Collectors' Items

Collectors' Items
CollectorsItems MilesDavis.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedDecember 1956
RecordedJanuary 30, 1953 (1-4)
WOR Studios, New York City
March 16, 1956 (5-7)
Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack
GenreJazz
Length44:05
79:38 (CD Reissue)
LabelPrestige
PRLP 7044
ProducerIra Gitler (1-4)
Bob Weinstock (5-7)
Miles Davis chronology
Blue Haze
(1956)
Collectors' Items
(1956)
Birth of the Cool
(1957)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic4.5/5 stars
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide3/5 stars

Collectors' Items is a 1956 studio album by Miles Davis. There are two sessions collected on the album with largely different musicians. The first 1953 session is "Compulsion", "The Serpent's Tooth" (two takes) and "'Round About Midnight". The second 1956 session is "In Your Own Sweet Way", "Vierd Blues" and "No Line". The personnel for the first session were Davis, Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker (credited under the pseudonym "Charlie Chan" due to contractual obligations) on tenor sax, Walter Bishop on piano, Percy Heath on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. For the second session, the tenor sax was Rollins alone, the piano was Tommy Flanagan, the bass Paul Chambers and Art Taylor on drums.

According to Ira Gitler's liner notes, the 1953 session was only the second time Parker had recorded on tenor saxophone. The CD edition's liner notes indicate the session was the only time Parker and Rollins recorded together.

Davis describes the session with Parker in his autobiography as having been very chaotic. It was Davis' first session of 1953 and his heroin habit had become very bad. Parker had quit his own heroin habit following the arrest of his trumpet player Red Rodney, instead drinking enormous quantities of alcohol. He consumed a quart of vodka at the rehearsal, then spoke condescendingly to Davis as if it were his session and Davis an employee or a child. After arguing, Parker fell asleep and Davis was so mad he played poorly, which in turn angered Gitler who was producing.

The 1953 session was considered incomplete and remained unreleased. After having signed to Columbia Records in 1956, part of Davis' contractual obligation to Prestige was to complete another half session considered owed, which resulted in the second half of this album.

Parker was also billed as "Charlie Chan" on the 1953 album Jazz at Massey Hall. This album was a posthumous Parker release, since it was issued a year after his death, in New York City in March 1955.

Track listing

Prestige – PRLP7044:

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."The Serpent's Tooth" (Take 1)Miles Davis7:08
2."The Serpent's Tooth" (Take 2)Miles Davis6:24
3."'Round About Midnight"Thelonious Monk7:12
4."Compulsion"Miles Davis5:53
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."No Line"Miles Davis5:48
2."Vierd Blues"Miles Davis7:00
3."In Your Own Sweet Way"Dave Brubeck4:40
Total length:44:05

Personnel

January 30, 1953 session

March 16, 1956 session


This page was last updated at 2021-10-25 00:34 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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