Miles Davis – trumpet, band leader
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley – alto saxophone, except on "Blue in Green"
Paul Chambers – double bass
Jimmy Cobb – drums
John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
Bill Evans – piano (except "Freddie Freeloader"), liner notes
Wynton Kelly – piano on "Freddie Freeloader"
My dad use to play this in his barber shop, along with many other Miles albums. It was the coolest shop around. I use to look forward to going on Saturdays and hanging out. I'd sweep up and make a few bucks. Good times.
I am thinking how amazing it must have felt in the 60s to have bought this vinyl record and come home to play it on a gramophone... Quiet room with the record playing and forgetting the world around you.
I love the back story to this song. "Freddy Freeloader" was a real character that used to hang around the club asking for freebies. A freeloader. A lackadaisical character whose essence and nature is conceptualised and captured by the tempo, frivolity and up-tempo musicality of this masterpiece that I love so much.
This cut was playing and my wife (girlfriend at the time), who swore she didn't like or understand Miles Davis's music, said that's nice, who is that, I smiled and said Miles....
Close your eyes: Imagine you’re in New Orleans in the 50’s, you admire the beautiful light up buildings while sipping a glass of wine in a bar.
This is embarrassing but uh, personally I like to pretend that I’m a detective walking down the streets of Chicago in the 40’s/50’s smoking a cigarette and doing my own thing whenever I listen to jazz
People say that the USA "has no culture." I tune those people out by listening to our culture in the form of jazz, while maybe eating a slice of apple pie, watching a muted baseball game.
I was reading the whole comments section everyone is explaining this music as he feels like to "some says, getting back to your ex, some says it's about walking down the street at the 60s, etc.." I think it's about how it makes you feel as my dad used always to say "the meaning is in the poet's heart".