Circle in the Round
Compilation album by
Miles Davis
ReleasedNovember 1979
RecordedOctober 26, 1955 – January 27, 1970
Genre
Length98:25
LabelColumbia
ProducerJoe McEwen and Jim Fishel
Miles Davis chronology
Dark Magus
(1977)		 Circle in the Round
(1979)		 Directions
(1981)

Circle in the Round is a 1979 compilation album by jazz musician Miles Davis. It compiled outtakes from sessions across fifteen years of Davis's career that, with one exception, had been previously unreleased. All of its tracks have since been made available on album reissues and posthumous box sets.

Material

"Two Bass Hit" is from a 1955 session. A 1958 re-recording was released on Milestones. "Love for Sale", previously released on a 1974 Japanese compilation, features the same lineup that would play on most of Kind of Blue. "Blues No. 2" comes from the last session that Davis and John Coltrane would record together in 1961, although Coltrane does not play on the track.

The title track, recorded in late 1967, is the first Davis recording to depart from the strictly acoustic quintet, featuring the sound of the electric guitar (played by Joe Beck). This marks the inception of his "electric" period, which would continue in his music throughout the remainder of his career. Edited here by seven minutes, the full track was released on The Complete Studio Recordings of The Miles Davis Quintet 1965–1968. The first officially released Davis track with electric guitar was "Paraphernalia", from 1968's Miles in the Sky,[2] with George Benson contributing. Benson appears here on the second take of "Side Car" and "Sanctuary".

"Teo's Bag",[3] "Side Car" (both takes are released), "Splash", and "Sanctuary" come from two sessions in early 1968. ("Teo's Bag", a Herbie Hancock composition, is also known as "The Collector," and had been previously recorded by Wayne Shorter for Blue Note records.) "Splash" was later released unedited on The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions and the 2002 reissue of Water Babies, while a re-recording of "Sanctuary" in August 1969 would be the closing track on Bitches Brew.

"Guinnevere" is from the same "electric" sessions of early 1970, with sitar and tabla, which yielded "Great Expectations", "Orange Lady" and "Lonely Fire" (released on Big Fun). Like the title track, it was released here in abbreviated form, as on The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, the track is three minutes longer.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Christgau's Record GuideB+[5]
Down Beat (1982)[6]
Down Beat (1991)[6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[7]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings [8]
Q[9]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[10]
Tom Hull – on the WebB+ ((2-star Honorable Mention)(2-star Honorable Mention))[11]

In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau deemed the recordings on Circle in the Round "damaged goods", even though "Miles tastes better out of the can than fresh watermelon or even V.S.O.P."[5] Lester Bangs voted it as one of 1979's ten best records in his ballot for The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll.[12] "Although seemingly hodgepodge in arrangement, Circle in the Round is a brilliant examination of the depth of scope and range possessed by Miles Davis", Lindsay Planer later wrote in AllMusic.[4]

Track listing

All tracks by Miles Davis except where noted

Side 1
No.TitleWriter(s)Recording dateLength
1."Two Bass Hit"Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis10/26/19553:43
2."Love for Sale"Cole Porter5/26/195811:52
3."Blues No. 2" 3/21/19616:51
Side 2
No.TitleRecording dateLength
1."Circle in the Round"12/4/196726:17
Side 3
No.TitleRecording dateLength
1."Teo's Bag"1/16/19685:58
2."Side Car I"2/13/19685:00
3."Side Car II"2/13/19683:37
4."Splash"11/12/19688:33
Side 4
No.TitleWriter(s)Recording dateLength
1."Sanctuary"Wayne Shorter5/2/19688:52
2."Guinnevere"David Crosby1/27/197018:06

Personnel

Recorded between October 26, 1955 and January 27, 1970.

References

  1. ↑ West, Hollie I. (December 2, 1979). "Powerful Reminders Of Miles Davis". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  2. ↑ This album was also his first to feature electric piano and bass, both on the opening track "Stuff".
  3. ↑ The title is a reference to longtime Davis producer Teo Macero. Another take appears on The Complete Studio Recordings of The Miles Davis Quintet 1965–1968.
  4. 1 2 Planer, Lindsay (2011). "Circle in the Round - Miles Davis | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  5. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (1981). Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the '70s. Da Capo Press. p. 102. ISBN 0306804093.
  6. 1 2 Alkyer, Frank; Enright, Ed; Koransky, Jason, eds. (2007). The Miles Davis Reader. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 275, 307. ISBN 978-1423430766.
  7. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Miles Davis". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  8. ↑ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 346. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  9. ↑ Q: 130. December 1993.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  10. ↑ Considine, J. D. (1992). "Miles Davis". In DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly (eds.). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd ed.). Random House. p. 180. ISBN 0-679-73729-4.
  11. ↑ Hull, Tom (May 10, 2021). "Music Week". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  12. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1980). "The Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll (Almost) Grows Up". The Village Voice. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
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