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Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); Hank Mobley, John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Wynton Kelly (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); Jimmy Cobb, Philly Joe Jones (drums). Recorded at 30th Street Studio, New York, New York on March 7, 20 & 21, 1961. Originally released on Columbia (8456). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler and Eddie Henderson. Digitally remastered by Teo Macero (CBS Records Studio, New York). This is part of the Columbia Jazz Masterpieces series. Recorded shortly after the blistering IN PERSON, FRIDAY/SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE BLACKHAWK, SAN FRANCISCO, VOLUMES 1 & 2 (but released first), SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME captures Miles Davis and his second great rhythm section at the peak of their collective interplay. By March 1961, the rhythm team of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb had attained a finger snapping level of relaxation and swing that was equal parts grits and grace (check out their soulful blues vamp on "Pfrancing"). They had become so attuned to each other during their tenure with Miles that they left in tandem to form the Wynton Kelly Trio--forcing Miles to search for new conscripts, precipitating his boldest period of exploration. Miles' had a penchant for turning offbeat standards and show tunes into personal jazz classics, and certainly few songs have come to be as closely identified with an artist as "Someday My Prince Will Come." From the rhythm section's evocation of a clock striking midnight and Kelly's big band-styled comping, through Miles' famous muted rendition of the theme and the contrasting tenor styles of laid-back Hank Mobley and a testifying John Coltrane, this is a defining moment in the history of jazz and the pop song form. The title tune tends to overshadow the understated power of Miles' muted horn on such exceptional ballad performances as "Old Folks," "I Thought About You" and the trumpeter's own "Drad-Dog." But it's "Teo," an extra funky, Spanish flavored vamp (shades of "It Ain't Necessarily So") that elicits the most heat from each improviser, particularly Mr. Coltrane, only months away from his own epic Iberian "Ole."
