Hand Jive (First Alternate Take)

Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Miles Davis (trumpet), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums). From the album Nefertiti (1968).

In 1960, Davis recorded another album with Gill Evans entitled Sketches of Spain with traditional Spanish music, an excellent adaptation of the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo and original compositions. One night, Davis was playing at the Birldand club and went out on the street to rest. Then a policeman told him to leave and Davis replied that he was working at the club and that he couldn’t leave. The police arrested him and beat him with the truncheon in the stomach, and a detective hit him on the head.

Then they took him to jail, put five stitches in his head, and he had to pay a bail to be able to leave. He was finally acquitted of all charges against him. After this incident, having going through a good period in his personal and professional life, the world was never the same for him. Davis toured with his sextet and had to convince Coltrane to join him on a final European tour in 1960. Afterwards, Coltrane left to form his own quartet.

This is a medium tempo theme that Shorter and Davis play in unison with unconventional harmonies. The first one to enter is Davis with a direct and continuous solo joining the phrases with mastery. He is followed by Shorter playing in a choppy way until he is animated to establish a more dynamic discourse by mixing different motifs. Next comes Hancock with a modern melodic line full of unexpected changes. To close, the group reexposes the theme.