At the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, MC Willis Conover sums up this boxed set when he introduces Miles Davis’ sextet and describes the leader as one who’s career has been “establishing an original, distinctive and personal sound, and then hearing it coming back to him from all his admirers, and being forced to extend his creative boundaries once again to find something again that is distinctively his own.”
This latest incarnation of the justifiably famed “Bootleg Series” of rare Miles Davis is different from the other boxed sets in that previously a certain specific band or time period was presented. This time around, the 4 cd set gives you Miles Davis’ history with the Newport Jazz Festival, presenting eight different sets with almost as many different incarnations. You get to see how Miles Davis identified with, defined with, changed with and transformed the times and styles with not only his horn, but approach to jazz in general.
It’s almost inconceivable that any fan will be crazy about each and every style, as the changes through the 2 score years are so dramatic. Sure, one may appreciate and respect the electric while being an acoustic fan, and vice versa, but only Miles himself could be strong enough to link them all together.
To demonstrate how far music has changed over time, the first set from 1955 has Duke Ellington joke how Miles Davis’ band of Zoot Sims/ts, Gerry Mulligan/bs, Thelonious monk/p, Percy Heath/b and Connie Kay/dr should be “lead by Buck Rogers” the famed space man of the future. Nowadays, takes of “Hackensack,” “Now’s the Time” and the fragile “’Round Midnight” with Miles’ fluffy horn floating over Monks’ musings sounds almost quaint. Yet, the “futuristic” music comes off today as fresh and eternal. The 1958 set with the “Kind of Blue” band of Cannonball Adderley/as, John Coltrane/ts, Bill Evans/p, Paul Chambers/b and Jimmy Cobb/dr has the team driven in a high testosterone take of “Ah-Leu-Cha” and “Straight, No Chaser” with Cobb hyper-caffeinatedly hitting the sticks.
By July 4, 1966, Miles had once again reinvented himself with the second “classic” quintet of Wayne Shorter/ts, Herbie Hancock/p, Ron Carter/b and Tony Williams/dr. Whereas the earlier Davis teams were known for swinging, this band is identified by it’s amazing flexibility, with “All Blues” waxing and waning in pulse and direction and “Gingerbread Boy” bending until it almost snaps. Miles’ sound is still identifiable within two notes and he still falls back into signature phrases and quotes, albeit in a much more subconscious and yet frenetic way. The following year, with Davis’ open horn on “’Round Midnight” and a lithe “Footprints,” the band gets even more mercurial.
Just three years later the team of Chick Corea/ep, Dave Holland/b and Jack DeJohnette/dr sound like they are from another planet. Whereas Davis’ personal horn sound was always immediately identifiable by tone and solo patterns, as he plugs in here on “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” and “It’s About That Time” he eschews all earlier allegiances and plunges forward into rock and electonica. The 1971 Festival in Europe with Gary Bartz/as-ss, Keith Jarrett/ep-org, Michael Henderson/eb, Ndugu Leon Chancler/dr, Don Alias/perc and James Mtume Forman/perc gets earth shattering and jarring, with “ Bitches Brew” and “Sanctuary” coming across as eerie tone poems, while “Directions” is filled with layers of futuristic sounds that now sound a bit dated.
The 1973 Berlin festiva has Davis also on oran, along with Dave Liebman/sax-fl, Pete Cosey/g, Reggie Lucas/g, Michael Henderson/eb, Al Foster/dr and James Mtume Forman/perc with Liebman searing into outerspace on “Turnaroundphrase” and “Ife” while the percussion turns into a James Brown avalanche of funk on the “Untitled Original.” One song from the 1975 festival has Sam Morrison/s tenor replacing Liebman for “Mtume”, a period that was just moments away from Miles “retirement” that ended up becoming merely a “hiatus.”
Some of these songs have been reissued before, but most are for our ears the first time. The directions in modern music by Davis is fascinatingly chronicled here, making this a starting point for newer fans or an added box to check off for fans of everything Miles. Either way, another essential release from the vaults.
Columbia/Legacy Records