FILLES DE KILIMANJARO

Throughout most of the 60's Miles' career was mainly axec to waeds his quintet, which develop a wad of albums, most of them not having a link with this site and I must say most fairly boring (IMHO). As the 60's grew, counter-culture and the opening of of most music styles to electricity was happening (even Folk had done so, some calling Dylan of Judas), jazz was resisting the electric movement and the jazz purists were no less fervent acoustic people than the folk purists, being careful and even preventing their syle from digression. When the first electric notes did appear, it came from the man with the horn himself, so the acoustic Ayatollahs couldn't do much about it. Actually it wasn't Miles himself that went electric, but one of the man in his band, Herbie Hancock, but it was at Miles' wish, since it is the Black Magus himself that bought the electric piano and offered it to HH. HH himself wasn't exactly sure himself whether he really wanted to try it out (privately I'm sure he relished, but publically, would he not face the Judas threats), but a job in Miles' band was definitely To be truthful, Miles was not alone claiming the electric judas label as the much more Obscure Charles Lloyd was definitely making open calls to young white audiences himself.

So, FDK is the first Davis' 60's quintet album where electricity appears and it appears under the electric piano form played by both Herbie and Chick Corea (not together, but alternatively) AND the electric bass, played only by Ron Carter (present when HH was), but not Dave Holland (present when CC was there). Trusting the French to adopt this new direction much more than the Anglo-Saxon world, Miles named the full album with French names. This trust and his general love of France was quite evident from his collabs (with Louis Malle's Ascensceur Pour L'Echaffaud) , but the amount of time he spent in France and now his girlfriend, Mrs. Maubry. It was also a time where the quintet was nearing it end as there are two version on this album: HH,RC & CC,DH. FDK is also an exceptional album for the times as it clocks at one hour (at least in its Cd version)

Starting on the shorter but energetic Frelon Brun (Brown wasp/hornet), where the group is charged up and ready to roll, CC not being as prominent azs HH except in the short solo at the end of the track. HH makes his piano heard right from the start of the much slower Tout de Suite (right now) but we remain in standard jazz territory. Adventurously-speaking, the title track (with HH) runs away with the gold medal on the flipside, while Mlle Maubry (Miles' muse of the moment) remains all too standard with CC on keys.

In short, we can say the two whiter dudes do not dare the afventures as hard as the two darker dudes, but where still way to far away I from a genre meddling and well too entrenched in the straight jazz realm to be calling this albums "prog". It's just slightly electrified jazz. One of the more interesting albums from Davis' 60's quintet, but not essential in terms of the scope of thios site.