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Nefertiti
Studio album by Miles Davis
Released	March 1968
Recorded	June 7 – July 19, 1967 (1967-06-07 – 1967-07-19)
Studio	Columbia 30th Street New York City
Genre	Post-bop
Length	39:08
Label	Columbia
Producer	Teo Macero, Howard Roberts
Miles Davis chronology
Sorcerer (1967) Nefertiti (1968) Miles in the Sky (1968)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
DownBeat
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Penguin Guide to Jazz
Q
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide
Tom Hull – on the Web	A−
Xgau Sez	A−

Nefertiti is a studio album by the jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis. It was released in March 1968 through Columbia Records. The recording was made at Columbia's 30th Street Studio over four dates between June 7 and July 19, 1967, the album was Davis' last fully acoustic album. Davis himself did not contribute any compositions – three were written by tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, two by pianist Herbie Hancock, and one by drummer Tony Williams.

Music

The fourth album by Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, Nefertiti is best known for the unusual title track, on which the horn section repeats the melody numerous times without individual solos while the rhythm section improvises underneath, reversing the traditional role of a rhythm section. C. Michael Bailey of All About Jazz cited it as one of the quintet's six albums between 1965 and 1968 that introduced the post-bop subgenre.

Shortly after this album, Hancock recorded a different version of "Riot" for his 1968 album Speak Like a Child. In 1978, Shorter recorded a new version of "Pinocchio" with Weather Report for the album Mr. Gone.

This album, along with others by this particular group, demonstrates their willingness to fundamentally alter the basics of a composition during the recording process. For example, the quintet initially rehearsed 'Madness' as a slow waltz. On the next two takes (including the released version) it is rendered at a fast tempo in predominantly 4/4 time. Similarly, Pinocchio is a relatively fast composition on the released version and yet the group rehearsed it at a much slower pace, with the horns repeating the head whilst the rhythm section improvises underneath, in a similar manner to the master take of 'Nefertiti'.

Nefertiti was the final all-acoustic album of Davis' career. Starting with his next album, Miles in the Sky, Davis began to experiment with electric instruments, marking the dawn of his electric period.

Critical reception

Nefertiti has been received positively by critics. DownBeat writer Howard Mandel said it "seems perched on the cusp" of innovation, with "perfectly pitched" performances and trumpet ideas marked by "cyclical melodies, subdued in mood and sonically bejeweled". However, Mandel lamented the solos for "revert to regular rhythms", limiting the resulting music from more transcendent possibilities. Robert Christgau considered it among the "great work" Davis recorded with his quintet of the 1960s, although he would later say that "the late-'60 Wayne Shorter edition of Miles's band is my least favorite Miles—not that I think it's bad, but I've always found Shorter too cool." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic was more enthusiastic about its relatively subtler "charms" while finding it a clear forerunner to the jazz fusion that would follow: "What's impressive, like on all of this quintet's sessions, is the interplay, how the musicians follow an unpredictable path as a unit, turning in music that is always searching, always provocative, and never boring."

Track listing

Columbia – CS 9594

• Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–6 on CD reissues.

Personnel

The Miles Davis Quintet

• Miles Davis – trumpet
• Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone
• Herbie Hancock – piano
• Ron Carter – double bass
• Tony Williams – drums

Production

• Teo Macero – production
• Howard Roberts – production
• Fred Plaut, Ray Moore – engineering
• Rob Schwarz – mastering

Chart history

Billboard Music Charts (North America) – Nefertiti

• 1968: Top Jazz Albums – No. 8

References

1. Billboard March 23, 1968
2. Carter, Ron; et al. (2012). Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History. Voyageur Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0760342626. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
3. ^ "Miles Davis – Nefertiti (CD)". Discogs. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
4. ^ "Nefertiti – All Music Review". All Music. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
5. ^ Alkyer Enright, Frank; Jason Koransky, eds. (2007). The Miles Davis Reader. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 305–06. ISBN 978-1617745706.
6. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
7. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2006). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. Penguin Books. p. 325.
8. "Review: Nefertiti". Q. London: 89. January 1992. Acoustic jazz couldn't go far after this masterpiece...
9. Considine, J. D.; et al. (November 2, 2004). Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition. Simon & Schuster. p. 215. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
10. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 58. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
11. Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Grade List: Miles Davis". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
12. ^ Christgau, Robert (August 21, 2018). "Xgau Sez". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
13. Carter, Ron; et al. (2012). Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History. Voyageur Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0760342626. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
14. Waters, Keith (2011). The Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 217–228. ISBN 9780195393835.
15. "Rediscovering the Miles Davis Quintet". Slate. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
16. Christgau, Robert (September 5, 1977). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved September 23, 2022 – via robertchristgau.com.
17. "Miles Davis – Nefertiti (LP)". Discogs. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
18. ^ "Miles Davis – Nefertiti". milesdavis.com. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
19. "Miles Davis – Nefertiti (CD)". Discogs. Retrieved February 4, 2017.

• 1968 albums
• Miles Davis albums
• Columbia Records albums
• Legacy Recordings albums
• Albums produced by Teo Macero
• Albums recorded at CBS 30th Street Studio
• 1960s instrumental albums
• Acoustic albums