanding sessions.

Evans--the quiet man in the proceedings--has to be awarded enormous credit for guiding the music to such a high level of productivity. That he did so despite working with a disparate group of studio players performing difficult parts with little rehearsal, and that the music triumphed over the complicated editing and overdubbing processes to which it was submitted, is striking testimony to his skill as an arranger-composer and as a leader.

Insofar as the elaborate (if unwieldy) program notes and additional hours of alternate takes and edits are concerned, does anyone really need to know the minutiae of what it took to create these recordings: Who played French horn on what track? Where are the edits and the overdubs? Aside from trivia buffs and obsessive discographers, probably not.

And many fans will tend to confine their listening to the first three CDs. But for the historical record of the Evans-Davis collaboration, there’s no denying the value of providing comprehensive personnel listings, meticulous breakouts of the combination of edits that went into each track, as well as the illuminating insights afforded by the bits and pieces of studio dialogue.

What emerges from a careful hearing of the supplemental material is the image of a production that was extremely complex. The final released tracks were assemblages that included a surprising number of edits, mixed takes and overdubs--not an especially common practice in the 1957-60 period, a time when the multitrack overdubbing that became commonplace in the ‘60s was just beginning to arrive. Equally to the point, the material reveals a startling willingness on Columbia’s part to commit time and budget to a large-scale jazz project at a time when jazz recordings rarely were allowed production that reached beyond a few quick takes per tune.

The complete Davis-Evans package is also available on nine LP discs in a limited-edition (5,000 copies) boxed set for $144 from Mosaic Records, (202) 327-7111.

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