HOFFSTACK PLAYLIST #9 - Miles Davis (but not really Miles Davis), "Billy Boy"

Warning: this will get stuck in your head forever.

By labelling this a “Miles Davis” song I’ve gone and perpetuated a minor injustice, but I want the HOFFSTACK PLAYLIST to be an easily indexible source. Look for this track as it should be labelled, by Red Garland, and you’ll find a different recording. This one is filed under Miles Davis, but Miles Davis had precious little to do with this.

The first great Miles Davis Quintet featured Davis on trumpet (and sometimes cornet! and sometimes flugelhorn!!), John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Philly Joe Jones is not to be confused with Jo Jones, another drummer who played in a similar mode. Philly Joe Jones was from Philly. Jo Jones, who would later be Phil Schaap’s babysitter (seriously), was born in Chicago but came to prominence in Kansas City. Remember the bit in Clint Eastwood’s Bird where the drummer flings a cymbal to get young Charlie Parker to stop playing? That was him.

The album Milestones, in which the quintet was actually a sextet with the inclusion of Cannonball Adderly on alto saxophone, represented something of a “last hurrah” for Davis and the subgenre of “hard bop.” Just around the corner were the larger, orchestral recordings of Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain, and also the landmark Kind of Blue, which is more about mood-based, simple grooves; the origin, some would say, of “modal jazz,” which is another way of saying “and now we’re just going to play whatever the hell we want and not worry so much about the melody.” (After this came the second of the great Quintets, which included Ron Carter on bass and Herbie Hancock on piano, both still kicking in their 80s.)

But none of that has to do with “Billy Boy.”

“Billy Boy” is a traditional folk tune from the British Isles that the outstanding jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal had recently arranged for a small jazz combo. Miles Davis loved Ahmad Jamal, and cited him often as a revelation in “using space.” (The dumb joke from The Simpsons, how great jazz is in the notes you don’t hear, has its roots in the Jamal-Davis form of expression.)

At some point during the Milestones session, someone pressed record and Davis’s rhythm section—Garland on piano, Chambers on bass and Jones on drums—sank their teeth into “Billy Boy” and absolutely chomped it to shreds.

Davis (and Coltrane and Adderly) aren’t on the track. Davis is not credited as a producer. Was he even there when this went down? Probably! Like I said, he loved Ahmad Jamal, and Red Garland’s interpretation is a spin on what Jamal had in his repertoire for years. He had already recorded it, but it wasn’t released yet. I’m going to make the assumption those in the know had already heard him do it, either on tape or in person. Also, he performed it during his Pershing Lounge live sessions of 1958, which was released years later. That recording absolutely rips.

Jamal’s version is cool as hell, but Garland’s is brighter and bolder and, to me, a little more triumphant. Red Garland is not as famous as Bud Powell or Errol Garner or certainly Oscar Peterson—the GOAT—but it is not sacrilege to mention him in the same breath. About a decade after Milestones’ release he probably realized that he’d laid down one of his best performances on a session that’s credited to a guy who didn’t even pick up his horn, so he rerecorded it, again with Paul Chambers on bass, but with Art Taylor on drums. It’s not as good. It’s too slow. The moment passed.

Well, it’s still got more swing than Burl Ives’s version!

Anyway, the “Miles Davis” version is still the one to hear, even at over seven minutes. Go press play on it again. Paul Chambers does a bass solo with a bow, oftentimes a bore on a recording, but even that’s got a groove. The chord blasts after that solo (4:21 mark) are worthy of head-banging, and this leads into some playful “trading fours” with Philly Joe Jones. You want to talk about the notes you don’t hear, check out what Garland does at the 5:04 mark. Who would ever think to play in such a way? This was 1958! Tremendous. The decision to include this on Milestones was absolutely the right call.