Miles Cellar Door Update

[mikeweil]

Mike, is that the Saturn located on the Zeil

or is there another one elsewhere?

The one I go to is located at Berger Strasse 125-129 - 10 minutes east with the subway from the other one. The guy who runs the CD department is a big jazz fan, I know him for what must be 20 years ..... much better stock there.

[rostasi]

Thanks Mike.

I'll keep that in mind when I'm back there this summer.

[Rosco]

WOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!

UK release date is finally here! (just five and a half months late... )

Just got back from buying it... CD 1 just gone into the player!

...and disc 6 just finished!

[medjuck]

Am I the onoy one who rally likes the texture of the box? (Is that too weird?)

[Free For All]

Am I the onoy one who rally likes the texture of the box? (Is that too weird?)

No, and yes.

[BFrank]

Interesting take on this set and 'completist' box sets in general in the British paper "The Guardian"

+++

Kind of overkill

Miles Davis wouldn't have wanted his out-takes made public, so why all the box sets?

By John L Walters

Friday February 10, 2006

Guardian

When they were little, my daughters assumed that I owned the complete works of Miles Davis. After all, my collection - vinyl and CDs - sprawled over large areas of shelf space. In addition to several versions of classics such as Kind of Blue, Aura, In a Silent Way and Sketches of Spain there were live albums and videos, semi-bootlegs on dodgy Italian labels, curiosities such as The Man With the Horn (since given away) and oddities like Directions, a bits-and-pieces compilation released while Davis was out of action in the late 1970s.

The Miles section took up more shelf acreage than the Beatles and Stravinsky put together, yet it wasn't that he was my favourite jazz artist, or that these were my favourite albums. It was just that CBS (aka Columbia or Sony, now Sony BMG, which owns the Miles catalogue from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s) was very good at putting out recordings that I felt I had to have.

Through concerts, albums and investments, Miles has always been one of the biggest earners in jazz. In 1971, he claimed to be earning nearly $400,000 a year. By the 1980s it was $1m a year. Whatever the state of jazz, Miles always sells.

So throughout the 1990s, Sony issued more and more "new" Miles albums. He remains a cash cow: Kind of Blue, his most famous and enduring album sold more than 12m copies worldwide, most of them in the past decade or so. Sales of Bitches Brew and Sketches of Spain exceed the million mark. Despite the fact that jazz's biggest superstar had left the company (and, in 1991, the planet) the company has managed to maintain a steady stream of releases ever since.

This is why the Miles Davis section of my music library continues to expand with a steady flow of exquisitely packaged multi-CD sets with the word "complete" in the title. There was Miles Davis/Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings. The Complete Miles Davis Quintet Sessions. And so on, each bearing an elaborate engraved metal spine that makes the set look like a miniature tome from the British Library.

They're expensive, too, I handed £50 over the counter for a discounted Miles/Gil box (my original copy of Miles Ahead set me back £1.50 in a charity shop).

Miles Ahead is one of those "desert island" discs I've studied and enjoyed and shared with friends dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, yet I've only listened to the Miles/Gil six-CD set a handful of times in full. Somehow, life seems too short to go back for another listen to the seventh overdubbed solo Miles played on Springsville (he nailed it by take 10).

So the imminent release of yet another multi-CD Miles boxed set, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970, provokes a new set of mixed feelings: anxiety about having time to listen; excitement at the thought of uncovering a treasure trove of unreleased gems. But is it really worth it?

"It's more than the music," says Sony BMG's Adam Sieff. "Miles is such an important guy. What we wanted to do was something that had a beauty all its own, an object of desire. People will have the original classic album for the car, while the box sits on the shelf at home." Sieff confirms that the boxes have had significant sales - in the hundreds of thousands. Their best-seller to date has been the 3-CD set The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions.

I remind him of the forthright comments from Miles's producer Teo Macero about these "bullshit" reissues. On many occasions, Macero has asserted that Miles would never have agreed to the unreleased material being heard.

"Well, there are two schools of thought," says Sieff. "But when you're not constrained by vinyl, the box set allows you to include all this extra stuff. It may not all be of the same high standard, but historically, there's a damned good reason for all this to be released, and I get great pleasure from it."

And he admits that Sony BMG is not short of even more repertoire to release. "Every time Miles farted they had the tape machine running."

There's something intimate, even creepy, about listening to the vast quantity of recordings on these boxes; many of the tracks are out-takes - never intended for the market. And they seem to have become more obsessive, more microscopic. While The Complete Miles Davis Quintet covers three years (1965-68), The Complete Jack Johnson spans just 16 weeks. Now we have the Cellar Door recordings, taken from just four consecutive nights, December 16 to 19 1970, at the Washington DC club. Sooner or later, someone's going to find a tape of 24 hours in the life of Miles Davis and put it out as an 18-CD set.

