In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete

Infobox Album
Name = In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete
Type = Box
Artist = Miles Davis


Released = June 3 2003
Recorded = April 21 - 22 1961
Genre = Jazz
Length =
Label = Sony
Producer = Bob Belden, Michael Cuscuna, Irving Townsend
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fxfqxqwaldfe link]
*PopMatters (positive) [http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/d/davismiles-inperson.shtml link]
Last album = "Friday Night In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete"
(2003)
This album = "In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete"
(2003)
Next album = "Saturday Night In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete"
(2003)

Infobox Album
Name = In Person Friday Night at the Blackhawk
Type = live
Artist = Miles Davis Quintet


Released = 1961
Recorded = April 21 1961, April 22 1961
Genre = Jazz
Length = 53:29, 57:46
Label = Columbia
Producer = Irving Townsend
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:azfrxqygld0e link]

*(Vol. 2) Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3zfpxqygldae link]
Misc = Extra album cover 2 | Upper caption = In Person Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, Vol. 2 | Type = Live Album |

"In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete", also called "The Complete Blackhawk", is a 2003 four disc collection of the 1961 live performances of the Miles Davis Quintet at the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco. These sets, recorded with performance in mind, [Staff. [http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/miles_davis/reviews/5818 Miles Davis: Friday Night at the Blackhawk] "Uncut". Retrieved 15-05-08.] forged new ground for influential jazz musician Miles Davis, who had never previously been recorded live in a club with his combo.Colette, Dough. (November 23 2003) [http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=874 Miles Davis boxes: Jack Johnson and At The Blackhawk] . All About Jazz. Retrieved 15-05-08.] Material from the four sets was first released in 1961 by Columbia Records on two albums, titled "In Person Friday Night at the Blackhawk" and "In Person Saturday Night at the Blackhawk (Vol. 2)". Although those albums were subsequently re-rereleased several times, the complete sets were not commercially available until Sony Records remastered the performance for this collection. Simultaneous to this release, Sony released the material as two separate double-albums, entitled "Friday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete" and "Saturday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete".allmusic|id=10:fxfqxqwaldfe|label=In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete]

The remastered complete collection, which included liner notes from the original release by Monterey Jazz Festival co-founder Ralph J. Gleason as well as additional notes by jazz trumpeter Eddie Henderson and featured a new cover, was critically and commercially well-received. The collection peaked at #9 on Billboard's "Top Jazz Albums" chart.

Critical reception

In its review of the four-disc compilation, "The New York Times" indicated that the set was "the gold standard for straight-ahead, postwar jazz rhythm". [Ratliff, Ben. (June 8 2003) [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9400E7DD1030F93BA35755C0A9659C8B63 At Last: Miles Live at the Blackhawk] "The New York Times". Retrieved 15-05-08.] All Music, praising the "pristine" sound and "lovely" packaging suggested that "no Davis fan should be without these recordings purchased separately or as a set". All About Jazz said that the set was "so fastidiously remastered it sounds live in your living room".

"Complete" cover imagery

While the original release featured an atmospheric representation of the exterior of the Black Hawk taken during Davis's performance, the complete reissues (both the 4-disc and 2-disc) displayed a photograph of Davis with his soon to be second wife, Frances Taylor, for whom the song "Fran-Dance" was composed. In a 2001 article in "The New York Times", historian Robin D.G. Kelley drew attention specifically to this image, including Davis's position and the picture's use of lighting, as an example of Davis's camera awareness and manipulation of what Kelley termed a cultural "pimp aesthetic".Kelley, Robin D.G. (May 13 2001) [http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/13/arts/13KELL.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=d5cedcfe78cca7b4&ex=1210996800 Miles Davis: A jazz genius in the guise of a hustler] "New York Times". Retrieved 15-05-08.] Kelley argued that such iconic images of Davis help to demonstrate that Davis was a product and representation of "a masculine culture that aspired to be like a pimp, that embraced the cool performative styles of the players (pronounced 'playas'), the 'macks,' the hustlers, who not only circulated in the jazz world but whose walk and talk also drew from the well of black music".

"Complete" track listing

The track listing for "In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete" reproduces in its entirety the performances of Friday and Saturday nights, April 21 and 22, 1961. Because of space constraints and a desire not to divide sets, the producers of the box set put sessions 1 and 3 together on the first disc, placing the more energetic and lengthier 2nd set on Disc Two. For the two double-disc sets, the track listing for "Friday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete" is that of Disc One and Disc Two, below. For "Saturday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete", it is that of Disc Three and Disc Four.

