Category: Miles Davis

Collected here are five selections from a private stash of stage recordings, capturing the band at the Shaboo Inn in Willimantic, CT, London’s Rainbow Theater, and a pair of dates on its extraordinary tour of Brazil in the summer of ‘74. Beyond the blistering performances featured therein, the Brazil tapes are a notable document of guitarist Dominique Gaumont’s brief time with the band – a tenure that began on March 30, 1974 (as captured on sides 3 and 4 of the Dark Magus LP) and lasted through the fall.

Funky tonk, indeed. In the fall of 1971 the Miles Davis septet embarked on a 21 date tour of Europe. Captured for broadcast on Norwegian television was the ensemble’s ascendant set at Chateau Neuf in Oslo, Norway. A high water mark of this iteration of Davis’ band, the incendiary hour-plus set runs the voodoo down and back again, with untethered performances from all involved. Edging into the beyond, Keith Jarrett appears especially possessed…

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool—now available on Netflix after a brief theatrical run and as an American Masters feature on PBS—is a beautifully directed film by Stanley Nelson, which guides us through the different changes of Miles’ life, smoothly handling the tale of an artist who refused any complacency throughout a long and undeniably brilliant career.

Five days after the first moon landing. Five days prior to the release of In a Silent Way. One month before the recording of Bitches Brew. The Miles Davis quintet at the 1969 Festival Mondial du Jazz d’Antibes, La Pinède, Juan-les-Pins.

In a year loaded with albums turning fifty, few have retained the genre-defying staying power and influence of In A Silent Way. Recorded during a single three-hour session in July 1969 with producer Teo Macero, the album marked a decisive and definitive turn for both Miles Davis and the future of jazz. Meditative, moody and minimal in approach, this was the calm before the storm as the following year would witness yet another reinvention of Davis with the release of Bitches Brew.

When listening to the electric work of Miles Davis and his bands in the 1970s, the thought that often goes through my mind is: “How the fuck are they making […]

Some recent, recommended archival releases of (mostly) unreleased material from some jazz giants.   It’d take a whole lot more than four discs to sum up what Miles Davis was up […]