js This is it, the other modern jazz. While Coltrane, Ornette and Ayler were attracting a lot of attention with their talk of 'freedom' while attempting to bring down Jericho with their horns, Miles and his crew charted a more disciplined course and ended up with a style that was more of an influence than the freedom gang in the long run. Miles makes it clear from the first notes on this album that he's not taking any shorts. ‘Orbits’ kicks things off with a brief abstract melody before Miles heads straight for the solo with a full aggressive brassy attack. If there is a standard repeating harmonic chord structure to this tune, it is really hard to tell. The soloists teeter on the edge of outside atonality, and then reel it in with the occasional hard bop riff.

‘Circle’ finds the band in a mellow mood and it is the only ballad on the whole album. Miles has the mute on for this one and Herbie’s playing is lush and classical in that way that he always is on the quintet’s slower numbers. ‘Footprints’ follows with an abstract post bop rhythm and simple bluesy harmonic changes that give the soloists any easy modal drone to go off on. This one leaves a lot of room for Tony Williams revolutionary approach to rhythmic subdivisions while he interacts with Herbie’s busy comping that borders on polyphony with the soloist. This whole band was incredibly talented, but it was Tony and Herbie that really pushed them to the abstract extremes and a whole new language in jazz.

Side two picks up where the album opener left off with three more high energy semi-free post bop numbers that seem to carry some cross-influence with Ornette’s semi-bluesy approach to the new freedom in jazz. This is a great album, Miles plays hard throughout like he means business and the rest of the band members follow with rhythmic and harmonic inventions that would become the hallmark of the post bop sound for generations to come.

Matt Miles Smiles is regarded as one of his best Jazz albums and for good reason. This was his 2nd album with the Quintet comprising of Wayne Shorter on Tenor Saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on Bass and Tony Williams on drums. Recorded in October 1966 over 2 sessions with every track on this album performed beautifully with what seems like seamless interchange with the solos between Miles and Wayne Shorter without mentioning the playing of Herbie Hancock. The rythmn section comprisng of Ron Carter and Tony Williams to me are the major reason this album is so perfect. When speaking about this album everybody comments on the playing of Miles and Wayne but if not for the solid driving bass provided by Ron Carter where would this album be. His timing is fantastic and what a motor for any band not to mention the drumming of Tony Williams who provided the wheels for this album. Proceedings commence with Orbits where Miles and Wayne start the tune together and then Miles takes off, Wayne and Herbie follow respectively with superb solos and then the tune again with Miles and Wayne. Track 2 Circles is a ballad with Miles on muted horn and the solos run in the same arder as Orbits. The following tracks throughout are excellent with Footprints followed by the driving Dolores. The tune Freedom Jazz Dance is is Tony Williams really showing his talent as the young red hot Jazz drummer that he was. The album finishes off with one of my favourite tunes performed by this Quintet and that is Ginger Bread Boy. Great driving solos with that loopy intro to the number and the drumming of Tony Williams, Carters bass providing a constant throb throughout with the solos getting more frenzied as they progress. Fantastic and what a number with Miles making a comment to Teo Macero and the very end.

This is one of his great albums for me and a Tour de Force as they say in France. Pure Jazz

FunkFreak75 Recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio, New York City, on October 24 and October 25, 1966. Whereas the previous studio album (recorded all the way back in January of 1965) showed the band experimenting with very subtle structural elements in what felt like very profound and skill-building ways, this one shows a return to more dynamic, loosely-constrained improvisational music. The band has had over a year and a half of almost continuous touring and live performing to hone their skills as well as play with and express their transcendent subliminal connections, and now they're ready to re-enter the studio not just as a machine but as a fully-fledged organic organism capable of fluid and united here-and-now morphing: something like the murmurations of a flock of starlings. A1. "Orbits" (4:35) the first of three Wayne Shorter compostions, it opens with Miles, Wayne, and Tony bursting out some riffs before smoothing with Ron Carter's twinkle-toes support into a The nuances Tony is throwing at us from his sticks is extraordinary: it's as if he's playing multiple percussion instruments over there (in the right channel) all at the same time! Oddly, there is absolutely no presence of Herbie Hancock's piano until the 2:45 mark when he's given a solo slot. I like Herbie's lower octave piano phrasing here: it's very smooth and virtuosic--even understated--in its imitation/regurgitation and development of the main melodies offered by the horn players. (9.125/10)

A2. "Circle" (5:52) a song attributed to Miles, it harkens back to the softer, more subtly populated fare of old Miles' songs like Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain. Miles' muted trumpet presents the melodies for the first 90-seconds and then Wayne comes in with one of his masterful melancholy solos--the kind that feel so simple and easy and yet contain untuold numbers of virtuosic touches that you and I could never duplicate. Then Herbie's solo starts and it's a beauty: so well proportioned with the play of Ron's bass and Tony's brushes. I'm glad to have Herbie's gentle phrasing bridge the rhythmatists and melody-makers for the full length of this song. Miles, Wayne, and Herbie each take second solos in the middle of the song: these being even more melodic and emotionally-charged than the first ones while Ron and Tony exude magical techniques that I've never heard before (from the double bass' upper registers and from Tony's hi-hat), and then Miles' muted trumpet takes us out--ever so gently--as everybody else also dials down their inputs. Wow! What a great song! (10/10)

