Track Listing

1. Orbits
2. Circle
3. Footprints
4. Dolores
5. Freedom Jazz Dance
6. Gingerbread Boy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18389 in Music
• Released on: 1998-10-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
The most satisfying sort of audacity was the rule with Miles Davis's second great quintet. One of six studio albums cut by the group between 1965 and 1968, Miles Smiles finds them executing three Wayne Shorter compositions and one by the leader, along with Eddie Harris's "Freedom Jazz Dance," former Davis cohort Jimmy Cobb's "Gingerbread Boy," and the usual mix of finesse and barreling momentum. Even when nodding toward the then-burgeoning hard-bop movement on the Harris piece, the group makes its own mark in a hundred different ways, from Herbie Hancock's spare touch to the thoroughly declarative solo Davis lays down. It's hard to pick the most exceptional cut on such a top-flight disc, but certainly Shorter's deceptively simple "Orbits" and "Footprints" deserve mention; on the former, the players take turns stating the melody and then rumbling over it. The latter's echoes of "Caravan" make way for an improv performance that not only hangs tough in itself, but seems to have provided a template for the entire early career of Wynton Marsalis. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

You'll smile too
"Miles Smiles" is thought by some to be the best of Miles' Shorter-Hancock-Carter-Williams group. I'm officially undecided, "E.S.P.", "Sorcerer", "Nefertiti" and this one are all very good. The album starts off pretty well with "Orbits" and "Circle", but really gets into gear with Wayne Shorter's "Footprints". "Dolores" is an uptempo song. "Freedom Jazz Dance" is a slight recasting of an Eddie Harris song - this melody is slightly different than the original, but apparently the Miles Davis version is the way people play it now. "Gingerbread Boy" is a Jimmy Heath song. The improvisation and playing are at a high level throughout. Miles Davis and/or jazz fans should pick this one up.

ONE OF MILES' SEVERAL EXCELLENT RECORDINGS
Miles Smiles is a masterpiece. This is one of Miles Davis' several excellent recordings and every song is great. Circle has pretty piano to it and relaxes me here. I certainly wish Miles was still alive today. You should get this CD, remember that jazz was one of the greatest styles in music.

Miles Smiles Miles Davis Quintet
This is a powerful example of the great Miles Davis. Every member of this band went on to become idols to all of us. This may have been his greatest rhythm section. If you are a real jazz aficionado, you have this one!