Miles Davis, Red Garland, and two takes of "Straight No Chaser"

Last night, I played at Nublu 151 with Apocryphal, my band with Loren Stillman on tenor, Brandon Seabrook on guitar, and Eivind Opsvik on bass.

The band’s been coming together for more than ten years, and finally, I’ve found the right material for us, tunes that allow our intra-band chemistry guide the music. Loren, Brandon, and Eivind know exactly what I’m trying to do, even when I don’t. Now, we can just play; I don’t have to know what I’m doing.

We played our latest album, Sunday, in its entirety, only the second time that suite has been played live. If you’re interested, you can download the album right here.

It was a great show, and in the audience were several long-time drummer friends. The first and second pieces are bridged by a drum solo, and while I was soloing, I flashed on the fact that some of these folks have been listening to me since I was teenager. Like the band, they understand what I’m playing better than I do.

What I play means something to a new listener, but for the band, and for my longtime friends and colleagues, it might mean something else.

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Did you know there are two takes of Miles Davis’s “Straight No Chaser” from Milestones (Columbia, 1958)? The one we know and love was the second take; Sony/Legacy has made the alternate, first take of “Straight No Chaser” available for more than twenty years.

There’s so much juice, so much life and joy on the master take of “Straight No Chaser” that it deserves its own essay. It’s perhaps best known for Red Garland’s block-chord harmonization of Miles Davis’s solo on Charlie Parker’s “Now’s The Time” from 1945.

On the first, alternate take of “Straight No Chaser”, Red Garland almost plays Miles’s “Now’s The Time” solo. This means that on the second, master take, the one we know, when Red unfurls Miles’s solo, we’re hearing something Red had worked up and planned to do, as opposed to a spontaneous, clear-blue-sky moment of inspiration.

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Here’s a quick guide to Red Garland’s solo on the second, master take of “Straight No Chaser”; his solo starts at 6:06.

• 1st chorus: Red uses some common blues riffs until about bar 6, while Philly Joe plays a rim click on beat 4;

• 2nd chorus: A two-bar blues riff, then lines;

• 3rd chorus: Another quick blues riff, then some lines;

• 4th chorus: Two-bar riff and lines;

• 5th chorus: Four-bar riff, then lines;

• 6th chorus: Miles on “Now’s The Time” in block chords; Jones switches to four quarter notes on the snare drum;

• 7th chorus: Miles on “Now’s The Time”.

Now, here’s the first, alternate take of “Straight No Chaser”; Red’s solo starts at 5:32

• 1st chorus: A sort of base-line Red solo; Philly Joe plays quarter notes on the snare;

• 2nd chorus: almost Nat King Cole phrase for one bar; then Red’s own thing;

• 3rd chorus: little bit of steam is working up;

• 4th chorus: blues riffs from Red, and Joe goes to beat 4 on the rim;

• 5th chorus: Garland opens up into some block chords;

• **6th chorus, 7:01: there it is, Red plays G-F-D (1 + 2) in block chords; this seems to suggest to him the opening phrase of Miles’s solo on “Now’s The Time”, he spends the next three choruses trying to remember it.

• **7th chorus, 7:20: G-F in block chords (1+);

• **8th chorus, 7:37: almost the complete opening phrase, G-F-D-C-G (1+ 2+ 3);

• **9th chorus, 7:56: and now it’s here, Red plays almost the entirety of Miles’s first chorus.

Red’s solo then peters out, and we hear someone’s voice, some other sound— maybe a foot hitting the floor— and then a good Paul Chambers bass solo.

This is the space where speculation and oral history and our own worldview color the music, in the gap between Red almost playing Miles’s solo on the alternate take, and the master take where he plays it perfectly, note-for-note.

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• Was this a spontaneous, unprecedented re-working of a Miles solo?

How could it be? Miles and Red had played together so much by this point, all those multi-week engagements across the USA stretching back three years. Something like “Miles solo on Now’s The Time in block chords” must have happened, at least once.

• Was it the first time Red used this particular Miles Davis solo for his block chords?

If it was, that would explain the difference between Red’s solos on the two takes: on the first take, he starts to remember it, on the second take, he nails it.

