Miles Davis – Water Babies

Fantastic album, not to quite the same consistency as other quintet albums (as expected given put together later), but as someone who loves Wayne as much as Miles this is must have for the collection. This pressing is a good one, light weight vinyl but sound is clean with minimal surface noise.

Producer Teo Macero put this together during Miles late 70's recuperation period.
in 67-68 at the end of his great quintet the band was constantly exchanged in experimental studio sessions and this release was the first the public got to hear from that fertile and important period, more material followed on 1979's Circle In The Round and 1981's Directions
the upbeat album closer Dual Mr Anthony Tillman williams process is the outlier, the rest of the material is yearning, unsettled, atmospheric music
Side A is from 3 acoustic sessions in the summer of 1967 with the legendary Quintet
Side B is from September 1968 with a transitional band

Ron Carter gives a masterclass on Jazz bass on Capricorn
Sweet Pea could almost be the blue print for David Bowie's Blackstar

my favourite track is two faced which simmers with tension while also hinting at the ambient direction that would appear on in a silent way, although that track is on the Silent Way sessions box i find myself gravitating to this version instead
maybe its something in the mastering of the box set

so why only 3 stars? purely my personal subjective taste, my favourite period for Miles starts in December 67 just after the majority of the tracks on this album were recorded and i wanted to reserve the 5/5 award so i could rave about Directions & Circle In the Round