Knoxville Progressive wrote a lovely diary earlier providing links to some of the many resources available to Jazz enthusiasts on the internet. Go have a look. Unlike politics, history, the media, or any of the other subjects I regularly write about, I am actually fairly well qualified to discuss music and music theory in an academic context. Don’t worry, I would never do that to you. Credentials are for the birds. Anyway, I came across the following clip of the Miles Davis Quintet, featuring John Coltrane, playing So What while perusing The Poor Man last night.

This was taped while Davis was recording one of his collaborations with Gil Evans. On You Tube, the broadcast date is given 1958, which would mean that it was recorded during the production of Porgy and Bess. To my ear, however, John Coltrane’s solo sounds like one he would play in late 1959 or early 1960, rather than one he would play at any time in 1958. Not as small a distinction as you might think. My guess is that this was recorded during the production of Sketches of Spain. The guys standing around with horns doing nothing are members of the Gil Evans Orchestra. I’m sure the actual date of the taping is quite easy to find with 30 seconds of research, but I prefer to engage in wild speculation in order to provide ample ammunition for irate commenters.

For comparison, listen to this version of So What recorded in Stockholm, Sweden on March 22, 1960, and this version recorded during the second set of the same concert. Coltrane’s solo on the first is so good it nearly ruined my life, and his solo on the second is so good it would have done the same had the first not been around. Whatever. I’ve already cried that river.

You were expecting pandas, weren’t you?