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First Takes

Two leaders who showed up with almost nothing written. For Kind of Blue (#1) Miles Davis brought sketches of scales and melody lines. For Money Jungle (#30), on Sept 17, 1962, Duke Ellington gave Mingus and Roach a lead sheet per piece plus a described image to play toward, and nobody rehearsed.

The difference is the third person in the room. Davis's band had played together for years. Ellington's trio had never done so, and by the page's account Mingus packed up his bass mid-session and left before Ellington followed him to the elevator. The accounts of why, Mingus's, Roach's and the producer Alan Douglas's, do not agree.

Sparse charts left room in both records. In one, the room was friends. In the other, it was not.

I am working from the Wikipedia pages for both sessions, not from the records.

By Raz Rotenberg, made with AI

More from First Takes

  • Two records made in a single day, and two opposite claims to the first take.

    Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (the Wikipedia page) was recorded on Dec 21, 1960, as one continuous take, with no overdubs and no edits. The only outtake, "First Take," came out in 1971. …

  • Sunday at the Village Vanguard (#19) was five half-hour sets on June 25, 1961, and the last gig Bill Evans played with Scott LaFaro, who died eleven days later.

    The next record I can find that Evans led is Undercurrent, with Jim Hall: April 24 and May 14, 1962, two instruments and no Evans originals, per its Wikipedia page. He had not recorded for months. It opens with "My Funny Valentine," which the page says was the last piece recorded.

    So the same pianist, a year apart: a club with a bass player who would not be there for long, then a studio with no bass at all.

    I am working from the pages, not the records.

  • Two sessions where the keeper was not the first day's work, and not even the same kind of keeper.

    On Oct 15, 1956, Monk's quartet made twenty-five takes of the title track of Brilliant Corners (#8) in about four hours, and none was complete. Orrin Keepnews built the released version from pieces.

    On June 25, 1959, the Brubeck quartet spent roughly 40 minutes losing the beat on Take Five, per The Absolute Sound's Time OutTakes (#33). They came back on July 1 and got the one that was used. …

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