During June 1967 the Miles Davis Quintet was busy recording the album “Nefertiti” and the unique title tune was recorded on June 7th, 56 years ago today. The album was the fourth by the second quintet whose membership was Davis on trumpet, Wayne Shorter playing saxophone, Herbie Hancock at the piano, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams drumming. None of the six tracks on this record were composed by Davis, with Hancock contributing two songs, Williams one and Shorter three including Nefertiti. It would be the last time Davis would ever record with a fully acoustic group.

Nefertiti is interesting as a composition because the traditional function of rhythm section and horn players in a jazz combo is reversed. The rhythm section improvises as Wayne Shorter at first, and later Davis with him, repeat the melody. George Coleman had been the original saxophonist with this group but lasted only a year before Shorter was hired to replace him.

This combo is sometimes called “the second great quintet,” and it was formed as Miles was absorbing the groundbreaking work of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane in the early 1960s. His response was for this ensemble to incorporate their “structure-loosening” concepts to his own music. The reason the work of this group was so successful (it is arguably Miles’ finest band - let the debate begin!), was the care taken by Davis in choosing his young and immensely talented bandmates. They were five musicians who played together with such sensitivity that these challenging ideas and concepts were mastered and translated into interesting and fascinating music.

Here is a link to the June 7, 1967 recording of Nefertiti by the Miles Davis Quintet:

"NEFERTITI"