"Except where otherwise noted, all songs by Miles Davis."

Disc One

#"Oleo" (Sonny Rollins) – 6:56
#"No Blues" – 17:13
#"Bye Bye (Theme)" – 2:54
#"If I Were a Bell" (Frank Henry Loesser) – 12:43
#"Fran-Dance" – 7:38
#"On Green Dolphin Street" (Bronislau Kaper, Ned Washington) – 12:12
#"The Theme" – :44

Disc Two

#"All of You" (Cole Porter) – 15:47
#"Neo" – 10:18
#"I Thought About You" (Johnny Mercer, James Van Heusen) – 5:04
#"Bye Bye Blackbird" (Mort Dixon, Ray Henderson) – 9:46
#"Walkin'" (Richard Carpenter) – 14:16
#"Love, I've Found You" (Reverend C.L. Moore, Danny Small) – 1:54

Disc Three

#"If I Were a Bell" (Loesser) – 12:44
#"So What" – 12:14
#"No Blues" – :27
#"On Green Dolphin Street" (Kaper, Washington) – 12:04
#"Walkin'" (Carpenter) – 12:24
#"'Round Midnight" (Bernie Hanighen, Thelonious Monk, Cootie Williams) – 7:29
#"Well, You Needn't" (Monk) – 8:02
#"The Theme" – :18

Disc Four

#"Autumn Leaves" (Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prévert) – 11:45
#"Neo" – 12:29
#"Two Bass Hit" (Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis) – 4:36
#"Bye Bye (Theme)" – 3:27
#"Love, I've Found You" (Moore, Small) – 1:57
#"I Thought About You" (Mercer, VanHeusen) – 5:31
#"Someday My Prince Will Come" (Frank Churchill, Larry Morey) – 9:38
#"Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Sigmund Rombert) – 8:41

Original editions track listing

"Except where otherwise noted, all songs by Miles Davis."

"Friday Night"

#"Walkin'" (Carpenter) – 14:21
#"Bye Bye Blackbird" (Dixon, Henderson) – 9:55
#"All of You" (Porter) – 15:44
#"No Blues" – 8:53
#"Bye Bye/The Theme" – 2:42
#"Love, I've Found You" (Moore, Small) – 1:54

"Saturday Night"

#"Well, You Needn't" (Monk) – 8:16
#"Fran-Dance" – 7:40
#"So What" – 12:43
#"Oleo" (Rollins) – 5:18
#"If I Were a Bell" (Loesser) – 11:10
#"Neo" – 12:39

Personnel

Performance

*Paul Chambers – bass
*Jimmy Cobb – drums
*Miles Davis – trumpet
*Wynton Kelly – piano
*Hank Mobley – sax (tenor)

Production

*Bob Belden – reissue producer
*Steven Berkowitz – A&R
*Stacey Boyle – tape research
*Harold Chapman – engineer
*Michael Cuscuna – reissue producer
*Howard Fritzson – reissue art director
*Ralph J. Gleason – liner notes
*Eddie Henderson – reissue liner notes
*Patti Matheny – artist coordination
*Seth Rothstein – project director
*Darren Salmieri – artist coordination
*Chuck Stewart – photography
*Irving Townsend – producer
*Mark Unterberger – packaging manager
*Leigh Wiener – cover photo
*Mark Wilder – audio remixing, audio mastering
*Kyle Wofford – artist coordination

Further reading

* [http://www.allaboutjazz.com/reviews/r0503_078.htm In Person Friday Night At The Blackhawk, Complete, Volume I review] at All About Jazz
* [http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=11727 In Person Saturday Night At The Blackhawk, Complete, Volume II review] at All About Jazz

References

External links

* [http://www.miles-davis.com/ Complete discography information and song samples from Sony's official site]
*allmusic|id=10:azfrxqygld0e|label=In Person Friday Night at the Blackhawk
*allmusic|id=10:3zfpxqygldae|label=In Person Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, Vol. 2
*allmusic|id=10:jxfexqwaldde|label=In Person Friday Night at the Blackhawk, Complete, Vol. 1
*allmusic|id=10:dxfixqwaldde|label=In Person Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, Complete, Vol. 2