In the summer of 1955, Davis performed a noted set at the Newport Jazz Festival, and had been approached by Columbia Records executive George Avakian, offering a contract with the label if he could form a regular band. Davis assembled his first regular quintet to meet a commitment at the Café Bohemia in July with Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. By the autumn, Rollins had left to deal with his heroin addiction, and later in the year joined the hard bop quintet led by Clifford Brown and Max Roach.
At the recommendation of drummer Jones, Davis replaced Rollins with John Coltrane, beginning a partnership that would last five years and finalizing the Quintet's first line-up. Expanded to a sextet with the addition of Cannonball Adderley on alto saxophone in 1958, the First Great Quintet was one of the definitive hard bop groups along with the Brown-Roach Quintet and the Jazz Messengers, recording the Columbia albums Round About Midnight, Milestones, and the marathon sessions for Prestige Records resulting in four albums collected on The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions.
In mid-1958, Bill Evans replaced Garland on piano and Jimmy Cobb replaced Jones on drums, but Evans only lasted about six months, in turn replaced by Wynton Kelly as 1958 turned into 1959. This group backing Davis, Coltrane, and Adderley, with Evans returning for the recording sessions, recorded Kind of Blue, considered "one of the most important, influential and popular albums in jazz". Adderley left the band in September 1959 to pursue his own career, returning the line-up to a quintet. Coltrane departed in the spring of 1960, and after interim replacements Jimmy Heath and Sonny Stitt, Davis plus Kelly, Chambers, and Cobb continued through 1961 and 1962 with Hank Mobley on tenor sax.
The two rhythm sections from the Davis Quintet also achieved fame on their own. Garland, Chambers, and Jones recorded as a unit on Art Pepper meets The Rhythm Section and Sonny Rollins' Tenor Madness, while Kelly, Chambers, and Cobb toured and recorded as a trio under Kelly's name, in addition to appearing on the albums Coltrane Jazz and the solo debut of Wayne Shorter, as well as backing Wes Montgomery on Full House and Smokin' at the Half Note. The Kelly-Chambers-Cobb trio also backed Art Pepper on the album Gettin' Together, which included trumpeter Conte Candoli.
Mobley, Kelly, Chambers, and Cobb all left Davis by the end of 1962, and during 1963 he struggled to maintain a steady line-up. By the late spring, he had hired the core of the Second Quintet with Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. Initially with George Coleman or Sam Rivers on tenor sax, the final piece of the puzzle would arrive in late 1964 with saxophonist Wayne Shorter.
The performance style of the Second Great Quintet was often referred to by Davis as "time, no changes", incorporating elements of free jazz without completely surrendering to the approach, allowing the five men to contribute to the group as equals rather than as a leader and sidemen peeling off unrelated solos. This band recorded the albums E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky, and Filles de Kilimanjaro, and the live set considered by The Penguin Guide to Jazz to be their crowning achievement, The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965.
When Davis began to become more interested in the rock, soul, and funk music of the late 1960s, the Second Quintet unraveled. Carter departed during the sessions for Filles de Kilimanjaro, and Williams left in early 1969 to start his own band, the Tony Williams Lifetime, staying on with Davis to record the groundbreaking In a Silent Way. Davis would continue his innovations into jazz fusion with the album Bitches Brew and his work in the 1970s. As a result, the Second Quintet came to an end, though Hancock would contribute to subsequent sessions with Miles and appear on Jack Johnson, On the Corner, and Get Up with It. Players on In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew would go on to form the core jazz fusion bands of the 1970s away from Davis: Shorter and Josef Zawinul to Weather Report; John McLaughlin and Billy Cobham to the Mahavishnu Orchestra; Hancock and Bennie Maupin to Headhunters; and Chick Corea and Lenny White to Return to Forever.
Columbia/Legacy Recordings released Freedom Jazz Dance: The Bootleg Series Vol. 5, a collection of previously unreleased tracks recorded by the Second Great Quintet between 1966 and 1968.
Four
Miles Davis Quintet Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And they may not be many but nobody needs any more.
Of the many facts making the list of life,
Truth takes the lead.
And to relax knowing the gist of life,
It's truth you need.
Then the second is honor and happiness makes number three.
Baby so truth, honor and happiness
And one thing more,
Meaning only wonderful, wonderful love that'll make four.
Of the wonderful things that you get out of life there are four.
And they may not be many but nobody needs any more.
Of the many facts making the list of life,
Truth takes the lead.
