Seven Steps to Heaven by Miles Davis (CD, Mar-2005, Columbia/Legacy)

Album Features
UPC:	827969359228
Artist:	Miles Davis
Format:	CD
Release Year:	2005
Record Label:	Columbia/Legacy
Genre:	Jazz Instrument, Trumpet

Track Listing
1. Basin Street Blues
2. Seven Steps to Heaven
3. I Fall in Love Too Easily
4. So Near, So Far
5. Baby Won't You Please Come Home
6. Joshua
7. So Near, So Far - (bonus track not on original LP)
8. Summer Night - (bonus track not on original LP)

Details
Contributing Artists:	Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, George Coleman, Victor Feldman
Producer:	Teo Macero, Michael Cuscuna (Reissue), Bob Belden (Reissue)
Distributor:	Sony Music Distribution (
Recording Type:	Studio
Recording Mode:	Stereo
SPAR Code:	ADD

Album Notes
Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); George Coleman (tenor saxophone); Victor Feldman, Herbie Hancock (piano); Ron Carter (bass); Tony Williams, Frank Butler (drums).Recorded in Hollywood, California in April 1963 and in New York, New York in May 1963.Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); Miles Davis; George Coleman (tenor saxophone); Ron Carter (bass instrument); Tony Ruption Williams , Tony Williams (drums); Victor Feldman, Herbie Hancock (piano); Frank Butler (drums).Audio Remixer: Mark Wilder.Liner Note Authors: Leonard Feather; Bob Belden.Recording information: Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York, NY (04/16/1963-05/14/1963); Columbia Studios, Los Angeles, CA (04/16/1963-05/14/1963).Photographers: Vernon Smith; Francis Wolff; Roger Marshutz.SEVEN STEPS TO HEAVEN finds Miles Davis standing yet again on the fault line between stylistic epochs. In early 1963 pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb left to form their own trio, and Miles was forced to form a new band, which included Memphis tenor player George Coleman and bassist Ron Carter. When Miles next entered the studio in Hollywood, he added local drummer Frank Butler and British studio ace Victor Feldman, who ultimately decided not to go on the road with Davis.It's easy to see why Miles liked Feldman, who contributed the dancing title tune and "Joshua" to the session. On three mellifluous standards-- particularly a cerebral "Basin Street Blues" and a broken hearted "I Fall In Love Too Easily"--the pianist plays with an elegant refined touch, and the kind of rarefied voicings that suggest Ahmad Jamal. Miles responds with some of his most introspective, romantic ballad playing.When Davis returned to New York he finally succeeded in spiriting away a brilliantly gifted seventeen-year old drummer from Jackie McLean--Tony Williams. On the title tune you can already hear the difference, as his crisp, driving cymbal beat and jittery, aggressive syncopations propel Miles into the upper reaches of his horn. On "So Near, So Far" the drummer combines with Carter and new pianist Herbie Hancock to expand on a light Afro-Cuban beat with a series of telepathic changes in tempo, texture and dynamics. Meanwhile, Feldman's "Joshua" (with its overtones of "So What" and "All Blues") portends the kind of expressive variations on the basic 4/4 pulse that would become the band's trademark, as Miles and Coleman ascend into bebop heaven.

Editorial Reviews
3.5 Stars - Good Plus - ...the band's extended treatments of old favorites Basin St. Blues and Baby Won't You Please Come Home are memorable...
Down Beat (19920901)