Maybe it's churlish to make fun of record companies for exploiting what they've got. At least the Miles boxes are thoughtfully done, with extensive (though often badly edited) notes and information, and first-hand testimony from the musicians. The comments from Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira and pianist Keith Jarrett on this new box are particularly illuminating. And one advantage that the Cellar Door Sessions has over, say, The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions, is that each CD is a complete live performance you can enjoy in one go.

When Miles played the Cellar Door he drew on a small repertoire of seven tunes: Directions, Yesternow, What I Say, Inamorata, Honky Tonk, It's About That Time and Sanctuary. If you have the 1971 album Live-Evil, this material will seem very familiar, since Miles and his producer Teo Macero chopped up their favourite bits to go on this very powerful and visceral double album. So when I tell trumpeter Byron Wallen about The Cellar Door Sessions, he says: "Oh my god, I'm going to have to buy it! Live-Evil is one of my favourite Miles albums."

He argues that the quality of the music is less important than what the musician represents. "For me Miles is more a conceptualist than a trumpet player, though you hear Miles long before you hear about Lee Morgan or Clifford Brown. He's important for the social way he took the music, demanding respect for the music and for himself as a black man - that's very important."

Adam Holzman, the ex-Miles sideman who co-produced the Cellar Door box, makes some big claims in his liner notes: "With the release of The Cellar Door, history might need to be revised; this music lays the foundation for what would later become the most enduring aspects of electric jazz and contemporary music."

Yet to write history, you have to make choices. And Miles and his team chose the right tracks for Live-Evil.

"When you go into the archives it's always a dangerous thing," says trumpeter Abram Wilson, "because those artists have moved on. Some artists, like Soweto Kinch, are uncomfortable hearing things that are just a few years old for that reason. But when you're hearing these boxed sets, you're not necessarily listening to them to worship the artist, you're listening to understand the process."

Every artist has to make choices - you can't put every take on the DVD, every alternate chapter at the back of the book, every take on the CD. "Completism" is a curse rather than a blessing, whether in rock (all those dreary BBC sessions), classical music (perhaps the worst offenders) or jazz. The Cellar Door package is interesting, because Miles is never dull. Yet its existence - carefully packaged, annotated and over-marketed - in early 2006 says more about the record industry majors than jazz history. They don't have a new Miles, so they keep on selling us the old one.

In Mike Dibb's film biography of Miles Davis, musician after musician tells us how maddening and iconoclastic and creative Miles was to work with. What finely tuned instincts he had. Guitarist John McLaughlin laughs: "Miles would find a way to clear the garbage out of the way and get to the essentials." I can't help thinking that Miles would have viewed most of these alternative takes and jam sessions as "garbage", though he'd probably use the same term as Macero: "Bullshit."

Wilson is right in saying that we listen to these extras to understand the process. Wallen, who bought the Plugged Nickel box, points out that many of the performances on that live set are substandard; Miles was unwell for many of the dates, but was on good form for the album that was released at the time. "The question is," says Wallen, "would Miles be happy with the idea of releasing it in this way? In terms of the way people listen to music, who's got the time?"

Big Lounge vocalist and trombonist Ashley Slater (formerly a Loose Tube and Norman Cook's other half in Freak Power) thinks about it all for a short while. "I know very little about Miles, except that he's my favourite jazz musician," says Slater bluntly. "Because he knew when to stop."

· The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 is released on Sony BMG on February 20.

[JohnS]

Just arrived today, at long last. A nice slightly belated birthday present. Playing will have to wait until tomorrow. Thank you Sony, thank you Amazon.uk

[Evonce]

That Guardian article above has an understandable sentiment but the arguments make little sense, and the author doesn't even distinguish between studio and live outtakes. And as far as "Miles and his team chose the right tracks for Live-Evil" goes, well, that's subjective, isn't it? Live-Evil is not, to say the least, a universally loved collection.

I was holding off, but now I'm going to buy the Cellar Door set today just to spite the skeptics.

www.jazzshelf.org

[Guest]

i went to Borders last night and bought The Cellar Door sessions $110.00 bucks....i had a 30% off coupon ,..plus 10 % (rewards program) ...plus $40 gift cert. ( B-day gift from MOM) ...it came to $31 BUCKS !!!

listened to disc 1 ....sounds great!

[ghost of miles]

Anybody else amused/irked by Keith Jarrett's recurring addresses to "Marcus" throughout his liner notes here? Kinda ironic, as the last time I remember being irritated by somebody's using this sort of space to settle a personal grudge was G. Early attacking Jarrett in JAZZ (for his remarks about Marsalis).

