Miles Mode - John Coltrane Quintet featuring Eric Dolphy

This is from a cd released on Charly in 2001 titled "John Coltrane at Birdland 1962", recorded live February the 10th, 1962.

The composition itself and its origin as well as its title has been the subject of quite a bit of confusion:

From the Eric Dolphy discography at adale.org: "Red Planet (aka Miles' Mode) has been the subject of a lot of discussion over the past couple of years. This page summarizes some of this discussion in the hope that we can learn more about the issues.

The authorship of this composition is in some doubt. Vladimir Simosko recalls that in the 1960s, many people were of the opinion that it was a Dolphy composition titled Red Planet rather than Miles' Mode by Coltrane as stated or implied in its early releases (on the Impulse Coltrane album by the quartet, and much later by the quintet from 11/1/61, as well as on boots of a 2/10/62 broadcast from Birdland). This was later confirmed when David Wild compiled information for his Coltrane discography in the 1970s. David wrote in the booklet for the 1997 Impulse box "The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings":


The modal Miles' Mode is listed on the Vanguard material as "The Red Planet." Although credited to Coltrane on the 1962 album Coltrane (where it is named Miles' Mode), the composition was almost certainly written by Eric Dolphy. The remarkable theme uses a twelve-tone tone-row as the source for its opening phrase (repeated in reverse - another dodecaphonic technique - in the second two measures), with the notes arranged to create a fairly tonal melody. The published name of course refers to the B dorian mode used as the basis for the solos, the same scale (although in a different key) used by "So What." Both versions (the later, from November 3rd, issued here for the first time) feature long, tonality-bending solos from Coltrane and Dolphy.
Further evidence that the piece may have been written by Dolphy include his performance of it with his quartet and a student ensemble at the University of Illinois in 1963. This performance was released finally, and samples are included below. In publicity for this concert, references were made to this as a Dolphy composition. Furthermore, a letter from Dolphy's close friend Hale Smith to his parents in 1975 refers to the score for Red Planet in terms that make it clear Dolphy wrote it. This score was among several, including Strength with Unity and Love Suite, that the Dolphys passed along to Gunther Schuller. Schuller directed a performance of these pieces, along with several others, at a concert in Pescara Italy on 25 March 2000.
Michael Cuscuna speculated that it may have been a Coltrane line that Dolphy arranged for brass ensemble, perhaps for the Africa Brass sessions (but not used then).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• john
• coltrane
• quintet
• featuring
• eric
• dolphy
• miles
• mode
• red
• planet
• birdland
• 1962
• live
• jazz
• free
• improvisation
• sax

[yourockets3]

you can find it in "the real book" - I have it in an old edition ...

[stoogepenguin]

Could you tell me where I could get sheet music for this for sax?

[Jordainio]

Yes! Thank you for the info and post of this song. This album sounds like one I should check out