Miles Davis on Fillmore East, June 17-20. 1970 and Filmore West, April 11. 1970
Miles Davis - trumpet
Steve Grossman - tenor sax, soprano sax
Chick Corea - electric piano
Keith Jarrett - organ, tambourine (Fillmore East only)
Dave Holland - bass
Jack DeJohnette - drums
Airto Moreira - percussion, flute, vocal
Columbia / Legacy 2014
Make no mistake, I won't try to add anything incisive nor original to what's been written and said about Miles Davis or about this particular set for that matter. Nor Miles Davis nor Sony Music are in need of additional promotion on my side. It's just that this set is one of the reasons behind the lack of any new reviews on the blog for the past two months or so because it hardly ever left my player so I thought I should just write a bit so I could get past it.
The simply fact is that that this box and its 4 cds is a bomb. Over 4 hours of material, never previously available in unedited form, presenting one of XXth century music geniuses in peak form with a groundbreaking band. The liner notes by Michael Cuscuna will provide with you plenty of information as well as some social context for the concerts while a separate poster presents snippets of the press of the era that was clearly conflicted regarding Miles' status. Davis was partly antagonizing jazz audience while flirting with the young and hip rock crowd, fresh after the release of epic "Bitches Brew".
