Miles Davis: Sorcerer (180g, 33 1/3 RPM, SuperVinyl) [MOBILE FIDELITY]

Why you'll love it

Mobile Fidelity remastered Sorcerer for this numbered, 180g SuperVinyl pressing. It's the third of six albums by Davis' great 1960s quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, and Robert Christgau counted it among that band's great work.

This edition

• SuperVinyl
• 180g vinyl
• Numbered
• Remastered
• Stereo mix

About the album

By 1967 Miles Davis was running his band a little like a writers' room, and Sorcerer shows it. He wrote none of the quintet tunes himself; Wayne Shorter brought four, including "Prince Of Darkness" and "Masqualero," Tony Williams wrote "Pee Wee," and Herbie Hancock brought "The Sorcerer." Hancock's piano, Ron Carter's bass and Williams' drums make up perhaps the most flexible rhythm section in jazz.

The sound is sleek and searching, built on inflection and mood rather than big melodies. "Masqualero" is the one Davis kept in his live sets for years, "Limbo" moves at a sprint, and on "Pee Wee" Davis sits out entirely. The closer, "Nothing Like You," is a 1962 session with singer Bob Dorough and the first time Shorter recorded with Davis. The cover photo is Cicely Tyson, later his wife.

DownBeat's Bill Quinn praised its "superbly disciplined chaos," which remains the best description of this band we've read. A bandleader who hands the pen to his sidemen and then skips a track is either very generous or very clever, and with Miles it was usually both.

Also at Kops: more Miles Davis on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab / Columbia (cat# MFSV 1-519), a reissue of the 1967 album.