Miles Davis- The 1946 Earl Coleman/ Ann Baker Final Takes | REMASTERED

Final takes from early R&B flavored session with singers Coleman and Baker.

October 18, 1946
Radio Recorders Studio,
Hollywood, California

EARL COLEMAN/ ANN BAKER

Miles Davis- trumpet
Gene Ammons- tenor saxophone
Connie Wainwright- guitar
Linton Garner- piano
Tommy Potter- bass
Art Blakey- drums
Earl Coleman+, Ann Baker*- vocals

Don't Sing Me The Blues (Earl Coleman)+ take 2 0:00
Don't Explain To Me Baby (Earl Coleman)+ take 4 2:55
Baby, Won't You Make Up Your Mind? (Ann Baker)* take 3 5:48
I've Always Got The Blues (Ann Baker)* take 3 8:59
closing titles 11:48

Session produced by Eddie Laguna

Since arriving in New York in the spring of 1945, where he sought out Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie after sitting in with them in Billy Eckstine's orchestra back in East St. Louis, Miles Davis had established himself as one of the most promising newcomers on the scene. Having been taken under Bird's wing they had recorded an important session for Savoy and gigged together. Late in the year, though, Parker travelled to the west coast to spread the word of bebop in Los Angeles.

In early 1946 Miles took up an invitation from saxophonist Benny Carter to join his big band and although he found the music somewhat old fashioned he saw an opportunity to travel west with the band and to reunite with Parker. Once there, the pair played the Finale Club with a rhythm section of L.A. musicians until, in April, a police raid closed the club.

Parker's mental and physical health was also in a downward spiral and, after a complete breakdown on the evening of the infamous Lover Man session of July 29, he was committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital. Miles spent his time jamming with his new acquaintance, bassist Charles Mingus, and gigging with saxophonist Lucky Thompson. But it was to be Billy Eckstine that once again provided a path. His big band arrived on the west coast in September, minus a trumpet player- Fats Navarro had decided to stay in New York- and Miles joined, giving him the chance to work his way back east.

Eckstine's band was noted for its excellence but its excitement failed to transfer to the recording studio- a couple of sessions for the National label in early October, with Miles in the trumpet section, were let down by medicore recording and poor pressings. It was during this period that Miles started to experiment with drugs- fellow trumpeter Hobart Dotson gave him cocaine; shortly after, saxophonist Gene Ammons introduced him to heroin.

In mid October came this session, the details of which are still somewhat shrouded in mystery. The session was produced by Eddie Laguna, founder of the Sunset label, but the music went unreleased. There is some confusion as to whether the recordings were made for Sunset, or for Keynote Records- the liner notes to a 1956 Earl Coleman album mention an unreleased session for the label. Laguna eventually sold the masters to Alun Morgan at Black Lion Records, who released them under the title _Boppin[g] The Blues_ (1986).

The personnel is drawn from the ranks of Eckstine's big band- Baker was the band's female singer, while Coleman occasionally depped for Eckstine himself, singing in the ripe, broad baritone that was fashionable at the time. [There's been some confusion concerning Ann Baker- she was never known as Ann[e] Hathaway; this misattribution stems from a mistake in Alun Morgan's liner notes and has since been repeated in discographies and biographies, such as Jack Chambers' _Milestones._ ]

The music is a mix of bebop horn lines with the sort of typical rhythm & blues that featured on _Billboard's_ 'Juke Box Race Records' chart, or _Cashbox's_ 'Hot In Harlem'. Three of the pieces are 12 bar blues- both of Earl Coleman's are in the key of Eb, and his oleaginous vocals make them sound very similar, Baker's pair (including a blues in C) offer a little more variety. Overall, these are very good examples of jazz inflected Black popular music of the day making their non-release at the time something of a puzzle.

Miles has made great strides in the last 18 months- he sounds much more rhythmically supple than on, say, Parker's Now's The Time session, although his occasional Gillespie-like runs [at 5:08 for example] demonstrate he was still yet to forge a personal style beyond bebop. Ammons provides many of the highlights here, a fine player whose career was blighted by addiction. Wainwright sticks to Freddie Greene-style chording, Linton Garner lacks the swinging virtuosity of his brother Erroll but provides some solid comping, while Blakey would be an important bandmate for Davis over the next few years, before becoming a star himself.

Four months after this date Coleman would record a pair of tunes with a rejunivated Charlie Parker that became Dial Records' biggest sellers. Miles would also reach new artistic heights with Parker on his return to New York, while his new found addictions saw him hit lows that would threaten his career and his life.