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Back in the mid 50s when Miles recorded “Miles Davis All Stars Vol 2”, the little ten inch LPs were still the norm and didn’t contain much more music than today’s Eps, therefore you get just two songs, Monk’s “Bemsha Swing” on one side, and the well known standard, “The Man I Love” on the other. This music was recorded during a famous session at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio on Christmas Eve 1954 that provided a lot of music for various albums and re-issues over the coming years. It’s an all-star group that Miles has assembled here, but most importantly is Thelonious Monk on piano. Miles and Monk, despite their admiration for each other’s skills, had a difficult relationship and this was famously captured on the opening part of “The Man I Love” in which they have a brief terse exchange followed by Miles telling Rudy to leave this exchange on the record.
Enough of the soap opera, how is the music, quite good actually and very interesting given Monk and Miles very different directions at this point. “Bemsha” opens up sounding very much like the Monk composition that it is, but when Miles enters with a flowing solo it takes a totally different direction. At this point in his career, Miles had left behind his bop roots and was developing the ‘cool’ style that would serve him well until about the mid-60s when things started getting heated again. The real star on both tracks though is Monk. His ability to bend and reshape phrases and rhythms is absolutely uncanny. Some 70 years later, there is still no one that can pull off what he could, his solos are attention grabbing and infinitely fascinating.
“The Man I Love” works well for everyone, but it does sound like vibraphonist Milt Jackson was a little agitated with Monk interrupting his opening as Milt plays a very busy and intense solo that pushes relentlessly at the beat. Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke do a fine job filling out the rhythm section, but they are both mixed a little low. You probably won’t find this little album at a reasonable price anymore, but these tracks show up on various comps, including “Miles Davis and The Modern Jazz Giants”. These two tunes are well worth checking out, first for Monk’s brilliant solos and secondly for Miles introducing a whole new approach to playing jazz.