Miles & Quincy: Live at Montreux is a collaborative live album by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis and conductor Quincy Jones. It was recorded at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival and released by Warner Bros. Records in 1993.
Miles & Quincy: Live at Montreux charted at number one on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums. It won Davis his seventh Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance.
Background Miles Davis, who had never revisited past music from his career before, surprised jazz fans when he worked with an ensemble led by Quincy Jones at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 8, 1991. Quincy had persuaded Miles to play his older music after they met with a psychic at Quincy’s home in New York. The psychic’s dice had fallen into Miles’ lap and they interpreted this as a sign that it was right for him to play his older music. The concert was also a tribute to Gil Evans who had died a few years before. Jones developed the idea of using two orchestras and conducted both the Gil Evans Orchestra and George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band at the concert. The performance also featured guest instrumentalists who played with Davis, including trumpeters Benny Bailey and Wallace Roney, drummer Grady Tate, bassist Carles Benavent, and alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett. Davis was seriously ill when he played the concert, and it was the final album he recorded before his death three months later.
Critical reception
In a contemporary review for Entertainment Weekly, critic David Hajdu gave the album an "A" and said that it is "simply the most exquisite music of tragedy this side of a New Orleans funeral. Don't be mistaken though: This ain't no party. Nor is it a career-summing work of miraculous late-life virtuosity. It's something even rarer: an almost unbearably honest musical expression, without apology or shame, of weakness, age, and pain." Q magazine found the sound thin, but funky and strong. In a less enthusiastic review for Vibe magazine, Greg Tate found Davis' playing occasionally sketchy and felt that the recreations are not on-par with Evans' original arrangements: "[T]he compressed nature of this document—even its shadowy relationship to the original—only serves to highlight the nova-like luminosity of Gil and Miles's work together."
In a retrospective review, Allmusic's Ron Wynn wrote that "not every moment is golden, but the overall session ranks just a bit below the majestic '50s and '60s dates featuring Davis' trumpet and Evans' arrangements." In The Penguin Guide to Jazz, Richard Cook and Brian Morton said that the exaggerated arrangements are redeemed by the audience's enraptured reception and Davis' musical ideas, if not his labored solos: "Jones hails Miles Davis as a 'great painter' and that is exactly what he was. He left some masterpieces, some puzzling abstracts, and a pile of fascinating sketches."
Track listing
Personnel Musicians Miles Davis - trumpet Quincy Jones - conductor Kenny Garrett - alto saxophone Wallace Roney - trumpet, flugelhorn
The Gil Evans Orchestra Lew Soloff - trumpet Miles Evans - trumpet Tom Malone - trombone Alex Foster - alto and soprano saxophones, flute George Adams - tenor saxophone, flute Gil Goldstein - keyboards Delmar Brown - keyboards Kenwood Dennard - percussion The George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band Marvin Stamm - trumpet, flugelhorn John D'earth - trumpet, flugelhorn Jack Walrath - trumpet, flugelhorn John Clark - French horn Tom Varner - French horn Dave Bargeron - euphonium, trombone Earl McIntyre - euphonium, trombone Dave Taylor - bass trombone Howard Johnson - tuba, baritone saxophone Sal Giorgianni - alto saxophone Bob Malach - tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet Larry Schneider - tenor saxophone, oboe, flute, clarinet Jerry Bergonzi - tenor saxophone George Gruntz -piano Mike Richmond - double bass John Riley - percussion Additional musicians to George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band Manfred Schoof - trumpet, flugelhorn Ack Van Rooyen - trumpet, flugelhorn Alex Brofsky - French horn Roland Dahinden - trombone Claudio Pontiggia - French horn Anne O’Brien - flute Julian Cawdry - flute Hanspeter Frehner - flute Michel Weber - clarinet Christian Gavillet - bass clarinet, baritone saxophone Tilman Zahn - oboe Dave Seghezzo - oboe Xavier Duss - oboe Judith Wenziker - oboe Christian Raabe - bassoon Reiner Erb - bassoon Xenia Schindler - harp Conrad Herwig - trombone Roger Rosenberg - bass clarinet, baritone saxophone Other additional musicians Benny Bailey - trumpet, flugelhorn Carles Benavent - double bass, electric bass on "The Pan Piper" and "Solea" Grady Tate - drums
Production Quincy Jones - producer Jerry Hey - associate producer Claude Nobs - executive producer Louise Velazquez - executive producer Jolie Levine - production coordinator Jeff Gold - art direction Jeri Heiden - art direction John Heiden - design Annie Leibovitz - photography Philippe Dutoit - photography
Charts Chart (1993)PeakpositionU.S. Top Jazz Albums (Billboard)1U.S. Top R&B Albums (Billboard)86
Certifications and sales
See also The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux Miles! The Definitive Miles Davis At Montreux Dvd Collection
References
External links