Greg Masters. Photo by Kate Previte
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At 20 minutes, 37 seconds
At 20 minutes, 37 seconds
into track one of a box-set
reissue of the Miles Davis Quintet
recording “Freedom Jazz Dance,”
a previously unissued rehearsal take,
the raspy-voiced bandleader instructs
drummer Tony Williams to play triplets.
Up to this point in the ensemble’s
working out of the tune, he’d,
uncharacteristically,
been lagging, playing as if he were
still with Jackie McLean,
accompanying with a ring-a-ding-ding
on the ride cymbal.
But after first working out a bass part for
Ron Carter and a few run-throughs—
Wayne Shorter certainly had the head down
and Herbie Hancock seemed assured
with splashes of chords—
Miles instructs his teenaged drummer
to lay down a triplet pattern and, after a
few attempts, he hits on the pulsating
underlying momentum that, still,
50-plus years after recording,
transforms the seven-minute
master track into a miracle.
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Greg Masters co-edited the poetry magazine Mag City from 1977–85. In 1977–78, along with a crew of poet comrades, he produced a cable TV show, Public Access Poetry. From 1980–83, he edited The Poetry Project Newsletter. Over the past decade, he has issued 10 books of his writing from his imprint Crony Books. “At 20 minutes, 37 seconds” is from It Wasn’t Supposed to Be Like This (Crony Books, 2020).
[To hear the track referred to in the poem, go here.]
[For more on Tony Williams, click here.]
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Author: Terence Winch
