DAVIS, MILES ( LP ) US

DAVIS, MILES - LIVE AT RONNIE SCOTT'S 1969

Miles Davis' fiery five-piece band that toured Europe in late 1969 unaccountably never made a studio LP, so high quality live recordings like those on this LP are to be treasured. This set comprises seven tracks recorded in London for BBC TV's 'Jazz Night' plus a complementary recording of 'Round Midnight' made for Italian television. The stellar line-up comprises Davis, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJonette and the LP comes with full recording details and sleeve notes.

TRACKLIST

Side One

1.Bitches Brew (Davis)

2.It's About That Time (Davis)

3.No Blues (Davis)

Side Two

1.This (Corea)

2.I Fall In Love Too Easily (Cahn, Styne)

3.Sanctuary (Shorter, Davis)

4.The Theme (Davis)

5.'Round Midnight (Hanigen, Williams, Monk)

Tracks 1-5 recorded live at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, London on November 2nd 1969 and broadcast on BBC2 TV Jazz Night on December 26th

Track 6 recorded live at Teatro Sistina on October 27th 1969, Rome and broadcast on RAI Italian television

Musicians

Miles Davis – trumpet
Wayne Shorter  – soprano and tenor saxophones
Chick Corea  – Fender Rhodes
Dave Holland – upright bass
Jack DeJohnette  – drums

The Lost Quintet

Why 'Lost'? This extraordinary collection of musicians sadly never released any studio recordings. So Miles Davis fans are grateful for live recordings taken from  their European tour of Autumn 1969, some of which were released officially on Live In Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2. Miles himself was a fan of this line-up "Man, I wish this band had been recorded because  it was a really bad motherfucker...Columbia missed out on the whole fucking thing." Audience reaction was similar. Downbeat magazine reported of the Quintet's gig at New Jersey in November 1969 "during the second minute of the tumultuous ovation the young lady seated behind me was still gasping 'Oh God, oh God, oh God.' Her reaction was understandable. She had just witnessed contemporary jazz at its peak of perfection."

Miles had spent much of 1969 in the studio, recording landmark LPs In A Silent Way (June 1969) and Bitches Brew (March 1970). The electric instrumentation he used reflected his increased interest in the rock and roll of Jimi Hendrix and the funk of Sly & The Family Stone. By 1970 he would be sharing the stage at the Fillmore East with Neil Young, Steve Miller and the Grateful Dead. November 1969 found the Quintet playing Ronnie Scott's, a modestly sized club in London's Soho at the behest of the BBC who were filming the gig for Jazz Night. The night before the Quintet had played two concerts at the Hammersmith Odeon, a better guide to their live popularity.

Only a small clip from the Ronnie Scott gig exists online but it demonstrates the extraordinary concentration that Miles brought to his playing as well as the casual instrumental dexterity of the other musicians. Thankfully we have a high quality audio recording of the entire broadcast. Here is JazzTimes' Tom Moon's description of the live Quintet. "Granted, they're still playing tunes like 'I Fall in Love Too Easily', which were standards in Davis' repertoire in the late '50s. The tune might be old, but the treatment isn't. Davis was determined to be a part of the new music that was erupting, and he recognized that he'd have to jettison most traces of swing to do it. The European tour of 1969 catches this moment of transition. It's wild, fitful, ripping good stuff. And in a way, it's prophetic: Inside these discussions, a profoundly new (nonjazz) musical landscape is coming into view. The territory hasn't been mapped yet; there are no rules and very few structures or signposts. That can sometimes be terrifying, but it sounds like these five intense musicians like it that way."

To complete the LP a lengthy version of 'Round Midnight is included from an earlier date in Rome. The thoughtful and melodic introduction shows that the Bitches Brew material was just one aspect of this fascinating group. "That quintet developed some really beautiful improvised stuff" recalled Chick Corea. " We would do two or three pieces that were strung together, one right after another for the whole concert and we would make this wonderful, wonderful composition. The live stuff really should have been gotten on tape because that was when the band was burning". Over fifty years later we are delighted to oblige.