For this second evening at the Blackhawk, Miles’ rhythm section merits attention:
imperial in its function but verging on a routine that Miles abhorred, it provided him
with a highly active comfort zone in which he could combine versatility and edginess.
And if in certain pieces such as “Well You Needn’t” and “Walkin’” the rhythm section
takes a neutral stance, it—especially Wynton Kelly—answers the trumpet with enormous
vitality and intensity. The latter calls to the soloist in a fervent, almost churchy, manner,
and responds spontaneously to his instructions to come in and out, which Red Garland
had previously considered constraining. One also notes in these two pieces the recurrent
recourse to a form used by Miles since 1958. It prefigures, 20 years in advance, the lullaby
“Dodo l’enfant Do,” made more bluesy and renamed “Jean Pierre,” the name of the son
of Frances Taylor from a previous marriage. She appears standing behind the trumpeter
on the two covers of At The Blackhawk.
Original issue: Columbia LP CS 8470 on August 14, 1961
Producer: Irving Townsend
Engineer: Harold Chapman
Miles Davis (tpt); Hank Mobley (ts); Wynton Kelly (p); Paul Chambers (b); Jimmy Cobb (d)
Recorded live at the Blackhawk, San Francisco, CA on April 22, 1961