Miles Davis
Nefertiti

THE REVIEW

Recorded in New York during the summer of 1967, Nefertiti is an album of 6 original tracks featuring the great Miles Davis, naturally on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on double bass, and the prodigy (then seventeen-year-old) Tony Williams on drums.

In the '60s, Davis was already an established artist, but accustomed as he was to being at the center of the storm of changes, he felt overtaken by the new trends and new directions in jazz (Ornette Coleman, Coltrane). It is this mechanism that led him to renew his lineup (Hancock and Williams). Thus, in this album, you can see the change, elements of free (freedom from rules and patterns), which however do not have a revolutionary effect. At least, in light of the jazz panorama that was asserting itself during those years. 

The new compositions of Nefertiti are fresh, with sporadic inserts of standards, accelerations, slowdowns, breaking of rhythmic continuity, and at times absence of accompaniment from drums or piano. Continually varied tempos, edgy notes, and few chords. Davis's way of playing is even more "economical," abstract, essential, still very intense with some "typical" peaks of notes. Undoubtedly, the insertion of the very young Williams had an influence.

In the first two tracks, "Nefertiti" and "Fall", the compositional freshness of Shorter is evident, but not only that. There is a sort of rejection of the solo-exposition-solo-reexposition scheme. The two winds simply play the melody constantly while the rhythm section comes to the forefront. "Pinocchio" is less adventurous and utilizes ensemble passages to prepare the solos. Hancock's two pieces are constructed similarly, and with "Hand Jive", there is a return to a more orthodox approach.

For the sake of classification, here's Davis's first free album, absolutely enjoyable and still fresh today.