Miles Davis (1926-1991)

[George]

Not loving Kind of Blue is kinda crazy. 

[Ken B]

Not loving Kind of Blue is kinda crazy. 

Actually the more I listened to it the more sense snyprrr started to make. Scared the bejeezus out of me.

[Artem]

Who's Miles Davis?

Actually I am very slowly exploring jazz. I generally like older stuff, 20 s, 30s, Ellington. Some Brubeck. I have the Perfecy Jazz Collection 1 big box but most of it is too smooth for my taste. I think I might like Mingus.
Suggestions?

I'd suggest you try early Thelonious Monk recordings on Blue Note lable, specifically the two volumes of Genius of Modern Music, recorded in early 1950s.

I'd recommend some Mingus, but his best stuff is from the 60s, which as I understand you're not into at the moment.

[torut]

I read it 20 years ago and haven't seen it since. I remember he wasn't a big fan of his whole electric era, but he still documents it very professionally.  The Ian Carr book is even older, and he agrees with Ken B: He says Kind of Blue is boring. 

Regarding Miles's electric era, I remember having enjoyed this book that covers 1967-1991. It contains not only discography but also a live-band personnel list and a detailed sessionography.

Miles Beyond : Electric Explorations of Miles Davis, 1967-1991 by Paul Tingen
[asin]0823083462[/asin]

There is another book called Running the Voodoo Down ~ The Electric Music of Miles Davis by Philip Freeman, but I recall it was not as interesting as the other books.

[Bogey]

Ok, so I go on these little mini-runs where I say to myself, "Time to own it all in a certain category!"  In jazz these runs are dictated not so much by discography, but rather by time periods of certain performers.  For example, I decided it might be kind of cool to start piecing together as much pre-electric "live" Miles as I could.  There seems to be all these little splinter recording coming out of the woodwork (just type in Miles Davis Live on Amazon) and I thought that would be a cool area to target for a while.  I started with this purchase:


 

I started with this one because it is already OOP and I don't want it to go all "Plugged Nickel" on me.  Well, here's what you really need to know.  If you want all his live stuff from the era I described, buy it.  Set you back a dozen bones and you can sleep at night knowing it's on your shelf.  Heck, it's Miles with a cast of the greats that rotated through his ensembles including some Bill Evans. However, if you want well recorded and unfragmented set of music that has equal sound throughout then look elsewhere.  I am not saying that this was recorded with this


but some points of the recording are distorted enough that you wonder.  In fact, some of the cd sounds like the early early Miles' recordings....( Think Birth of C).  Just depends on which date you are listening to.  Now time to take a look at that Swiss Radio Days 31 cd.

[San Antone]

Some more live Miles ~

[asin]B0000027DZ[/asin]

; )

[bwv 1080]

Who's Miles Davis?

Actually I am very slowly exploring jazz. I generally like older stuff, 20 s, 30s, Ellington. Some Brubeck. I have the Perfecy Jazz Collection 1 big box but most of it is too smooth for my taste. I think I might like Mingus.
Suggestions?

Louis Armstrong - Hot 5 and 7, the most important recordings in the history of Jazz

[San Antone]

Been diggin' the first electric period, 1969-1975.  These records are becoming some of my favorite Miles. 

Right now ~

[asin]B000AP2Z6C[/asin]

[torut]

Been diggin' the first electric period, 1969-1975.  These records are becoming some of my favorite Miles. 

I love that period. After enjoying the Fillmore box set, I also re-listened the Cellar Door box, and again I was very impressed by the powerful & tight playing of the band. 1970 is a special year, I think.
Miles's music around 1972 was a little bit strange, kind of weird, for me, though still I like it.
The 1973-1975 band had a big potential. It was really funky, but also could go experimental or even ambient music. Unfortunately, Miles's health was getting worse and worse, and his trumpet playing was not as strong as that in 1970.

The album art of Agharta CD I have is different.

[Bogey]

Louis Armstrong - Hot 5 and 7, the most important recordings in the history of Jazz

You have a strong, very strong, argument.

