Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Mademoiselle Mabry
2. Frelon Brun
3. Two Faced
4. Dual Mr. Anthony Tillmon Williams Process
5. Splash
6. Splashdown

Disc 2:

1. Ascent
2. Directions I
3. Directions II
4. Shhh/Peaceful
5. In A Silent Way (rehearsal)
6. In A Silent Way
7. It's About That Time

Disc 3:

1. The Ghetto Walk
2. Early Minor
3. Shhh/Peaceful (LP Version)
4. In A Silent Way/It's About That Time (LP Version)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #126862 in Music
• Released on: 2001-10-23
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
Recorded and released in 1969, In a Silent Way was one of Miles Davis's most mysterious and elusive efforts. That was not only because the album, boasting one long track on each side, was so austerely understated, but also because it stood apart from the music that preceded it, the music the trumpeter was performing in concert, and the revolution that followed--a.k.a. Bitches Brew. Making use of multiple keyboardists--Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea on electric piano and Joe Zawinul on organ--the trumpeter multiplies tones and melody lines and complicates textures. His mold-breaking band, also including Wayne Shorter on soprano saxophone, Tony Williams on drums, and John McLaughlin on guitar, dips into rock and R&B, gospel and classical, electronics and creative editing.

The three-disc, misleadingly titled Complete In a Silent Way Sessions gathers a brace of material recorded during the months leading up to the making of the title classic, when Davis was making the transition from his great acoustic quintet (including Hancock, Shorter, and Williams) to more populous electric units, as well as formalizing his involvement in rock. It includes two songs from Filles de Kilimanjaro that were rudely left off the Miles Davis Quintet 1965-68 box set because they were performed not by the classic quintet but with new members Corea and Dave Holland. Strong subsequent efforts by the revised quintet not released until years later on odds and ends collections. You may drift off while listening to bonus "footage," including rehearsals for Silent Way, but two previously unreleased tunes command attention: the easy and sprawling 27-minute construct, "The Ghetto Walk," which reflects Miles's interest in Jimi Hendrix and James Brown, and "Early Minor," a Zawinul composition warmed by a Spanish sunrise. The extensive notes are informative, and the packaging, as always with the ongoing Davis reissue series, is classy. --Lloyd Sachs

Customer Reviews

Transition from jazz to something else entirely
This 3 CD box set covers recordings from September 1968 to February 1969; as such it covers a lot more than the actual In a Silent Way sessions, but nevertheless illustrates how Miles and his cohorts moved from the spontaneous abstraction of the Second Great Quintet to an ethereal sound that merged jazz, rock, and R&B. If you want to hear this transition, pick up the box; if you don't feel the need, all you really need is the eventual remaster of the original album. So it's for hardcore Davis fans only, but those fans will be very pleased.

Disc 1 opens with the first session to include bassist Dave Holland and pianist Chick Corea. The languid, bluesy "Mademoiselle Mabry" and the furious boogaloo "Frelon Brun" are essential tracks from the classic album Filles de Kilimanjaro, and should really be heard in that context. Of the next four tracks, "Two Faced" is a lengthy post-bop exploration while the last 3 tracks are somewhat cheesy boogaloos (especially "Dual Mr. Anthony...") salvaged by genius of the musicians. The last track, "Splashdown", has never been previously released.

Disc 2 is where the music really starts to move to new territory. Joe Zawinul's composition "Ascent" is a beautiful though slightly unfocused tone poem, a clear predecessor of "In a Silent Way" and "Orange Lady". If you like the shimmering keyboard trio sound of In a Silent Way, you'll love this. On the other hand both takes of "Directions" fuse jazz improvisation with a pounding rock backbeat; though live performances of this tune are more intense, this version definitely has its charms.

Disc 2 continues with the actual In a Silent Way sessions and the first appearance of guitar virtuoso John McLaughlin: an amusing though inessential bossa nova version of Zawinul's "In a Silent Way"; the take of "In a Silent Way" that eventually appeared on the album; and Teo's original mixes for "It's About That Time" and "Shhh/Peaceful". The latter is a real surprise and gem -- it was originally a harder-hitting piece and Tony Williams played more than just the hi-hat!

It's disc 3, though, that makes this package worth it: first, two previously unissued tracks with the In a Silent Way lineup plus Joe Chambers on drums. "The Ghetto Walk" is a grooving, bluesy piece not unlike the Bitches Brew material, while "Early Minor" is a gorgeous ballad in the Silent Way mold. And then the original In a Silent Way album. If you haven't heard the delicate beauty of this album, you are really missing one of jazz's masterpieces.

Highly-recommended to both avid fans and non-collectors!
Davis fans and collectors won't need any convincing to purchase this essential boxed set. The music maintains a consistency that is totally at odds with the manner that most of the material was previously issued (in bits and pieces over several decades). To hear the music in chronological context--and newly remastered for best possible sound--reveals even more detail regarding Davis' recording methods circa 1968-1969 than one gets by listening to the tracks scattered across a number of albums.

To me this set's most striking aspect is the manner that the actual SILENT WAY album selections are presented. As with many Miles fans, I have been supportive of Teo Macero's extensive editing of the sessions for the original album, recognizing that the reorganizing process he employed has aesthetic value in of itself. Yet I maintained a wish to hear the SILENT WAY tracks as originally recorded. They are presented as such here, and it is great to hear them presented as relatively "pure" performances that is consistent with the remainder of the material on this set (for completeness, the album mixes are also heard at the end of disc three).

Usually I hesitate to recommend box sets to non-fans. Yet if you can afford it, I'd say pick up this three-disc set rather than the single-disc version. For those bored with alternate takes, this set is relatively free of them (note the alternate SILENT WAY take is radically different from the album version). Although most of the tracks are quite long by most artists' standards, virtually from start to finish the music is vital and creative. And for electric-era Miles, the music has a relative sense of calm and focus (meaning the listener can approach it as a challenge AND/OR as something to relax to).

Simply amazing and beautiful
In a Silent Way was one of the first jazz albums I ever bought, about 15 years ago, and it remains one of my favorite. Hearing the original tracks in their entirety is a revelation. You can see why they were edited for the original release, those tracks make for a totally different listening experience than the original extended versions and yet both are simply wondeful.

The remainder of the material is just as great as you'd expect from this era Miles. I have most of the tracks from other albums (Files de Kilamanjaro, Circle in the Round, Directions) but here they appear unedited and in context of the other music being created at the time. Hearing these tracks on the original release, like Directions, amidst a bunch of tracks from various stylistic periods, the music never quite clicked for me. In contrast, hearing it now in the right context, the music never sounded sooooo good!

If you have any interest in this acoustic to electric transitional period of Miles career, you'll love this box set. A must buy!