Miles Davis - E.S.P. (1983 Japanese Pressing, CBS/Sony Vinyl LP)

Miles Davis - E.S.P. | Vinyl LP - 1983 CBS/Sony Japanese Pressing (23AP 2566, includes obi and insert)

Miles Davis formed this quintet in 1964. Wayne Shorter joined from Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in September, completing a band that already had Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums. Williams was 19 years old. E.S.P. was their first studio album together, recorded across three days in January 1965 at Columbia's Hollywood studio. What's immediately different from Milestones and the earlier quintet records is that the compositions come from the whole band rather than from Davis alone. Carter wrote three of the seven tracks: "Eighty-One" (co-written with Davis), "R.J." and "Mood." Shorter wrote the title track (co-written with Davis) and "Iris," one of his most enduring compositions. Hancock wrote "Little One." Only "Agitation" is Davis's alone. The result is an album that sounds like a working group rather than a leader with sidemen, each composition pulling the rhythm section into a different shape.

The quintet went on to record Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro before moving into electric music, and the interplay they developed across those albums began here. This is the 1983 CBS/Sony Japanese pressing (23AP 2566) from the Miles Greatest Collection 25 series, a dedicated 25-title reissue programme for the Japanese market. It includes a yellow top-edge obi and a two-sided insert with Japanese liner notes by Yozo Iwanami on one side and the Miles Greatest Collection 25 catalogue on the other.