Something For Sunday Dept. - Kind Of White

Note absence of blackness.

Selling jazz to us white folks (I'm speaking on behalf of white folks here) used to be a marketing headache. A black face on the cover wouldn't deter the hardcore Downbeat© subscriber, but it might not win sales in the crucial suburban hi-fi demographic, the Populuxe generation of Botany 500 sophisticates who mixed martinis and adjusted R.I.A.A. curves for their equally attractive neighbors at weekends. It was a risk. Gil Evans was the guy who could break Miles Davis into that lucrative market, but the covers had to avoid featuring a black face.

"Why'd you put that white bitch on there?" asked the ever-diplomatic Miles [n.b. never "Davis" - Ed.] on seeing the cover of Miles Ahead, the first of their orchestral collaborations. For later editions, when he was a marketable brand across most demographics, the cover was changed to feature his face.

Note pioneering silhouette brand.

Quiet Nights, the last of their four projects together, avoided the problem by featuring a gorgeous abstract cover, prefiguring the psychedelic light shows of a year later. This album generally gets a sniffy reaction from jazzbos, to whom I flip the bird. I can hear nothing on it that is less than sublime (and perfect Sunday listening). The Time Of The Barracudas is more than a bonus track - it's integral to the album.

EDIT: Download contains all four Miles n' Gil albumens.