SHAZAM

Miles Davis' final official collaboration with arranger Gil Evans resulted in their weakest project. There were only 27 minutes of music on the original Quiet Nights LP, and six minutes were taken up by a quintet performance of "Summer Night." The six remaining tracks are enjoyable enough (highlighted by "Once Upon a Summertime" and "Corcovado"), but rather brief, making one wonder why Evans could not have been persuaded to write more material. The 1997 CD reissue adds "The Time of the Barracudas" (which clocks in at almost 13 minutes), and was not released until the 1996 Complete Miles Davis/Gil Evans box set. The latter is an interesting but not too substantial mini-suite written for a stage play that features the late 1963 Miles Davis Quintet joined by four brass, three woodwinds, and a harp. Overall, this CD has its moments of interest, but it has an incomplete feel and is not too essential. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi