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Someday My Prince Will Come (Miles Davis album)

Someday My Prince Will Come is the seventh studio album by Miles Davis for Columbia Records, catalogue CL 1656 and CS 8456 in stereo, released in 1961. Recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in Manhattan, New York City, it marked the only Miles Davis Quintet studio recording session to feature saxophonist Hank Mobley.

Someday My Prince Will Come
The woman on the cover of the album was Davis's wife, Frances.
Studio album by
Miles Davis
ReleasedDecember 11, 1961[1]
RecordedMarch 7, 20, 21, 1961
StudioColumbia 30th Street (New York City)
GenreJazz
Length41:45
LabelColumbia
CS-8456
ProducerTeo Macero
Miles Davis chronology
Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
(1961) 		Someday My Prince Will Come
(1961) 		Seven Steps to Heaven
(1963)

Background

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In 1959, Cannonball Adderley left to form his own group with his brother, reducing the sextet to a quintet.[2] Drummer Jimmy Cobb and pianist Wynton Kelly had been hired in 1958. John Coltrane stayed in the group for a spring tour of Europe, but left to form his own quartet in the summer of 1960.[3] In 1960, Davis went through saxophonists Jimmy Heath and Sonny Stitt before settling on Hank Mobley in December, the band re-stabilizing for the next two years.[4]

Composition

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Unlike Kind of Blue, which featured nothing but group originals, this album paired equal numbers of Miles Davis tunes and pop standards, including the title song resurrected from the 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The titles of all three Davis originals refer to specific individuals: "Pfrancing" to his wife Frances, featured on the album cover; "Teo" to his producer Teo Macero; and "Drad Dog" (Goddard reversed) to Columbia Records president Goddard Lieberson.[5] While the cover credits the Miles Davis Sextet, only the title track featured six players, Coltrane making two cameo appearances on the album, taking solos on the title track and "Teo", playing instead of Mobley on the latter.[6] On March 21, ex-Davis drummer Philly Joe Jones made his final contribution to a Davis session, replacing Cobb for the original "Blues No. 2", which was not used on the album.

Re-issue

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On June 8, 1999, Legacy Records reissued the album for compact disc with two bonus tracks including the unused "Blues No. 2" and an alternative take of "Someday My Prince Will Come".

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [7]
Down Beat (1962)     [8]
Down Beat (1990)     [9]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music     [10]
MusicHound Jazz4/5[11]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz    [12]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide     [13]
Tom HullB[14]

In a contemporary review for Down Beat, Ira Gitler praised Coltrane's solo on the title track while finding Kelly equally exceptional as both a soloist and comping musician. "His single-lines are simultaneously hard and soft. Cobb and Chambers groove perfectly together and with Kelly", Gitler wrote. "The rhythm section, individually and as a whole, is very well-recorded."[9] The magazine's Howard Mandel later viewed Someday My Prince Will Come as "a commercial realization rather than an artistic exploration" but nonetheless "lovely", highlighted by each musician's careful attention to notes and dynamics, and among Davis's most "romantic, bluesy and intentionally seductive programs".[9]

The album is ranked number 994 in All-Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd edition, 2000).[15]

Track listing

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Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Someday My Prince Will Come"Frank Churchill, Larry Morey9:02
2."Old Folks"Willard Robison, Dedette Lee Hill5:14
3."Pfrancing" (also known as "No Blues")Miles Davis8:30
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Drad-Dog"Miles Davis4:49
2."Teo"Miles Davis9:33
3."I Thought About You"Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Mercer4:52
  • Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–6 on CD reissues.
1999 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
7."Blues No. 2"Miles Davis7:05
8."Someday My Prince Will Come" (alternate take)Frank Churchill, Larry Morey5:34

Personnel

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Musicians

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Production

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Miles Davis.com
  2. ^ Richard Cook. It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off Record. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-532266-8, p. 123.
  3. ^ Lewis Porter. John Coltrane: His Life and Music. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1999. ISBN 0-472-10161-7, p. 144.
  4. ^ Cook, pp. 128–130.
  5. ^ Cook, pp. 131–132.
  6. ^ Someday My Prince Will Come. Columbia/Legacy CK 65919, 1999, liner notes p. 4.
  7. ^ Jurek, Thom (2011). "Someday My Prince Will Come [Bonus Tracks] - Miles Davis Sextet | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  8. ^ Down Beat: April 26, 1962, vol. 29, no. 9.
  9. ^ a b c Alkyer, Frank; Enright, Ed; Koransky, Jason, eds. (2007). The Miles Davis Reader. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 221–22, 305. ISBN 142343076X.
  10. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Miles Davis". Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0857125958.
  11. ^ Holtje, Steve; Lee, Nancy Ann, eds. (1998). "Miles Davis". MusicHound Jazz: The Essential Album Guide. Music Sales Corporation. ISBN 0825672538.
  12. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2006). The Penguin Guide to Jazz (8th ed.). Penguin Books. p. 735. ISBN 0141023279.
  13. ^ Considine, J. D. (1992). "Miles Davis". In DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly (eds.). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd ed.). Random House. p. 179. ISBN 0-679-73729-4.
  14. ^ Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Jazz (1940s-50s)". tomhull.com. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  15. ^ "Rocklist". Retrieved July 22, 2018.
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