Customer Rating: 
Summary: Another summit
Comment: Well, here goes. I like this album better than "Kind of Blue". Certainly, the personnel is its equal. A 19 year old Tony Williams is brilliant on percussion, setting a new standard for jazz drumming. A young Herbie Hancock, is wonderful on piano, at times playing sensitively, at other times very muscular, with a complex harmonic and melodic sense. And Ron Carter fills Paul Chambers' shoes quite adequately, actually much better than adequately; he is a joy to listen to. Miles? Well, he has never sounded better. How many times has he played "My Funny Valentine"? A million? Here, he has never played it better, like it was his first time. From his melody statement, and then solo, he brings out his bag of effects, half valved notes, mumbles, and the rest to produce a performance without peer.
George Coleman? Well, he is certainly no John Coltrane, but he does not try to be. If you listen to him, he is a unique blend of Hawk and Prez, with the sharp tone of Hawkins and the laid back rhythm at times of Prez. He can certainly run the changes, but he also capable of extremely lyrical passages.
Tony Williams is the driving force. He is much more subtle than Philly Joe, and his drumming is much more interesting. He is fascinating to listen to.
Ron Carter is a superb bassist and owes no one any apologies. As was the custom back then, the bass was another voice in the group, not just a time keeper, and Carter does it better than anyone, with uncanny intonation and feel.
The whole is much more than the sum of its incredible parts here, and that is why this concert was so great, and why this album belongs in any Miles Davis lover's collection. I bought the LP some 40 years ago, and the playing sounds as fresh and luminous as it did back then.
There were 865 reviews of "Kind of Blue" and 3 of this album. "Blue" was a landmark. But so was this album. As Miles (among others) said: "There are only two kinds of music. Good music and bad music." This here music is GGRREEAATTT!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best album for Crayon Shinchan
Comment: This album is one of the famous recordings which Miles has played most technically; no albums would be recorded more excellently than this.
This review is the opinion of a fan who has dedicated in Modern Jazz from 1964 to 1970, but without recognizing the excellence of Monk, Ellington and John Lewis. The two groups are very different one another.
The art is a taste judgement(Geschmackurteil). It has no relation with intelligence or mind, that is, not universal, but has relation with sense or feeling, that is, special or individual. Every evaluation has its value.
This phenomenon makes professional critics very at a loss as to how to recognize what they do not like. I don't know how they evaluate the albums. This is the best riddle that I still don't resolve.
I think you cannot help listening to this album.
Except one tune the album is constituted of the five tunes of super up-tempo. There are theme tunes in the album, which is very rare and pretty good. When I listen to this ending theme, I feel content to have listened to Miles.
After the play of the topics, each tune is very like to each other and it will be impossible to extingwish them.
In addition to the genius drummer Anthony Williams, George Coleman plays very beautifully. Though Wayne Shoter is people think very wonderful, but he is not fit to the album. Davis himisef wrote in his autobiography that he "played better that night than I ever heard him play."
This album has one more thing of like kind: Miles Davis in Europe.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A wild ride...
Comment: This session bristles with energy. The pace is exhilirating! Aside from the astinoshing virtuosity, the sheer verve of the music is uplifting - literally - it's hard not to have both feet tapping and find yourself leaning towards the edge of your seat. The remastered sound is excellent - great depth and breadth to the sound-stage, punch and drive from the bass, clarity and bite in the upper registers without any digital harshness - terrific immediacy - the sister recording, "My Funny Valentine", shares these virtues.
*
Miles is supercharged througout. He deploys staccato volleys and wavering glissandos, going for an urgency rarely equalled on other recordings. George Coleman is of the same spirit, although he prefers a more classical, clean delivery of his torrents of notes - in the liner essay Miles is quoted as judging this night to be Coleman's best-ever performance. The entire essay by John Ephland is very interesting and has many nice turns of thought - for example, "Imagine, if you can, the sheer ecstasy, the rush of playing faster than you can think, the magical, perfect blend of technique with feeling spiralling out this way and that." A good summation of the listening experience. Tony Williams is a dynamic powerhouse - coupled with Ron Carter, the rhythm is impossible to ignore. In this context, Herbie Hancock is in danger of being overwhelmed, and while his work is fine and adds to the fire, this is not the best showcase of his wide talents.
*
The selection of these tracks from the February 1964 night at the Lincoln centre makes for a wild and exhausting listen - mixed with a few of the more reflective numbers played that night, from "My Funny Valentine", the ride becomes more comfortable and even more engaging. A stunning night's music.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Half of the Philharmonic show.
Comment: On February 12, 1964, Miles Davis took his band (then George Coleman- tenor sax, Herbie Hancock- piano, Ron Carter- bass, and Tony Williams- drums) to perform at New York's Philharmonic Hall, recording the show for release. Not one but two albums were yielded from this recording, "Four and More" and "My Funny Valentine". By this point, this group was a well honed unit, and their work together on these two albums is fantastic.
"Four and More" tends to get the more aggressive pieces from the set-- the improvs tend to be more exploratory than "Stella By Starlight" (which is saying something as Davis and Coleman both reach pretty far on that record), and the rhythm section pushes the tempos way up. Davis is in fine form, tearing through "So What", "Four", "Seven Steps to Heaven" and the other cuts on the record with frantic soloing and energy, and Coleman is rarely left behind. Still, as exciting as the performance is, there's a bit of a sameness to it that detracts from the listening experience and Davis feels like a train wreck on "Joshua" where he sputters on the theme, falls over himself early on in his solo, and just seems to pump out frantically throughout the performance.
For all its faults however, "Four and More" is a decent performance and probably worth investigation. It's really a pity the show is not available intact outside of the "Seven Steps" boxed set, which sequences the pieces as they were performed and incudes one extra track.
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