Five-Star Collection... Porgy And Bess

Miles Davis

Porgy And Bess

The inherent pensiveness of Gil Evans' writing and the introversion of Miles Davis' playing produces something akin to a gas flame turned as low as it can be without going out. Its heat is quiet, but very intense.

What is it possible to say now about Gil Evans? This man has genius. He is one of the few living composers whose magic passes all the technical tests for stature without dying in the process. He has taken what he wanted and needed from the classical tradition, and yet remained a jazz writer, safely evading the lure of contemporary classical music, which has written itself up a blind alley. In His control and reserve (notice Summertime) he can put you in mind of Sibelius, who may have been the last classical composer to express himself naturally and without calculation of effects and because he felt it that way. Yet Evans is unique, and his development has been quite personal. His debts are to himself: there are things in this album that hark back to his days of writing for Claude Thornhill.

The Porgy songs submerged in this album, soaked up by the personalities  — or rather, the joint personality — of Evans and Davis. You forget the underlying structures and, since the music used is not in the standard AABA pop song form to begin with, the album becomes a remarkable jazz experience, both for the musicians and the listener, who will be forcibly reminded of the great seriousness and the greatness in jazz, the universality in it that Andre Hodeir is always talking about.

Some of the best of Miles is to be heard in this album — along with some of the sloppiest. There are cracked and fuzzed notes and other things that just shouldn't have been let go. (Strawberry may make all but the most uncritical Davis fans squirm.) Why these things were let pass is anybody's guess. Maybe Miles didn’t care. Maybe they were let pass in accordance with the dubious faith that even mistakes are part of the whole and therefore to be admired in jazz. Maybe it is because the executives-in-charge think that Miles' stature is such that these considerations are small in comparison — which, as a matter of fact, is true.

In any case, the Davis-Evans relationship has again produced superb music. In the jazz albums of Porgy, this one is in a class by itself. Which figures: it named its own terms.

*Down Beat, July 23, 1959 (5 stars)*

1 - The Buzzard Song

2 - Bess, You Is My Woman Now

3 - Gone

4 - Gone, Gone, Gone

5 - Summertime

6 - Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess

7 - Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus)

8 - Fishermen, Strawberry And Devil Crab

9 - My Man's Gone Now

10 - It Ain't Necessarily So

11 - Here Come De Honey Man

12 - I Loves You Porgy

13 - There's A Boat That's Leaving Soon For New York

(All compositions by George Gershwin)

Miles Davis (trumpet, flugelhorn);

Ernie Royal, Bernie Glow, Johnny Coles, Louis Mucci (trumpets);

Dick Hixon, Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, Joe Bennett (trombones);

Willie Ruff, Julius Watkins, Gunther Schuller (french horns); Bill Barber (tuba);

Phil Bodner, Jerome Richardson, Romeo Penque (flutes, alto flutes, clarinets)

Cannonball Adderley (alto sax), Danny Bank (alto flute, bass flute, bass clarinet);

Paul Chambers (bass); Philly Joe Jones [#1, #3 to #7, #9, #12, #13],

Jimmy Cobb [#2, #8, #10, #11] (drums). Gil Evans (arranger, conductor)

Recorded at CBS 30th Street Studio, New York City, July 22 [#3, #4, #9], 

July 29 [#2, #8, #10, #11], August 4 [#1, #5, #6, #7, #13], August 18 [#12], 1958

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The Bill Potts Big Band

The Jazz Soul Of Porgy And Bess

An immediate and obvious comparison will arise between this album and the Miles Davis Porgy album. It should be dismissed. All they have in common is that they are the two outstanding instrumental Porgy performances in the rash of recent releases of discs inspired by the movie. Otherwise, they are dissimilar. Their purposes are different, and so are their final effects.

This LP, in which United Artists is taking thoroughly justified pride, is actually truer to the spirit of the Gershwin music than the Miles-Gil album was or was meant to be. And it establishes Washingtonian Potts as a major arranger. This is a man to be watched.

The instrumentation he has used is what might be termed augmented conventional. Potts finds his colors — and rich ones they are — in the instruments considered normal to jazz. But by the careful (and brilliant) use of the highly individual soloists at his disposal, he has created a tapestry of rich variety.

All the men are given blowing room, and Sims, Cohn, Brookmeyer, Farmer, and Edison turn in individual statements that are up to the standards we have come to expect of them. Indeed, there isn't a poor solo in the lot, and some are superb. Evans plays with a harder jazz feeling than has usually been thought to be within his scope. Markowitz, not too known to the public as a jazzman, invests My Man's Gone Now with all the warmth and feeling it can hold.

Of course, there can be a danger in having so many gifted soloists playing section. But in the ensemble passages, all of them submerge themselves in the task at hand, and the result is a cohesiveness and power rarely found in studio-band playing.

This project was the coddled baby of UA's Jazz A&R man, Jack Lewis. The coddling was worth it, and he is to be congratulated. This is a beautiful, beautiful album.

*Down Beat, September 3, 1959 (5 stars)*

1 - Summertime

2 - A Woman Is A Sometime Thing

3 - My Man's Gone Now

4 - It Takes A Long Pull To Get There

5 - I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'

6 - Bess You Is My Woman

7 - It Ain't Necessarily So

8 - Medley: Prayer, Strawberries, Honey Man, Crab Man

9 - I Loves You Porgy

10 - Clara, Clara

11- There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York

12 - Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess

13 - Oh Lawd, I'm On My Way

(All compositions by George Gershwin)

Art Farmer, Harry Edison, Bernie Glow, Markie Markowitz, Charlie Shavers (trumpets);

Bob Brookmeyer, Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, Earl Swope, Rod Levitt (trombones);

Phil Woods, Gene Quill (alto saxes); Zoot Sims, Al Cohn (tenor saxes);

Sol Schlinger (baritone sax); Bill Evans (piano); George Duvivier (bass);

Herbie Powell (guitar); Charley Persip (drums); Bill Potts (arranger, conductor).

Recorded at Webster Hall, New York City, January 13, 14 and 15, 1959