The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965

The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965
File:Miles Davis The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965.jpg
Live album by Miles Davis
Released	July 8, 1995
Recorded	December 22–23, 1965
Genre	Jazz
Length	7:32:03 Highlights disc 73:23
Label	Legacy
Producer	Michael Cuscuna
Miles Davis chronology
1969 Miles – Festiva De Juan Pins (1993) The Complete Live at The Plugged Nickel (1995) Live Around the World (1996)

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The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 is a compact disc box set of the Miles Davis Quintet, recorded on December 22 and 23, 1965, and released on Legacy Records in July 1995, catalogue CK 66955. It comprises recordings of seven performance sets over the two nights by the second great Davis quintet at the now-defunct Plugged Nickel nightclub in Chicago. A single-disc sampler, Highlights from the Plugged Nickel, catalogue CK 67377, was released by Legacy on November 14, 1995, and was reissued on February 1, 2008. Although the physical box-set is currently out of print, the physical sampler and a digital version of the entire box-set remain available.

Background

Although the quintet had already issued the E.S.P. album, consisting of original compositions by members of the band, the repertoire at the club included none of those tunes, except Davis' "Agitation." Instead, the band relied upon standards or items that had been in Davis' live repertoire for several years. Research for a Wayne Shorter biography revealed that drummer Tony Williams, during the plane ride to Chicago, challenged the rest of the band to play anti-jazz, in essence sabotaging the gig by playing whatever one wished rather than the standard versions. The band kept to the challenge, and the tunes were then radically altered for the Plugged Nickel performances.

Some tracks were available on Miles Davis compilations, but the full recordings were not released until the appearance of this box set. A 1982 double album was released as part of the Contemporary Masters Series on Columbia; this appeared also as Live at the Plugged Nickel (no. 25, discs 30 and 31) in the box set Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection. The ten tracks are the same that together made up the 1976 Japanese releases, At Plugged Nickel, Chicago, Vol. 1 and At Plugged Nickel, Chicago, Vol. 2, but some durations are longer.

Content

Each disc of the box set of eight discs presents one complete set, with the exception of the second set on the first night of December 22, which is split onto two discs, with the discs in a slimline case and internally numbered accordingly as 2a and 2b. The reasoning for this on the part of Sony is unclear, since the total timing of the music on discs 2a and 2b is under the 80-minute single disc limit. The box set has been awarded a rare crown by the Penguin Guide to Jazz, concluding that "these are genuinely historic recordings."

Track listing

December 22, 1965 — first set (67:51)

Disc one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"If I Were a Bell"	Frank Loesser	16:42
2.	"Stella by Starlight"	Ned Washington, Victor Young	12:49
3.	"Walkin'"	Richard Carpenter	15:51
4.	"I Fall in Love Too Easily"	Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn	11:43
5.	"The Theme"	Miles Davis	10:19

December 22, 1965 — second set (42:41)

Disc two-a
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"My Funny Valentine"	Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart	16:33
2.	"Four"	Miles Davis	15:05
3.	"When I Fall in Love"	Edward Heyman, Victor Young	10:44

December 22, 1965 — second set (36:47)

Disc two-b
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Agitation"	Miles Davis	13:13
2.	"'Round Midnight"	Bernie Hanighen, Cootie Williams, Thelonious Monk	8:42
3.	"Milestones"	Miles Davis	14:04
4.	"The Theme"	Miles Davis	0:38

December 22, 1965 — third set (69:19)

Disc three
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"All of You"	Cole Porter	14:38
2.	"Oleo"	Sonny Rollins	6:05
3.	"I Fall in Love Too Easily"	Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn	11:53
4.	"No Blues"	Miles Davis	17:35
5.	"I Thought About You"	Johnny Mercer, Jimmy Van Heusen	11:03
6.	"The Theme"	Miles Davis	8:05

December 23, 1965 — first set (52:51)

Disc four
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"If I Were a Bell"	Frank Loesser	13:29
2.	"Stella by Starlight"	Ned Washington, Victor Young	13:09
3.	"Walkin'"	Richard Carpenter	11:01
4.	"I Fall in Love Too Easily"	Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn	12:07
5.	"The Theme"	Miles Davis	2:50

December 23, 1965 — second set (65:55)

Disc five
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"All of You"	Cole Porter	10:39
2.	"Agitation"	Miles Davis	10:48
3.	"My Funny Valentine"	Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart	13:52
4.	"On Green Dolphin Street"	Ned Washington, Bronisław Kaper	12:48
5.	"So What"	Miles Davis	13:36
6.	"The Theme"	Miles Davis	3:28

December 23, 1965 — third set (69:44)

Disc six
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"When I Fall in Love"	Edward Heyman, Victor Young	13:39
2.	"Milestones"	Miles Davis	11:49
3.	"Autumn Leaves"	Joseph Kosma, Jacques Prévert, Johnny Mercer	11:56
4.	"I Fall in Love Too Easily"	Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn	11:43
5.	"No Blues"	Miles Davis	20:06
6.	"The Theme"	Miles Davis	0:22

December 23, 1965 — fourth set (46:55)

Disc seven
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Stella by Starlight"	Ned Washington, Victor Young	14:16
2.	"All Blues"	Miles Davis	12:18
3.	"Yesterdays"	Jerome Kern, Otto Harbach	15:00
4.	"The Theme"	Miles Davis	4:51

Highlights single disc track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Date & Set	Length
1.	"Milestones"	Miles Davis	12/23 Third	11:49
2.	"Yesterdays"	Kern, Harbach	12/23 Fourth	15:00
3.	"So What"	Miles Davis	12/23 Second	13:36
4.	"Stella by Starlight"	Washington, Young	12/23 First	13:09
5.	"Walkin'"	Richard Carpenter	12/23 First	11:01
6.	"'Round Midnight"	Hanighen, Williams, Monk	12/22 Second	8:42

Personnel

• Miles Davis — trumpet
• Wayne Shorter — tenor saxophone
• Herbie Hancock — piano
• Ron Carter — bass
• Tony Williams — drums