[JSngry]

Bitchiness is an integral part of What Makes Keith Keith.

[ghost of miles]

Bitchiness is an integral part of What Makes Keith Keith.

Verily, you speaketh the truth.

[sidewinder]

i went to Borders last night and bought The Cellar Door sessions $110.00 bucks....i had a 30% off coupon ,..plus 10 % (rewards program) ...plus $40 gift cert. ( B-day gift from MOM) ...it came to $31 BUCKS !!!

listened to disc 1 ....sounds great!

Just working my way through this set. At £42 with a £15 Amazon voucher it came to £27. The price was right !

[johnagrandy]

How do you guys have the time to absorb all this stuff? It took me a year to fully absorb "Bitches Brew". Same for "Pangea/Agartha" and "Fillmore East". The second great quintet ... it took me 5 years to absorb all the original releases. I don't see the point of buying a Miles album unless you listen 25x - 100x.

[GA Russell]

John, I feel the same way.

I buy the box sets, and then "open up" one CD per year.

The 65-68 Quintet set is the only Miles box I've heard from start to finish.

[md655321]

I usually get a 'lay of the land' and try to get through a whole box, and then focus disc by disc, and usually song by song. I feel 2 or 3 good listens will get you about 90% the way there on understanding and evaluating the music. Its the next 300 times that fills up the reaminaing 10%. Sometimes 10 seconds is all you need to know if something is BAD though, and thats all i need to know the cellar door was nothin but bad ass motherfuckers playin their asses off. (as miles would say)

[Rooster_Ties]

Sometimes 10 seconds is all you need to know if something is BAD though, and thats all i need to know the cellar door was nothin but bad ass motherfuckers playin their asses off. (as miles would say)

That's been my experience too. Yes, sometimes as little as 10 seconds.

And to be completely serious, often it only takes 30, 20, or even as little 15 seconds to tell if something is gonna be REALLY great. This is true of most of the obscure stuff I'm often looking for and discover from that '65-'75 period in jazz that I love so much.

And it's also often true (for me, at least) with classical recordings of 20th Century works. Some of THE best things I've discovered have totally "clicked" with me in 20 seconds or less -- and yes, sometimes as little as 10 seconds -- often by composers I'd never heard of, or were largely unfamiliar with at the time.

[GA Russell]

I received my copy in the mail from Your Music today.

This thread was started on March 19, just over a year ago!

The set went on sale December 27.

I've waited this long, I figure I can wait another two weeks.

The way I see it, those of you who got it on Dec. 27th (which is just about all of you) bought yourselves a Christmas present. Not that you planned it that way...!

So I'm going to hold off till the 16th, and give myself an Easter present. Beats a chocolate egg!

[GregK]

The way I see it, those of you who got it on Dec. 27th (which is just about all of you) bought yourselves a Christmas present. Not that you planned it that way...!

well, that makes it the earliest Christmas shopping I have ever done then! I bought mine in August (pre-order)

[BFrank]

I usually get a 'lay of the land' and try to get through a whole box, and then focus disc by disc, and usually song by song. I feel 2 or 3 good listens will get you about 90% the way there on understanding and evaluating the music. Its the next 300 times that fills up the reaminaing 10%. Sometimes 10 seconds is all you need to know if something is BAD though, and thats all i need to know the cellar door was nothin but bad ass motherfuckers playin their asses off. (as miles would say)

That pretty much sums it up for me, too, MD.

[johnagrandy]

John, I feel the same way.

I buy the box sets, and then "open up" one CD per year.

The 65-68 Quintet set is the only Miles box I've heard from start to finish.

[/quote}

I'm probably listening to Unity, The Moontrane, Free For All , and The Gigolo for about the 500th time each ...

[GA Russell]

As promised, I waited until today to open up the box.

I'm on my second listen of disc 1, and I'm enjoying it. I've seen comments that disc 1 is the worst, and I'm looking forward to hearing the others in the future.

However, IMO the bass is too loud.

[WD45]

As promised, I waited until today to open up the box.

I'm on my second listen of disc 1, and I'm enjoying it. I've seen comments that disc 1 is the worst, and I'm looking forward to hearing the others in the future.

However, IMO the bass is too loud.

Wait'll you hit disc five. Damn!

Edited April 17, 2006 by WD45

[DMP]

Am I the only person who finds Davis' trumpet the least interesting part of this music? Probably...

[Peter Johnson]

Am I the only person who finds Davis' trumpet the least interesting part of this music? Probably...

No.