Essential Live Miles

[nmorin]

I have pretty much all the "officially released" live Miles, but there just aren't any domestically available Columbia live sets between the Plugged Nickel and the Fillmore East "It's About That Time" shows.

If I were to put my toe into the grey market waters for live releases from the 1966 to 1970 period, what would be the canonical dates to look for?

[Rooster_Ties]

October 28, 1967 -- Antwerp

November 6, 1967 -- Paris

July 25, 1969 -- Juan-les-Pins

Complete list of other possible choices can be found HERE. (Note: Link includes all sessions, both live and studio.)

[jazzbo]

And dare I add that one should look at the material that WAS offered at:

www.miles-trees.org

Edited May 24, 2004 by jazzbo

[Claude]

The Antwerp concert is the best Miles live recording I have ever heard. Similar to the Plugged Nicke sets, but even faster and more abstract. The recording quality is acceptable (aircheck).

[Rooster_Ties]

The Antwerp concert is the best Miles live recording I have ever heard. Similar to the Plugged Nicke sets, but even faster and more abstract. The recording quality is acceptable (aircheck).

FYI, there are a couple different versions of this concert floating around (multiple versions on silver-discs even, I'm not talkin' just CDR's). I used to own the "Jazz Birdies of Paradise" disc of this show, which has decent (but not great) sound quality.

But then a few years later I found another silver-disc (I'm just using that term to denote a non-CDR) of what turned out to be the very same show (didn't realize it was the same show at the time I bought it, however). This 2nd silver-disc of the same Antwerp show that I have isn't listed on the Miles Ahead website, and I'm not sure a "label" is even given anywhere on the disc (the packaging is pretty plain, and the disc itself is only stamped with one word, "Antwerp" on it, and nothing else). But the sound quality is much better than the "Jazz Birdies of Paradise" one. In fact, it's nearly as damn good as the "No Blues" show in Paris on 06-NOV-1976 (which sounds incredible!!).

Both dates are highly recommended, for both the performance itself, and the sound-quality.

[Guy Berger]

I have pretty much all the "officially released" live Miles, but there just aren't any domestically available Columbia live sets between the Plugged Nickel and the Fillmore East "It's About That Time" shows.

If I were to put my toe into the grey market waters for live releases from the 1966 to 1970 period, what would be the canonical dates to look for?

I think the '69 dates are the best, though there's plenty of amazing music from '67. Try to see if anything has been treed on sharingthegroove.

Guy

[JSngry]

July 25, 1969 -- Juan-les-Pins

Technically, this IS an "officially released" date, since Sony released it in Japan. It's also been booted, but as can be expected, the Sony version sounds best.

[Pete C]

I believe Sony plans to release 1969 Juan Les Pins in the U.S. at some point. There is another set besides the one that was released in Japan as "1969 Miles." I agree that 1967 Antwerp is more intense than Paris, but both are amazing.

[Rooster_Ties]

Jim's right, of course, "July 25, 1969 -- Juan-les-Pins" has seen a legit release. But that was nearly 10 years ago, and a Japanese-only release (on CD only) -- and I'm occasionally surprised at how few people seem to know about it. (Thus, my habit of mentioning it in threads like this, whether it qualifies or not).

[Guy Berger]

Today I was listening to a recording of Miles in Portland (1966). A great performance, six months after the Plugged Nickel engagement, with Richard Davis subbing in on bass. Davis is (unsurprisingly) much more active than Carter -- a bit of foreshadowing for Dave Holland's role in the group.

Anyway, Miles is absolutely smoking on this album. It's kind of a shock -- I'd been listening to the Plugged Nickel stuff a lot over the previous week, and yeah Miles plays better on 12/23/65 compared to 12/22/65, but on the May '66 date he's on fire. He's playing as well as he did on Miles Smiles.

This date is also cool because it has the earliest (AFAIK) recorded version of this quintet doing "Gingerbread Boy". They do it over a straight-eight rhythm rather than the more Ornette-ish version of October.

Guy