• Since Red almost played Miles’s solo on the first take, and then nailed it on the second take, what happened between the takes? Did he remember it on his own, or did someone in the band know the solo and show it to Red?

Did Miles Davis play, sing, or teach his “Now’s The Time” solo to Red Garland? Hard to imagine but certainly possible. More importantly, by focussing on this, it puts the human connection at the heart of all music square in the spotlight. Music is just people.

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Here’s the complete February 4th, 1958 recording session:

First, the sextet records the John Lewis-Dizzy Gillespie “Two Bass Hit” in two masterful takes. Then, the rhythm section records “Billy Boy” in one take, which speaks for itself; to toss off deep, joyous, world-beating musicianship and cultural summary on a children’s tune is the highest level of mastery. “Billy Boy” must be the most exciting piano trio from this era, maybe from any era.

Next, they move on to Thelonious Monk’s “Straight No Chaser”; according to the Lord Discography, this is the first time the tune has been recorded by someone other than its composer¹. Monk played “Straight No Chaser” in Bb, but Miles plays it in F, the key of both “Billie’s Bounce” and “Now’s The Time”, which Bird famously recorded with Miles. Can thoughts of Bird be far from Miles’s mind?

Miles stays off-stage for the melody of “Straight No Chaser”, which is a great musical choice— why have three horns play the melody? Why not just two?— and brilliant dramatic choice. We’re expecting Miles Davis, but he’s not there, so when he comes in, it’s an event.

The first take of “Straight No Chaser” is good and everyone sounds great of course, but it’s just a little relaxed.

The second take of “Straight No Chaser” is one of the great performances in recorded jazz. There’s a thick web of references, routines, and meaning spread throughout the track, and so many highlights: the Cannonball/Paul Chambers implied modulation to Gb at the top of Cannonball’s fifth chorus; Miles’s celebrated solo; I believe this was Amiri Baraka’s favorite Miles solo, but I can’t find the attribution now.

And then John Coltrane, our special hero. Garland and Jones’s big band hits behind Coltrane seem to be a rallying cry, an intra-band celebration of the unique voice in their midst. I just listened to it now and I’m almost crying, it’s magic.

And then the mystery of mysteries, Red’s piano solo, before a sparkling Paul Chambers solo, making a nice (and totally unintentional I’m sure) symmetry: the last solo on Milestones is a bass solo, and Kind of Blue is launched by a bass melody. Paul Chambers is underrated.

Let’s hear it for Philly Joe Jones on “Straight No Chaser”, the way he quietly switches his sound, intensity, and focus for the wildly different personalities of the Miles Davis Sextet. Without Philly Joe Jones on drums, the virtuosos of Miles’s band, each a complete universe unto themselves, wouldn’t have been a group.

The sextet concludes the session with two takes of “Milestones”, the first time Miles invites his working band to join him in an exploration of two scales, initiating the procedure that would soon be called ‘modal’. Garland would not be with Miles for further modal explorations; this February 4, 1958 session might be the peak of their collaboration.

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I’ve listened to Milestones for decades now, like we all have. I enjoyed diving deeper into the alternate take for this post, and some of the reading around of Ashley Kahn’s invaluable Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece and the 2001 liner notes to Milestones, where Bob Blumenthal writes:

It would be fascinating to know if the pianist ultimately remembered the choruses on his own, or got assistance from one of his bandmates between takes.

I’ll never know what it meant for Miles Davis, Philly Joe Jones, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, John Coltrane, and Cannonball Adderley to have Red Garland play his version of Miles’s “Now’s The Time” solo on Monk’s “Straight No Chaser”. That’s obscure to me, and that’s fine. Some mysteries should persist.

1. Davis was, from one perspective, a staunch champion of Monk’s music— “Round Midnight”, “Well You Needn’t”, and “Straight No Chaser” were cornerstones of Miles’s repertoire into the Sixties, with “Round Midnight” lasting until 1969. “Round Midnight” of course is Miles’s signature tune, I can’t imagine Miles doing an act of charity on Monk’s behalf, nor can I imagine a composer as proud as Monk accepting charity from a Miles Davis; but still, had Miles wanted to separate himself from Monk, a “Round Midnight” substitute could have been found. But it remained Davis’s signature piece, until his great change of repertoire and procedure in 1969.