Miles Davis – Someday My Prince Will Come – Reissue of 1961 Columbia LP /Sony Music/Analogue Productions three-channel SACD CAPJ 8856 SA, 42.2 min. [9/14/10] Distr. by Harmonia mundi *****:
(Miles Davis, trumpet; John Coltrane, tenor sax; Hank Mobley, tenor sax; Wynton Kelly, piano; Paul Chambers, doublebass; Jimmy Cobb, drums)
Just look at that lineup of musicians. This is the Miles Quintet with Miles in a fairly tonal and highly lyrical bag. The album’s title tune creates a lengthy major statement on an unexpected theme from the movies, just as Coltrane was to do with My Favorite Things. Coltrane is also fairly tonal (he only joins the quintet on the title track and on Teo); this was before he turned to the more avant-garde. Three of the six tunes are originals from Miles, including his homage to his producer at Columbia Teo Macero. CD reissues have included a Blues No. 2 and an alternate take of Someday My Prince Will Come, but not this SACD nor its 45rpm double-vinyl counterpart.
Sorry to make so much of it but one of the big attractions of this SACD for me was that it and the other Miles SACD just reviewed (Seven Steps) are three-channel (as well as a two-channel option)! There is no mention of this anywhere except for the little box that says Multi-ch & Stereo. That is similar to the Everest SACD reissue of Little Train of the Caipira, Corroboree and the two Ginastera ballets – it is labeled multichannel for its three front channels. I believe all the other jazz SACD reissues from Analogue Productions are two channel.
TrackList: Someday My Prince Will Come; Old Folks, Pfrancing; Drad-Dog, Teo, I Thought About You.
– John Henry