A3. "Footprints" (9:44) the second Shorter composition, this one is overflowing with pleasing melodies! At the same time, the confidence exuding from the instrumental sounds played by all of the band members has grown in geometric proportions; it's as if previously Miles was tearing his young collaborators down in order to rebuild them better than before. The success shows commensurately. (18.5/20)

B1. "Dolores" (6:20) on Wayne's #3 contribution, it sounds like a slight variation on the previous track: slightly faster, slightly more dynamic, giving more open reins to Tony, in particular. It's not the dynamic, rock-muscling drumming of Lifetime, but it is virtuosic. The oddest thing about this song is that I hear absolutely no piano until 3:15! (9/10)

B2. "Freedom Jazz Dance" (7:11) something I see less frequently on Miles' studio albums: Miles covering someone else's composition--here a song by Eddie Harris. I love the interplay among the musicians--that includes Ron and Herbie as Wayne and Miles lead the way. In the meantime, underneath it all, Tony is again set free to play! And amazing is his exhibition! I have to keep going back to try to listen to the other musicians because I always seem to end up being drawn to Tony's drum play. Teo has Herbie mixed a little low in the mix--off in the left channel with Wayne and Ron, Miles right-center, while Tony is left pretty much alone in the right channel. (No wonder I can't stop listening to him: my right ear is my better ear!) The construct and play is a little more angular and less melodic in the solos, but as long as Tony is there to wow me, I don't really care. And then the song comes to a proper, natural end (as opposed to being faded out). (14/15)

B3. "Ginger Bread Boy" (7:40) another cover song, this one of a song by saxophonist Jimmy Heath. The band opens with Wayne and Miles riffing together while Tony drives his kit like he's weaving in and out of traffic on the Autbahn (while Ron tries to keep up with him by fast walking on his fretboard). Once again there is minimal (if any) piano play in the support sections. Miles gets an awesome solo in the second and third minutes in which he verily feeds off of the energy being issued by Tony. Then Wayne, too, offers up something lively and inspired--not quite as entwined with Tony's playing as Miles' solo (and mixed a little into the background) but still quite impressive. Herbie rather awkwardly gets the nod to jump in toward the end of the fifth minute. His choppy solo feels less connected to the rest- -more heady and experimental than loose and free-flowing. As Wayne and Miles duet to bring us back to the opening motif with a minute to go, you think it's going to fade out, but instead they give Ron a little spotlight time with which to bring the song to a close (with the additional rasp of Miles talking to Teo at the very end). Mr. Williams is incredible and it's Miles who does the best job of feeding off his drummer's phenomenal energy. (14/15)

Total Time 40:35

Boy! Have these guys come a long way! It's so amazing to actually hear and feel the tremendous growth they've achieved as a band. My only complaint with some of the songs is the choice to not have Herbie's piano act as an accompanist: he's given solos in the second half of these songs but allowed no presence in the opening or closing portions of three songs!

A/five stars; a masterpiece of wonderfully-cohesive quintet jazz. This band is not called "great" for no reason! Highly recommended to anyone wanting to experience a full album of really high-quality jazz music.

frankbernardi22 Miles smiles and he's not pretending a part. He's really happy for his new family of musicians, so happy that he himself really can't believe this miracle of combo exists on earth and he's the creator of such a beauty. He needed his Golden Quintet, the highest expression of all times (neo) classic jazz, something living its (smiling) summer but with all the dangerous nostalgia of a perfectly mature fruit. So much that perfection that it was like a bridge to the unknown. Pure angst, at the end. Two were the alternatives to follow: the taste of decadence or a cut with the past. This gifted combo, touched by the hand of history, is sqeezed by Miles like a lemon; after, throught the naked "In a silent way", Miles and friends (those with him in that moment, because that was his - and their - own cruel and marvellous fate) will find themselves on the rich but deserted shores of "Bitches Brew", the occasion for many in the world to listen to Davis for the first time. But connoisseurs all around knew very well this perfect microgroove where everybody was smiling, according to Anthony Tuttle liner notes: "The entire quintet plays as if there were a shared smile between them, each man lending his efforts to the whole while the whole reflects the solid contribution of each man". A perfect definition good for every album of Miles magic quintet, starting from "ESP", first studio brick in a solid house. A castle. The building of dreams. "Seven steps..." is still tradition with some changes added but not a convinced piece of the new direction. Miles was waiting for Wayne, the Coltrane he always wanted. And from that lp to "ESP" we have only live albums. We have to wait until 1965, year of "ESP", to taste new flavours: but soon, 1966, everybody smiles with the leader. "Miles smiles" and we believe his smiling to be true. He's even surprised that his meditations or even impulses can find easy incarnation in music. He's really the genius he thinks to be. Everything's so smooth, in those years, that seems incredible, to him, to us, the amount of work, sometimes obscure, difficult work, waiting for Miles just around the corner. Smiling Miles soon will be a very far souvenir if compared to the ground zero of "In a silent way" or the path to hell of "Bitches brew": both streets with no return.

Warthur Continuing his experiments in modal jazz as an alternative to the disparate free playing which was the other major strand in cutting-edge jazz experimentation, Miles Smiles might not be the most immediately arresting Davis album, but it's both entertaining and an intriguing look at the final stages of his all-acoustic sound. It would only be a couple of years before electric instruments began working their way into Miles' sound, provoking his fusion phase, but despite retaining traditional instrumentation Davis creates a complex and intriguing work which rewards repeated, careful listens. Not on the top tier of his work, but an important foundation for what followed.