At Carnegie Hall

For Sam Cooke it was the Copa supper club in midtown Manhattan; for James Brown, it was Harlem_„Žs Apollo Theater. For Miles Davis, the place was New York City_„Žs leading symphonic house, Carnegie Hall, and the date was May 19, 1961. The venue was no stranger to jazz performances, but for a solo jazz musician to have his own night there_„îa career overview of a sort_„îwas indeed a rarity, and the recording of the event further elevated the trumpeter to a mainstream level of acceptance.

The evening was a benefit for the African Medical Education and Research Foundation_„îa relief organization that some thought supported existing colonial systems, like the South African government. One of those critics, drummer Max Roach, staged a one-man protest that evening. Meanwhile, the concert was recorded with the highlights released in mid-1962 as a single LP with a strange, op-art image on the cover: a bright green dinosaur-like figure holding a stylized Miles aloft against a blood-orange background. In the CD era it was reissued as a double-disc album with the entirety of the evening_„Žs music.

The performances_„îa mix of tracks from big band collaborations with arranger Gil Evans, and recent small-band albums_„îstunned a crowd that surely included some non-jazz goers with its rhythmic explosions and emotional range. _„ñWalkin,_„Ž_„ _„ñTeo,_„ _„ñOleo,_„ all burn with a focused intensity, featuring Miles_„Ž quintet of the day. Hank Mobley especially stands out, his solo on _„ñSo What_„_„îwhich opened with an orchestrated version of the dream-like piano-and-bass introduction on the original recording_„îis a marvel of extended improvisational building, quoting liberally (_„ñMarch of the Siamese Children_„ from The King and I, and _„ñAh-Leu-Cha_„) and Kelly_„Žs ensuing piano solo is of equally impressive for similar reasons, ceaselessly inventive and swinging. And that was just the first number.