Blue Haze Explained

Blue Haze
Type:compilation
Artist:Miles Davis
Cover:Blue_haze.JPG
Border:yes
Released:Early October 1956[1]
Recorded:May 19, 1953, March 15 and April 3, 1954
Genre:Jazz, bebop, hard bop
Length:36:33
Label:Prestige PRLP 7054
Producer:Bob Weinstock, Ira Gitler
Prev Title:Quintet/Sextet
Prev Year:1956
Next Title:Collectors' Items
Next Year:1956

Blue Haze is a compilation album of tracks recorded in 1953 and 1954 by Miles Davis for Prestige Records.[2]

Overview

The album is a reissue in 12" format of the 10" LP Miles Davis Quartet (PRLP 161), with "I'll Remember April" added. Tracks 4, 6, 7, and 8 come from Prestige PREP 1326, The Miles Davis Quartet, recorded May 19, 1953. It features a quartet with John Lewis on piano —replaced on "Smooch" by its co-composer Charles MingusPercy Heath, the bassist throughout the album, and Max Roach on drums. Tracks 2, 3, and 5, from March 15, 1954, with Horace Silver on piano and Art Blakey on drums, were first released on PREP 1360, titled Miles Davis Quartet. The first track on the album, "I'll Remember April", is from the April 3, 1954, session and was originally included on the 10" LP Miles Davis Quintet (PRLP 185).

The compositions "Four" and "Tune Up" were always credited to Davis, although both were claimed by Eddie Vinson to be his compositions. Vinson was a known blues singer at that time and had no use for them and gave Davis permission to record them. No one expressed opposition to the false crediting until decades later.[3]

The album's last track, "Miles Ahead" is not the same composition as featured on the 1957 Columbia Records album Miles Ahead, a big band recording arranged by Gil Evans. The "Miles Ahead" played on Blue Haze is a contrafact, and features a new melody played over the chord changes to John Lewis' tune "Milestones", recorded by Davis in 1947 for Savoy Records.

Track listing

Prestige – LP 7054[4]

Personnel

Track #1 (April 3, 1954)

Track #2, 3 and 5 (March 15, 1954)

Track #4, 6, 7 and 8 (May 19, 1953)

Notes and References

  1. https://books.google.com/books?id=ewoEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Blue+Haze+miles&pg=PA30 Reviews and Ratings
  2. Web site: Prestige Records Discography: 1953.
  3. Jack Chamber: Milestones: The Music in Times of Miles Davis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press, 1998 (unabr. paperback edn): Pt. 1, p. 184.
  4. News: Miles Davis – Blue Haze. . October 22, 2016.