Miles Davis - Bitches Brew Live [Music On Vinyl 180g 2xLP-Set] 24-bit/96kHz & CD-format

“

For Davis fans, Bitches Brew Live is essential: it's inspired, full of surprise twists and turns, and showcases the artist at a high point of both creativity and energy. - Thom Jurek/AMG (4/5 Stars)

”

Bitches Brew Live is a live album by Miles Davis released in February 2011. The material contained here is compiled from two concert performances. The first three tracks were taken from the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1969, preceding the release of the album by nine months. The last six were recorded at 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, four months after the album hit store shelves. The three cuts from Newport -- "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," "Sanctuary," and "It's About That Time/The Theme" -- are previously unreleased. (In fact, "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" is the first professionally recorded version of the song, and this disc provides the first-known recording of the radically rearranged—and electrified -- "Sanctuary.")

Background

The band on these tracks includes Davis, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette. Miles is firing on all cylinders on these tunes. Despite electricity and the beginning of the vamp style he would perfect later, his trademark lyricism as a soloist is ever present. Corea's pianism walks a beautiful line between physical comping and atmospheric harmonic counter statements on "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down." The final six cuts did appear on the massive box set Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection, but have not been widely circulated. The group for the Isle of Wight gig featured an expanded lineup that included saxophonist Gary Bartz, Keith Jarrett on organ, and percussionist Airto Moreira, in addition to the players mentioned above. The fascinating thing about the 1970 band was its intensity and ambition. The versions of "Directions" and "Bitches Brew" are slightly more abstract; edgier, darker, more ambiguous. The reading of "Spanish Key" is downright funky thanks to the rhythm section. It also provides a fine showcase for Bartz's alto soloing, which is soulfully modal even when it makes conscious nods to Coltrane. One would think that because Davis was playing in front of different audiences, these two performances would contrast, or even clash. Not so; the music here feels continuous, of a piece. For Davis fans, Bitches Brew Live is essential: it's inspired, full of surprise twists and turns, and showcases the artist at a high point of both creativity and energy.

Music

The first three Track's recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival. Wayne Shorter missed this date because of traffic into Newport, so the group performed as a quartet. This is the earliest extant recording of "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down"; the studio version was recorded a couple months later at the August 20 Bitches Brew session.

The 1969 Newport Festival featured several rock acts (Led Zeppelin, The Who, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa and the Mothers), and rhythm and blues acts like James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. Things didn't work out as George Wein had hoped, so he later returned to the more conservative format.

The Quintet was busy throughout the first half of 1969: Club Baron, New York (January 25-February 16); Cellar Door, Washington (March 10–15); Duffy's Backstage, Rochester (unknown dates, March); Village Gate, New York (April 25–26, May 23–24, and July 29-August 10); Spectrum, Philadelphia (May 11); Plugged Nickel Club, Chicago (June 4–14); Blue Coronet Club, Brooklyn (June 21–29); Morgan State Jazz Festival, Baltimore (June 22); Newport Festival (July 5); Central Park, New York (July 7); Juan-les-Pins Festival, Antibes (July 25–26); Rutgers University Stadium, New Brunswick (July 27); Sheraton Park Hotel, French Lick (French Lick Jazz Festival) (July 31); The Spectrum, Philadelphia (August 15); Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis (August 16); Grant Park Theater, Chicago (August 22); Crosley Field, Cincinnati (Ohio Jazz Festival) (August 23).

Reception

Rolling Stone BITCHES BREW LIVE, released on February 8, has received positive reviews from media organizations including the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone and Jazzwise Magazine! Read more below:

“

"This album could be the choice for anyone who's heard all the (justified) hype and acclaim behind the jazz-meets-rock amalgam Bitches Brew but hasn't been able to crack its dark and sometimes thorny code. Along with the six-disc Cellar Door Sessions 1970, this recording beautifully showcases the fire-breathing power of Davis' band onstage." - Los Angeles Times

”

“

"This dynamic and typically uncompromising live set ... BITCHES BREW LIVE documents Miles Davis’ fearless mission to rival the rock idiom, armed with some of Jazz’s finest musicians executing some of his most testing, political and compelling material to date." - Jazzwise Magazine

”

“

"That set, just released as BITCHES BREW LIVE (Columbia/Legacy) was a fantastic accident. Davis' saxophonist Wayne Shorter didn't make the gig; he was stuck in traffic. So the leader went on with a quartet and stayed up front, firing silver gunbursts of trumpet over the stark power-jazz tumult of electric pianist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette, a rhythmic core of the larger band that would cut Bitches Brew ... Davis was moving – and documenting that motion – faster than most folks, rock or jazz, in that crowd realized." - Rolling Stone

”

Tracklist

A1 Miles Runs The Voodoo Down 10:26
A2 Sanctuary 3:58

Written-By – Wayne Shorter

A3 It's About That Time / The Theme 9:40


B1 Directions 7:30
B2 Bitches Brew 10:09

Written-By – Joe Zawinul



C1 It's About That Time 6:17
C2 Sanctuary 1:10

Written-By – Wayne Shorter

C3 Spanish Key 8:15
C4 The Theme 2:10

Personnel (Tracks 1-3) July 5, 1969 at the Newport Jazz festival

Miles Davis - Trumpet
Chick Corea - Electric piano
Dave Holland - bass
Jack DeJohnette - drums

Personnel (Tracks 4-9) August 29, 1970 at the Isle of wight festival

Miles Davis - Trumpet
Gary Bartz - Tenor saxophone, Soprano Sax
Chick Corea - Electric piano
Keith Jarrett - Electronic organ
Dave Holland - Electric bass
Jack DeJohnette - drums
Airto Moreira - percussion, Cuica

Production

Original Recordings Produced by Teo Macero
Produced for Release by Richard Seidel and Michael Cuscuna
Mastered by Mark Wilder and Maria Triana, Battery Studios, New York City
Distributed by Sony Music Entertainment

Barcode

Barcode: 8 713748 981464
Matrix / Runout (Side A): 88690 1A MOVLP 278
Matrix / Runout (Side B): 88690 1B MOVLP 278
Matrix / Runout (Side C): 88690 1C MOVLP 278
Other (MRO): BIEM/STEMRA