Miles Davis: Seven Steps to Heaven (1963) Columbia

Artists

On the East Coast – Miles Davis (trumpet) George Coleman (tenor saxophone) Herbie Hancock (piano) Ron Carter (bass) Tony Williams (drums) Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC, May 14, 1963

Selection: Joshua (Feldman) Recorded New York (new stereo rip)

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On the West Coast – Miles Davis, trumpet; Victor Feldman, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Frank Butler, drums;  recorded Columbia Studios, Los Angeles, CA, April 16, 1963

Selection: Basin Street Blues (new stereo rip)

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Music

Seven Steps is not one of the great Davis works, of which there are many to choose from, however it is nonetheless an interesting record, catching Miles in transition from the first to the second great quintet and everything ushered in by that change.

You get a lot of Miles –  pensive, tender, brooding –  accompanied by sympathetic top class musicians. In the East Coast sessions you also get a glimpse of what is to come, the Hancock-Williams-Carter rhythm section but not yet the shift in centre of gravity created by the arrival of Shorter, spurring Miles to greater things, the alchemy in which  the product becomes greater than the sum of the parts.

To gain an understanding of how something works, it can be instructive to examine its component parts. I did this once, at the age of seventeen, to my motorcycle engine. On rebuilding it, I found myself with three parts left over, indicating engines and I were never going to get on. You can better understand the contribution of Shorter from his absence. Coleman was competent journeyman but he was not a force that would challenge Davis. Whilst Feldman demonstrates artistry in the great tradition, you hear the percussive attack of Hancock, already making its mark.

This album is of primary interest to those following the evolution of modern jazz,  and in the evolution of Miles Davis from the early to the later Sixties, which is a subject in his own right. It’s also got some great music, which comes as a bonus.

Vinyl: Columbia CS 8851 two-eye stereo, matrix indicates fifth/ ninth lacquer cuttings

Recorded in New York and Hollywood, East meets West, and released simultaneously in 1963 in the US and Canada. This is a Canadian pressing. Did they press good vinyl in Canada? Columbia’s distribution system,which consisted of sending multiple identical cuttings to different plants for local metalwork creation,  ensured uniform quality control. New York, Indiana, Los Angeles, Canada should all sound the same. Seems an OK pressing, perhaps a little mellow, but that maybe how the mastering engineer intended.

Cultural note: Canadians are Americans, some of whom speak French, unlike the Americans I hear often in France, who merely speak loud.

Some of the tracks seem variable in their mixing and instrument balance – a surprise for generally impeccable Columbia 360 degree sound stereo editions. George Coleman is often hidden in the background while Miles and Hancock dominate the front line. Perhaps, listening to the mix, Davis and Hancock liked it that way. Miles was notorious for editing out competing horn solos, as he did with Mobley in the In Person at Blackhawk sessions.

For the sound engineer

It is not by chance US Columbia are usually a treat for audiophile ears. The technical notes are a feast for the sound engineer: pure microphone porn. C12 and U47 are superstars I know, but Columbia have brought along a lot of “new friends” A Sony 37A and an Electrovoice 655C?  And in the Scully lathe, Westrex or Ortofon cutters eh?  On a Dansette portable record player, do you think we could tell? The early Sixties were an era that celebrated progress through science and technology. And of course Marketing the results. Only now with real hi fi can that 360 degree sound be unlocked.

There are only two kinds of information: information you can actually use to improve choices you can make, (“I’ll have that pressing over there, not the Ortofon cut, the one next to it, cut with the Westrex“)and information you can not use but which allows you to act a complete smartarse:  “of course, the final transfer quality is down to the choice of lathe cutting head”.

I’ve blown up the technical liner notes so you can savour the information, and decide how you might use it. Or not.

The Label:  360 sound black text and arrows

Collectors Corner

Source: from the collection that recently arrived, and quickly went, in a North London record store. Word got around – they are not slow off the mark, these jazz collectors “up North (London)”.

Slim pickings, but I managed to grab a few remaining nice records before they had all gone. The Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus Bergenfield came from the same collection, which I guess left a smile on the face of quite a few collectors.