MILES DAVIS, Miles in France 1963 & 1964 (2024). Miles in France is a study in transition. With the departure of sax legend John Coltrane, Miles’s First Great Quintet (the band that brought us Kind of Blue) was no more. It was time to create a new band. The shows performed in this set document the efforts toward that next band. Miles recruited young musicians (and future legends) Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums). In the 1963 performances, George Coleman took Coltrane’s place. But this didn’t last, as Miles incorporated Wayne Shorter the following year. Thus began the era of the Second Great Quintet. These performances also document Miles’s transition out of the languid pace of his “modal” jazz and into playing those old tunes like “So What” at breakneck speed. The band was also transitioning out of playing standards and into creating a repertoire of their own, mostly devoid of well-worn jazz classics. It’s a fascinating set to experience, as one can both hear and feel the changes coming over the horizon. What followed is the stuff of jazz legend. It’s really cool to hear just how we got there.

THE CURE, Songs of a Lost World ( 2024). One thing is certain: The Cure have mastered the art of pacing themselves. The band took a brief 16-year break between their last studio work and rbis one. Was it worth the wait? Pretty much, yeah! The band has also seen fit to take its time throughout each composition. Nothing happens in a hurry, and the languid pace suits them. The songs are deliberate in nature from the very first strains of “Alone,” the album’s opening track. The music is symphonic and bass-heavy, but this doesn’t stop guitarist Reeves Gabrels from wailing away from the back of the mix in his own form of low-key aggression. And what can be said of Robert Smith’s voice that hasn’t already been said. He hasn’t lost a single step. Cure fans will be more than happy. Newcomers will wonder why things are moving so slowly. What they need to understand is that the journey is far more important than the destination.

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, “No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead” ( 2024). A great post-rock band has the ability to lull the listener into a sense of serenity shortly before ripping its head off. Welcome to the new Godspeed recording. The soundscapes are lush and tranquil, right up the point where they’re not. Riiiiiiiiiip!!! No doubt the use of three guitars and a violin play heavily into this concept. Strings are everywhere, then almost nowhere before they re-establish themselves in brutal fashion. Is “head-banging” to a tranquil soundscape a thing? It is now! And don’t sleep on the drums, which provide much of the need to head-bang in the first place. This music is, in a word, deliberate. It would be wise to pay attention. Riiiiiiiiiip!!!

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