Music Monday: Miles, Wilkins and Knuffke

I spent big chunks of time typesetting on the weekend, which meant that I had time to enjoy some music (as well as various policy mandated training videos).

Last weekend, I listened to Miles Davis’s classic, Kind of Blue (1959). Like most people, I love the album (and I’m quite partial to the mono mix; I had long assumed that this was made from the mono microphones, but the 21st century mono releases were apparently mixed from the stereo mics). Listening to Miles’s discography more or less in order also helped me appreciate how Columbia Record ensured that it would stand apart by bracketing it between the Gil Evans produced Porgy and Bess (1958) and Sketches of Spain (1960). I don’t love Progy and Bess but I adore Sketches of Spain. The appearance of these two albums rather than another album based on small ensemble studio work undoubtedly gave Kind of Blue space to breathe.

1961 saw the release of Someday My Prince Will Come (1961) which was a sextet recording and some of the last to feature John Coltrane and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Instead, Hank Mobley makes a cameo on tenor sax. In 1963, the transition from the 1950s group to his second great group was complete. Seven Steps to Heaven is another document of that transition and combines studio guys — Victor Feldman on piano and Frank Butler on drums on some tracks — with the first appearance of Tony Williams and Herbie Hancock. Ron Carter and George Coleman play throughout.

Two other new albums came out this weekend that brought me joy and will find their way into my rotation. First, Immanuel Wilkins Quartet Live at the Village Vanguard (Vol. 1). I don’t love the entire album, but I feel like it is authentic even the droning and looping eternal where Wilkins’s tone comes to the fore:

A more surprising discovery is Kurt Knuffke’s album Brother (2026) with violinist Charlie Burnham and bassist Thommy Andersson. I’ve not listened to much of Knuffke’s trio work with Thommy Andersson, but I liked this album. Knuffke’s cornet is a lovely balance to Burnham’s violin.