Columbia Legacy’s magnificent Miles Davis Bootleg Series continues with a fourth volume. On this occasion, rather than focusing on a particular line-up, they have collected performances from eight separate appearances at the Newport Festival over a twenty-year period. This allows us to hear the rapid development in his sound, but also helps us to understand the transition between some of his key albums over this period. It’s also worth noting that over two-thirds of these tunes are previously unissued, making this a worthwhile purchase for any serious Miles Davis fan.
Disc One opens with his legendary performance at the Newport Festival in July 1955. Miles was effectively between bands at this stage in his career. His quartet with Horace Silver had broken up, with the pianist joining Art Blakey, and he was yet to put together his first great quintet, with John Coltrane on saxophone. Miles asked festival organizer George Wein if he could play, and was included on the bill at the last minute as part of an All-Star jam session. The band included Percy Heath on bass and Connie Kay on drums, both from the Modern Jazz Quartet, Zoot Sims and Gerry Mulligan on saxophones, and Thelonious Monk on piano. Many musicians were struggling with the sound that year, but Miles Davis made sure he stood out. Firstly, he wore a white tuxedo, which ensured he looked the part, and secondly he positioned the bell of the trumpet very close to the microphone, which meant he could be clearly heard. His solo on Monk’s ‘Round Midnight was one of the highlights of the festival, and helped to secure him a major new record deal with Columbia.
Three years later, and Miles Davis was a well-established star in his own right. He had just recorded Milestones in March 1958, and had put together a new band – which included Bill Evans on piano, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley on saxophones, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Whilst this was the same line-up that recorded Kind Of Blue several months later, the band still sound like a work in progress here. There are flickers of greatness on Fran-Dance and Bye-Bye Blackbird, but one can see why the jazz press at that time had their initial reservations about this line-up.
Fast-forward eight years, and Miles had established his second great quintet – with Hancock, Shorter, Carter and Williams – a band that is widely considered to be one of the finest in modern jazz. Disc Two includes the band’s appearance in 1966 and 1967. Both sets are previously unreleased, and captures the band at a critical time in its development. Live At The Plugged Nickel, which was recorded in December 1965, only included one original composition by the new line-up (Agitation), and instead leaned heavily on older standards. By mid-1966, however, the band was starting to include some of the new material, including R.J. (Ron Carter) and Footprints (Wayne Shorter). Older material was also given a radical makeover – listen to the band race through All Blues at breakneck speed. This is Miles Davis at his best, and makes for essential listening.
The first half of Disc Three includes his performance from the summer of 1969, featuring a radically different line-up. Chick Corea had replaced Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland was in for Ron Carter, and Jack DeJohnette had replaced Tony Williams. Only Wayne Shorter remained, and he had apparently got stuck in traffic on the way to the gig. This set, which was only previously released on Bitches Brew Live in 2011, again captures Miles in a state of transition. In A Silent Way had been recorded back in February, but was not released until July 30th – three weeks after this gig. The audience was also given a taster of Bitches Brew, which had not yet been recorded. For an audience expecting the old quintet, this must have come as quite a shock. As a result, this is a quite fascinating set. Even It’s About That Time, from In A Silent Way, is almost unrecognizable here, speeded up and amped up for the festival audience. An exciting preview of the birth of fusion.
The 1969 Newport Festival also saw Wein introduce elements of rock and funk to the festival, with the line-up that year including Led Zeppelin, the Mothers Of Invention and Sly And The Family Stone. Miles watched all of these bands from the wings, and started to incorporate elements of funk and rock into his sound in the years that followed, as heard most convincingly on Jack Johnson (1970) and On The Corner (1972).
Disc Four of this set is quite superb, and sees Miles continue to grapple with the monster he had created with Bitches Brew. By October 1971, the line-up had changed, and with it the band’s character. Wayne Shorter had left to start Weather Report, and had been replaced by saxophonist Gary Bartz. DeJohnette had also departed, and was replaced by drummer Ndugu Chancler and two percussionists, Don Alias and Mtume. Chancler had been recommended to Miles by Bartz. “Ndugu could swing, play groove rhythms like Jack,” hex explained. “Miles could tell him what beats to play, and really, he could do anything. The short-lived experiment with multiple keyboards had ended, leaving Keith Jarrett on electric piano and organ, and the new-look band was completed by Michael Henderson on electric bass.
Somewhat surprisingly, given the multiple percussionists, the sound is more open than two years previously, giving Davis, Bartz and Jarrett more space in which to improvise. The overall effect is less intense, but there is a greater confidence in what they are doing, and more balance between light and shade. The set-list still primarily draws from Bitches Brew, but we are also given a preview of Funky Tonk and What I Say, which appeared on Live Evil later that same year. To my mind, this is one of the high points of Miles Davis’s electric period, the band bristling with energy and invention.
The remainder of the collection – essentially the second half of Disc Three, due to timing issues – gives us a glimpse of his final 1970s line-up, the Dark Magus band. With the departure of Jarrett, there was no keyboard player in the band at this time, although Miles himself occasionally played organ. The band now had two guitarists, Peter Cosey and Reggie Lucas, giving them a muscular, more rock-oriented feel, whilst Dave Liebman took over on saxophone and flute.
We primarily get to hear this group perform in Berlin, Germany, in November 1973. Whilst this line-up has its fans, I must confess I am not one of them. The absence of keyboard leaves the music sounding dense, and too one-dimensional, and one can’t escape the feeling that with the departure of the likes of Corea, Jarrett, DeJohnette and McLaughlin, the quality of musicianship was not of the same standard either. George Wein also felt that illness was starting to take its toll on Miles, and that he could no longer play as well. “It seemed he was covering himself up with all the electronics around him,” he noted. “He’d play a note here and a phrase there, and wasn’t taking long solos.”
The music does have its moments – generally the quieter ones! Liebman generally struggled to make himself heard over the electric noise, but plays some moody soprano saxophone on Ife, whilst Lucas takes a soulful solo on Untitled Original. But these moments are few and far between, sadly. Those wishing to explore later electronic Miles are better off starting with Get Up With It, the studio album that was released in 1974.
At Newport covers a lot of ground over four CDs, and helps us to understand the rapid development in Miles’s sound – and jazz in general – over this period. Some of the experiments work better than others, and not all of these developments will be to everyone’s taste. But this does not detract from the quality of this collection. The Bootleg Series continues to offer exceptional unreleased live recordings, with well-written, informative liner notes, at an attractive price. Highly recommended.
