Customer Reviews
Five stars, no argument - By: molondas, 01 Oct 2007 
This is a really good CD. Everything this quintet produced was magnificent, but this one has it all. The variety is astonishing & the playing is fascinating as it drifts between dazzling virtuosity, mellow duets & trios, & the majesty of the whole band playing together.
It feels like the band are playing within themselves - not going for the more eccentric & distant scales & modulations that they moved into from Nefertiti onwards. This makes ESP more accessible, butin my view it's all the more remarkable for the level of control & understated mellowness that characterises the whole set.
The ultimate chill out - By: Mykool, 04 Mar 2007 This is my ultimate chill out album - I stick it on, tension flows away, & time stops. All five members of the band are virtuosos & each drive the music. Listen to how Ron Carter's perfectly placed bass notes keep "Eighty-one" moving forward. Tony Williams has infinite ways of dividing up the beat & driving the direction of the music. Miles & Wayne Shorter provide the melodic flights of fancy, conjuring lines out of nothing, it seems, whilst Herbie Hancock supports with his usual classiness. The sound of "the cool" coming of age.
One of the best Jazz albums of the sixties - By: MR J. A Clemas, 27 Apr 2003 Great recording from one of the best groups there ever was. Explores radical concepts & ideas but remains like many of Davis' recordings highly listenable even to the non-jazz fan. Stop reading about it & go out & buy it.
Miles' 2nd great quintet in fine form - By: Adam Ventress, 31 Jan 2003 After the brilliance of miles' 50s quintet & sextet albums,it took until 1965 before his 2nd great quintet got going with this set of seven original themes. This period marked a changein Miles' music; still playing largely modally, but with younger musicians backing him who had a strong influence on the sound of the music. The rhythm section, driven by Tony Williams' frenetic drumming, was a key element, & is most to the fore here on the title track. Also Miles shared compositional duties with his sidemen, especially Wayne Shorter,something he had not done much before & would not again after this period. On ESP, 'Agitation' is the only track credited completely to Miles, & the only track from this set to become a staple of the band's live performances. It is a mysterious piece, containing shiftsin tempo & mood, quiet but with an underlying menace & bitein Miles' muted trumpet.
A further changein this band was the partnership between Miles & Shorter, which was different from that with Coltrane which dominated Miles' 50s work. Shorter's playing was subtler & more abstract than Coltrane's, & Miles has a tendency to play harder & more aggresively than before; with more edge to his playing, not so plaintive & mournful. This is most obvious here on the title track & 'Agitation,' but is even evident on the slow tracks like 'Mood.'
On the whole however, this album contains more of the softer side of the 2nd quintet than 'Miles Smiles' or live reordings from around this time. 'Little One' is a delightful Herbie Hancock composition which features lovely interplay between Miles, Shorter & Hancock; while 'Eighty One' is an excellent Ron Carter blues where Miles is experimenting with shifting rhythms. The album ends with a ballad, 'Iris' & a fine slow atmospheric piece, appropriately entitled 'Mood' which is grounded by Ron carters' steady bass rhythm.
Overall, it is an excellent consistent album, the band members all playing their partin the process & sounding coherent together, an ideal place to begin with Miles' 60s work.
I have to disagree, this is one of the best jazz albums! - By: , 10 Jul 2001 This album follows Kind of Bluein its modal aproach but there is something special about it, chiefly the rhythm section. They absolutely blow me away every time I hear it! Take Eighty-One for example - the way they slide between a very straight rhythm & this groooovy swing feel (If you've got Maiden Voyage, that's the rhtytem) is sublime. Agitation shows Tony Williams off as one of the greatest jazz drummers & Mood is simply beautiful. There's a whole feeling of spacein this album - it's hard not to draw the comparison with Maiden Voyage again (which interestingly was recorded just after ESP) - & although more challenging than Kind of Blue, I find it much more rewarding. It's definately one of the best albumsin the modal jazz style.