[Ken B]

Louis Armstrong - Hot 5 and 7, the most important recordings in the history of Jazz

I like Armstrong. I will look for those.

[torut]

Just got this; and it is one Miles's greatest bands.  Had they only stayed together and done more recording, especially a studio date, this group could have been the Third Great Quintet.

Miles
Wayne Shorter
Jack DeJohnette
Dave Holland
Chick Corea



This 4-CD 3-CD (and one DVD) live set has performances from 1969 in Antibes, Stockholm, and Berlin.  The music generally comes from the Bitches Brew material, and  there's also some songs from the Second Quintet's book - but played with much more fire.

Sound is not perfect, but highly recommended.

I have 1969 Miles (officially released by Sony) which should be the same as CD 1 of this set. Round About Midnight is incredible. I believe more tunes were recorded on 11/5/1969 (CD 3): Directions, Bitches Brew (2nd), It's About That Time, and No Blues. I don't understand why they didn't release the complete performances of the date.

[Ken B]

Ordered this today, $21 all in

[asin]B007IH646W[/asin]

Kind of Blue is one of them, so I'll (grudgingly) try it again. This looks mostly hard bop, and has the Spain album, which I do know and like.

The Ellington and Brubeck boxes from this label have pretty decent sound.

[kishnevi]

(Cross post with added anecdote)

Barnes and Nobles had a buy 2 get the third free sale. Could not resist when I saw these three together.  Amazon pricing is about the same, or possibly even a little less, but the thrill of the hunt took over: $87 for the three together, including sales tax.



(Added anecdote)
I was about to buy some completely different things when I noticed a bunch of Miles Davis stuff behind the counter (including that relatively recent set of the complete mono recordings), and asked to see them.  Purchase resulted.   The store associate told me they have to keep almost everything of Miles behind the counter (other than a copy of Kind of Blue) because if they keep it in the regular shelves, it gets thoroughly shoplifted.   And going by what was behind the counter,  Miles is the only performer who is treated this way.

[Bogey]

I was about to buy some completely different things when I noticed a bunch of Miles Davis stuff behind the counter (including that relatively recent set of the complete mono recordings), and asked to see them.  Purchase resulted.   The store associate told me they have to keep almost everything of Miles behind the counter (other than a copy of Kind of Blue) because if they keep it in the regular shelves, it gets thoroughly shoplifted.   And going by what was behind the counter,  Miles is the only performer who is treated this way.

What was your total cost, Jeffrey?

[Ken B]

What was your total cost, Jeffrey?

I was wondering the same thing. $87??
We're heading into Moomfish-Graupner territory!

[7/4]

(Added anecdote)
I was about to buy some completely different things when I noticed a bunch of Miles Davis stuff behind the counter (including that relatively recent set of the complete mono recordings), and asked to see them.  Purchase resulted.   The store associate told me they have to keep almost everything of Miles behind the counter (other than a copy of Kind of Blue) because if they keep it in the regular shelves, it gets thoroughly shoplifted.   And going by what was behind the counter,  Miles is the only performer who is treated this way.

Charles Bukowski gets that treatment in NYC bookstores.

At least in the days when we still had book stores.

[kishnevi]

Completed a runthrough of this. A compilation of tapes made from his European tour.

Contents

Overall, for completists only, or spaced out in small doses. For one thing, contents are CD-Rs.
Sound quality varies enormously, from quasi state of the art to recorded under a blanket backstage.  Musical material is repetitive, albeit of course each performance is different.  But not necessarily by much, since it was all done in a three week period.  The most obvious example is So What which appears twice on each of the four CDs, 8 times in all. Most interesting aspects are the interview  with Coltrane, and the narrative essay by Spillett detailing Davis's relationship with Coltrane, and recounting the tour itself.

[James]

NYFF 2015: "MILES AHEAD"
by Scout Tafoya
October 10, 2015

http://www.rogerebert.com/festivals-and-awards/nyff-2015-miles-ahead

[Henk]

Everybody saw the clips of the new movie about Miles?

http://www.milesdavis.com/news/watch-new-miles-ahead-clip-featuring-don-cheadle-ewan-mcgregor/