In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete

In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete
In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete
Box set by Miles Davis
Released	June 3, 2003
Recorded	April 21–22, 1961
Venue	Black Hawk; San Francisco
Genre	Jazz; hard bop; post-bop; modal jazz;
Length	117:29 ("Friday"), ; 123:51 ("Saturday")
Label	Columbia/Legacy
Producer	Irving Townsend (1961); Bob Belden and Michael Cuscuna (reissue 2003)
Miles Davis live box set chronology

In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete, also called The Complete Blackhawk, is a 2003 four-CD boxset of the 1961 live performances of the Miles Davis Quintet at the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco.

Background

Recording and composition

These sets, performed with recording in mind,^[1] forged new ground for jazz musician Miles Davis, who had never previously been recorded live in a club with his combo.^[2]

Release history

Material from the four sets was first released simultaneously by Columbia Records on two albums in September 1961, titled In Person Friday Night at the Blackhawk, San Francisco, Volume 1 and In Person Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, San Francisco, Volume 2. Although those albums were rereleased several times, the complete sets were not commercially available until Sony Records released a digital mastering of this collection. Simultaneous to this release, the material was made available as two separate double-albums, entitled Friday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete and Saturday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete.^[3] In conjunction with Sony, Mosaic Records released the 6 LP set.^[4]

The complete collection, which included liner notes from the original release by Monterey Jazz Festival co-founder Ralph J. Gleason as well as additional notes by jazz trumpeter Eddie Henderson, was critically and commercially well received. The collection peaked at #9 on Billboard's "Top Jazz Albums" chart.

Cover

The original 1961 albums and the 2003 complete reissues (both the 4-disc and 2-disc) displayed a photograph by Leigh Wiener of Davis with his first wife, Frances Taylor, for whom the song "Fran-Dance" was composed. The 2003 restoration of the original cover art came after a number of reissues that used a photo with an atmospheric representation of the exterior of the Black Hawk taken during Davis's performance.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	(Vol. 1) ^[5]
AllMusic	(Vol. 2) ^[6]
AllMusic	^[7]
PopMatters	(positive)^[8]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	^[9]
Tom Hull	A−^[10]

In its review of the four-disc compilation, The New York Times indicated that the set was "the gold standard for straight-ahead, postwar jazz rhythm".^[11] AllMusic, praising the "pristine" sound and "lovely" packaging, suggested that "no Davis fan should be without these recordings purchased separately or as a set."^[3] The All About Jazz website said that the set was "so fastidiously remastered it sounds live in your living room."^[2]

Track listing

The track listing for In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, Complete reproduces in its entirety the performances of Friday and Saturday nights, April 21 and 22, 1961. Because of space constraints and a desire not to divide sets, the producers of the box set put sessions 1 and 3 together on the first disc, placing the more energetic and lengthier 2nd set on Disc Two.^[2] For the two double-disc sets, the track listing for Friday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete is that of Disc One and Disc Two, below. For Saturday Night: In Person at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, Complete, it is that of Disc Three and Disc Four.