Enrico Merlin on Down Beat

In April issue of DownBeat magazine, you'll find James Hale's article about the new Columbia Legacy CD-box devoted to the last European concerts by Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The box will be released on late March.

In the essay interviews to Steve Berkowitz, Jimmy Cobb, Michael Cuscuna and your Enrico Merlin!

Some excerpts:

“Miles [is] very creative in his solos, and well-focused during the theme/exposition seg- ments,” said Italian guitarist Enrico Merlin, who recently published the book Miles Davis 1959: A Day-By-Day Chronology. “In 1960, Miles was expressively as far from Kind Of Blue as Trane was.”

Cobb added, “You had to be strong enough to keep up with those guys. John wanted that support and interaction from a drummer, and I was young and strong then.”

[...]

“Kind Of Blue was a spectacular moment in Miles’ career,” said Merlin, “but the sextet [with Adderley] never played like that live. There was a great dichotomy between live and studio play- ing, whether it was Red Garland, Bill Evans or Wynton Kelly on piano, and Philly Joe Jones or Jimmy Cobb on drums.”

[...]

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