Nefertiti (Miles Davis album)


Nefertiti is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released in March 1968. Recorded on June 7, June 22–23 and July 19, 1967, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio, the album was Davis' last fully acoustic album. Davis himself did not contribute any compositions, which were mostly written by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter.

Music

The fourth album by Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, Nefertiti, is best known for the unusual title track, on which the horn section repeats the melody numerous times without individual solos while the rhythm section improvises underneath, reversing the traditional role of a rhythm section. C. Michael Bailey of All About Jazz cited it as one of the quintet's six albums between 1965 and 1968 that introduced the post-bop subgenre.
Shortly after this album, Hancock recorded a different version of "Riot" for his 1968 album Speak Like a Child. In 1978, Shorter recorded a new version of "Pinocchio" with Weather Report for the album Mr. Gone.
This album, along with others by this particular group, demonstrates their willingness to fundamentally alter the basics of a composition during the recording process. For example, the quintet initially rehearsed 'Madness' as a slow waltz. On the next two takes it is rendered at a fast tempo in predominantly 4/4 time. Similarly, Pinocchio is a relatively fast composition on the released version and yet the group rehearsed it at a much slower pace, with the horns repeating the head whilst the rhythm section improvises underneath, in a similar manner to the master take of 'Nefertiti'.
Nefertiti was the final all-acoustic album of Davis' career. Starting with his next album, Miles in the Sky, Davis began to experiment with electric instruments, marking the dawn of his.

Track listing

– CS 9594

Musicians

– Nefertiti