A 1963 "Miles Davis Sextet - John Coltrane Quartet" Poster Glimpsed

A Love Supreme. (40th anniversary). Davis, Rivers/Coleman, Hancock, Carter, Williams units. (also Supreme).

I wonder if anyone knows, who would have been the personnel in this early '63 Miles Davis sextet? Seems to me that it would have been George Coleman, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, and Tony Williams. An amazing and under appreciated unit that would come out with one of the most tremendous performances ever in early 1964 (Philharmonic Hall, New York, February 12th). Unless Davis had a guest alto saxophone player. Or maybe this was right before he settled on Williams and Carter, was still trying players out.

Wonder which show I would have liked to have seen most.. both musicians were pretty exploratory around this time. Coltrane was discovering multi-octave freedom, fast. Davis was fine-tuning the backbone of his second great quartet, arguably one of the most innovative in jazz history.

Would have been nice to have seen Coltrane team up with Davis for a couple reunion gigs. The closest we have to that vibe is the Davis' '64 shows in Tokyo, with fellow musical explorer Sam Rivers. (That is really enough––I enjoy Rivers' improv as much as Coltrane's). What emerged with Shorter in two short years would be yet another tremendous departure, which I am still exploring as a listener.

I wonder (regarding a Davis Coltrane reunion) were there factions of jazz by this time (63-64) that prevented free interflow of musicians? Was it pure economics––two supreme jazz musicians could not inhabit the same city or club at a time. Can you imagine them mixing it up? Hancock with Coltrane, Tyner with Davis. Eleven Jones and Tony Williams double uniting it on the skins. I think a large part of it was that Davis was still in an outwardly trad musical space, as compared with the free flowing Coltrane. Not in terms of musicianship or fluidity, but in that he had not bought into the Dolphy/Ornette abstractions that were starting to ascend. Even Rivers, who was brought in at fellow-Bostonian Williams' suggestion was a little too far out for him, although the contrast works in the Tokyo concert, and is enlightening.

In any case, this kind of existential cross-pollination of jammers did not really occur until the late 1960s, with Hendrix, Miles, Traffic, McLaughlin et al. All I know is that, with musicians like Davis, Coltrane, and Ornette Colman in the mix, jazz had already reached the center.

P.S. 

A little further Facebook exchange on the topic, with my cousin Paul Rogers, a noted Raleigh-by-way-of-Philly trumpeter. 

Me: I wonder if anyone knows, who would have been the personnel in this early '63 Miles Davis sextet? 

Paul: it would have been Herbie, Tony, Rob, and likely Coleman. I'm not sure who the sixth man would've been, though.

Me:  yeah, its so odd because I simply don't see a MD sextet since late 1950s. Could have been that exact transition moment when there was a fluid number of band members. Cause I think he brought in Williams and Hancock in April. Coleman was constant, having replaced Mobley in 1962. As was Carter. Quite possibly, they prepared the poster a couple weeks in advance, when there was talk of a sextet that never materialized. Cause they were recording the second session for Seven Steps To Heaven in Los Angeles around that time.