And to relax knowing the gist of life,
It's truth you need.
Then the second is honor and happiness makes number three.
When you put them together you know what the last one must be.
Baby so truth, honor and happiness
And one thing more,
Meaning love and that's the real score and more than enough when times are tough and poor.
They may not comprise a lot
Still (you) only got those four.
And there ain't no more.
The lyrics to Miles Davis Quintet's "Four" illustrate a simple but impactful message about the most important things in life. The opening lines establish that there are only four things that people truly need to be content with their lives. The first and foremost is truth, as it takes the lead in the list of life's many facts. The song argues that, to truly relax and understand the gist of life, a person must have truth.
The second and third things on the list are honor and happiness. When these two things are combined, the fourth and final essential thing is revealed: love. The song claims that these four things are all anyone needs to have a wonderful life. The last few lines of the song emphasize this point by saying that even though these four things may not seem like a lot, they are all that really matter. The song concludes by stating that there are no additional things that a person really needs beyond these four.
Overall, "Four" is a powerful message about what truly matters in life. The song suggests that people should prioritize truth, honor, happiness, and love above all else. These things may seem simplistic or unimportant, but the song argues that they are all anyone truly needs to have a meaningful and fulfilling life.
Line by Line Meaning
Of the wonderful things that you get out of life there are four.
Life has a finite set of wonderful things, and this song will talk about four of them.
And they may not be many but nobody needs any more.
We don't need an infinite list of things to be happy - just a few special ones.
Of the many facts making the list of life, Truth takes the lead.
The most important thing in life is to be honest and truthful.
And to relax knowing the gist of life, It's truth you need.
To be content in life, you need to understand its basic truths.
Then the second is honor and happiness makes number three.
After truth, honor is the second most important thing, followed by happiness.
When you put them together you know what the last one must be.
When you combine truth, honor, and happiness, the fourth special thing becomes clear.
Baby so truth, honor and happiness And one thing more,
The three important things are truth, honor, and happiness, and there is also one more special thing.
Meaning only wonderful, wonderful love that'll make four.
The fourth special thing is love, which completes the list of wonderful things in life.
Meaning love and that's the real score and more than enough when times are tough and poor.
Love is not just another nice thing to have - it is crucial for getting through hard times.
They may not comprise a lot Still (you) only got those four.
Even though the list is short, these four special things are all we need to be truly happy.
And there ain't no more.
There is no need for anything beyond these four wonderful things in life.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, THE BICYCLE MUSIC COMPANY
Written by: MILES JAYE DAVIS, JON HENDRICKS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@CheChe-iu1oq
Of the wonderful things that you get out of life there are four.
And they may not be many but nobody needs any more.
Of the many facts making the list of life,
Truth takes the lead.
And to relax knowing the gist of life,
It's truth you need.
Then the second is honor and happiness makes number three.
When you put them together you know what the last one must be.
Baby so truth, honor and happiness
And one thing more,
Meaning only wonderful, wonderful love that'll make four.
Of the wonderful things that you get out of life there are four.
And they may not be many but nobody needs any more.
Of the many facts making the list of life,
Truth takes the lead.
And to relax knowing the gist of life,
It's truth you need.
Then the second is honor and happiness makes number three.
When you put them together you know what the last one must be.
Baby so truth, honor and happiness
And one thing more,
Meaning love and that's the real score and more than enough when times are tough and poor.
They may not comprise a lot
Still (you) only got those four.
And there ain't no more.
@gordonwolf9336
Can’t wait to hear five.
@naresu
damn. i have to listen to three first
@Plawdog
Why don’t you take five
@LuisFlores-xr5bu
Blues by five it's enough to you?
@giuseppefortinelli8097
Every time I’m here to listen to this song and read this comment I laugh my arse off.
@najabass
@@naresu so take five...
@jeffcraven7376
Sometimes I hear "Four" in my sleep. Beautiful recording, glad I have the original LP & a bought the CD as soon as it came out. RIP Miles. Thanks Jazzman2696.
@erdwest
Jazz at this stage was such a beautiful thing. Players like these wrung every nuance from it. A new melody with every chorus and every solo. Straight Ahead art it's best with modal jazz in the near future.
@mwong987
You can really feel Miles Davis's leadership in this song. He gives the drummer ample space in the solo but always joins every four bars. Red Garland kicks ass, and the guy on the saxophone is pretty good too.
@user-qk6qy6eo9m
yeah that one guy on sax. wonder who that is