Best Live Performance by Classic Bands

[david weiss]

I was going through the two Live Miles Davis CD sets that have come out recently and realized that these had included what I always thought were the best performances by these respective bands that I have heard......from the 1967 set, Antwerp and from the 1969 set, the second show at Antibes.

As for the 1967 band, arguments can certainly be made for the Plugged Nickel stuff of course but while the band is incredible there, Miles' chops are not up because he was coming off a long lay off. On the Antwerp concert, he is in fine form and it was a really special night for everyone it seems. My other favorite is My Funny Valentine but since that has George Coleman, technically

it's not the band.

As for the 1969 group, I have never heard anything the reaches the level of the second Antibes concert. Miles is completely off the hook on the gig, his chops are amazing. It is some of the strongest trumpet playing I have ever heard. The band is great as well.

I'd like to hear if any of you have any other favorites from these bands but I'm more curious to hear feedback as to what you think is the best live recording you have heard from Miles' first great quintet or the John Coltrane Quartet.

For the Miles first great quintet, I'm not sure where it is from but we used to call it the Unique Jazz gig because it was a bootleg on a label called Unique Jazz (we're talking vinyl here of course).

As for the Coltrane Quartet, I really have no idea, I'm hoping to get some great feedback from you guys......

[marcello]

Here's the information on the Unique Jazz Record:

- Miles And Coltrane Quintet Live, First Time On Records (Unique Jazz UJ 19)

same personnel

"Kurhaus", Scheveningen, Holland, 1st set, April 9, 1960

On Green Dolphin Street So What 'Round Midnight Walkin'

Bye Bye (theme)

I've always loved the material that's on "Jazz at The Plaza" especially for Miles' fantastic treatment of My Funny Valentine

Miles Davis - Jazz At Plaza, Vol. 1 (Columbia C 32470)

Miles Davis (trumpet) Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone -2,4,5) John Coltrane (tenor saxophone -1,2,4,5) Bill Evans (piano) Paul Chambers (bass) Jimmy Cobb (drums)

"Edwardian Room", The Plaza Hotel, NYC, September 9, 1958

1. CO93314 If I Were A Bell 2. CO93317 Oleo 3. My Funny Valentine 4. Straight, No Chaser (Jazz At The Plaza) 5. Bye Bye (theme)

** also issued on Columbia PC 32470.

[JSngry]

My "top" Miles/Trane is Paris 1960. Trane breaks the time barrier on that one. Even by his "final" standards, he's scary on here.

And for Trane's "classic" quartet, whatever gig it was that produced "Creation". Live '65 Trane is something very special, period, but this one might be the most special of them all.

And can we throw Newk in the mix? From 1968, the two In Denmark Moon CDs hit a zone, as does Aix En Provence from 1959.

Those sets are all ones on which extreme familiarity with everybody's work gets trumped by that daaAAAAMMMMNNnnnnnn feeling. You know what I mean.

And although not a boot, but live, the Roscoe Mitchell/Muhal duet release gets there too, as does Cecil/Max.

This music can get very serious, more serious than just serious, if you know what I mean. Not "as serious as your life", more like this IS life, this is all of life, all at once, and if there's more to it than this, well, not right now there's not. Maybe when some more dimensions are more fully revealed, but...maybe that's what it is doing, ya' know?.

Not even the greatest of the great, not even Bird, could get there every time out. So when you hear it really getting there, hey, you are being blessed, and it kind of put everything else into perspective.

[Milestones]

I've long favored Miles "Live in Europe," which features George Coleman before Shorter came in. But Coleman is great, as is the whole band. The excitement level is phenomenal.

I've really enjoyed the first "bootleg" (1967) with the better-known quintet.

I'm curious to hear the new bootleg with the Corea-Holland-DeJohnette band.

There's a disc of live material by the first quintet (Trane) as a bonus to some editions of "Round About Midnight." An announcer calls Trane "Johnny" Coltrane!

Edited March 19, 2013 by Milestones

[brownie]

Miles and Trane are on their own planets and I love to travel there!

When I get back to earth, my favorite best performances remain The Jazz Messengers at Café Bohemia and Art Blakey's quintet with Clifford Brown, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver at Birdland!

[david weiss]

Absolutely Jim, Sonny Rollins by all means.....

I love when there is documentation of 4 or 5 dates (or more) from the same tour to compare and contrast and one of my favorites of that ilk is Sonny's 1959 European tour.

I think you're right, Aix En Provence might be the highlight of that tour....something to do with Kenny Clarke perhaps?

That's an interesting tour because LaRoca left early on and there were subs from town to town like Clarke and Joe Harris.

The 1968 stuff is sick as well, that Four is unreal......

Regarding Miles, I'll have to go back to the Paris stuff. That's the concert where they are booing Coltrane if I recall correctly. I heard the Unique Jazz one first and sometimes that first impression/discovery is hard to overcome.

I don't seem to have Creation but when I googled it, the cover looked very familiar. I'm sure I had it, I guess someone "borrowed it". Has it come out on CD? If not, I guess I'll have to track down the vinyl.

I'd love to hear more Trane suggestions. The other stuff I've fully researched but I have some catching up to do with the live Coltrane stuff.....there is just so much of it......

[JSngry]

I don't seem to have Creation but when I googled it, the cover looked very familiar. I'm sure I had it, I guess someone "borrowed it". Has it come out on CD? .

I have it on a Moon CD called Coast To Coast. I think it's from a Half Note broadcast.

http://www.angelfire.com/id/laotan/coast.html

[paul secor]

I'll throw in a mention of Ornette's trio at The Golden Circle. The recordings done in England are very good also, but the Golden Circle recordings are my favorites.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I don't know what a classic band is.

Ray Charles in person - Atlantic

with John Hunt, Marcus Belgrave, David Newman, Hank Crawford, Edgar Willis & Teagle Fleming (+ the Raelettes)

Sonny Stitt - Just the way it was, live at the Left Bank - Label M

with DOn Patterson & Billy James

Groove Holmes - Living soul and On Basie's bandstand - Prestige (both from the same gig)

with Gene Edwards & George Randall

Jack McDuff - Live - Prestige

with Red Holloway, George Benson & Joe Dukes - although this apparently had to be re-recorded in a studio with an invited audience the following day 'cos of a technical fuck-up - so, does it count?

MG

[russes01]

Rollins Paris 1958 - Italian Jazzway - favorite live Rollins record.

[king ubu]

Jim's dead on with Miles/Coltrane, Trane 1965, Newk ... and yeah, McDuff Live!

Also Ornette at the Golden Circle!

And Blakey at the Bohemia, plus - not really a classic band, but still Blakey's core guys: the Birdland one with Morgan/Mobley - that one has been a top favourite in my house ever since I got it (which was a looong time ago, I was in my teens and ordering huge boxes of stuff from TrueBlue and Mosaic, one of the first of them contained that 2CD set).

Then Mingus, of course ... the 1964 Europe tour! I'm hard pressed to name a favourite, maybe the two Enja sets?

Cecil Taylor's "Student Studies" and "Neferetiti"

Albert Ayler "Prophecy"

Archie Shepp "Live in San Francisco"

Mal Waldron "Seagulls of Kristiansund"

Woody Shaw "Stepping Stones"

Monk "Misterioso"/"Thelonious in Action"/w Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

not sure which of these bands really qualify, the avant guys rarely had steady gigs and personnel changed ... the Little/Dolphy/Waldron/Davis/Blackwell unit would fit, but they only had one gig for one week - still a classic band in my book though!

Btw, is there really no live documentation of Ornette/Cherry/Haden/Blackwell ca. 1959/60?

[david weiss]

Rollins Paris 1958 - Italian Jazzway - favorite live Rollins record.

Don't have this....who is on Drums? Is there a date on it?

[david weiss]

Jim's dead on with Miles/Coltrane, Trane 1965, Newk ... and yeah, McDuff Live!

Also Ornette at the Golden Circle!

And Blakey at the Bohemia, plus - not really a classic band, but still Blakey's core guys: the Birdland one with Morgan/Mobley - that one has been a top favourite in my house ever since I got it (which was a looong time ago, I was in my teens and ordering huge boxes of stuff from TrueBlue and Mosaic, one of the first of them contained that 2CD set).

Then Mingus, of course ... the 1964 Europe tour! I'm hard pressed to name a favourite, maybe the two Enja sets?

Cecil Taylor's "Student Studies" and "Neferetiti"

Albert Ayler "Prophecy"

Archie Shepp "Live in San Francisco"

Mal Waldron "Seagulls of Kristiansund"

Woody Shaw "Stepping Stones"

Monk "Misterioso"/"Thelonious in Action"/w Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

not sure which of these bands really qualify, the avant guys rarely had steady gigs and personnel changed ... the Little/Dolphy/Waldron/Davis/Blackwell unit would fit, but they only had one gig for one week - still a classic band in my book though!

Btw, is there really no live documentation of Ornette/Cherry/Haden/Blackwell ca. 1959/60?

Yes, the 1964 Mingus.....

I went through a lot of that stuff ages ago and can't recall a favorite.....

I guess I'm going to have to get the Mosaic box and go through all that stuff again.....

Having toured like that and with what I consider some really good bands, it's usually very good no matter what even if you are tired or what have you but then there are those special nights and then you hope the tapes are rolling and it's captured. I haven't always had the best luck with this....

It's interesting to see this phenomena with even the best bands there ever were.....

[bertrand]

Those Bobby Hutcherson/Harold Land Antibes concerts are right up there. Hope they get properly released one day.

Bertrand.

[BFrank]

Donald Byrd at the Half Note is pretty great.

Then there's the Tolliver at Slugs (if you agree to call that a "classic" band)

I'd like to toss in Lee at the Lighthouse, but I wouldn't call that lineup one of his "classics" (no knock on that band, of course!)

[Steve Reynolds]

Love many of the above.

Brotzmann Tentet @ Tonic 2000

I was there and I still have never heard anything quite like it.

Number two might be:

Fred Anderson Kidd Jordan William Parker Hamid Drake @ Vision Fest maybe 1999

Some of the jaded NYC crowd dancing in the ailes

March 31st 2011 ICP Le Poisson Rouge unthinkably great. Wolter Wierbos best trombone performance I've ever heard

Joe Maneri Quartet 1998 with Cecil McBee, Mat Maneri and Randy Peterson

10:00 set @ Tonic.

Joel's best line to Mat when I introduced myself: This guy buys our records!

Best line before the show when he saw the place was packed for his first real NYC show @ 72 years old: 'it's amazing to be here'

Best line during: 'Duke Ellington called and asked me to play Sentimental Lady'

Andrew Hill Sextet 1997 the comeback show at the knit with billy Drummond Marty Ehrlich Scott Colley Ron Horton and an unknown tenor player

Fucking awesome. Drummond and Ehrlich destroyed the world

Crispell Guy Hemingway @ Tonic maybe 2000

Best bass performance I've ever heard

8 Bold Souls 1999 hot house enuff said

Von Freeman in a quartet with John Young circa 1997 in Chicago

First long solo blew me away like no other tenor solo I ever heard live

Eskelin Parkins Black maybe 1998 or so2 set tonic better than any of the records. When they played India the roof shook

All rank with greatest shows I've ever heard on record

Now one wishes a few of the above get released

The last I will mention almost did as 2 other shows are on Trigonomtry from march 24 & 31 2001

I was at march 27 th @' tonic lots of Don Cherry stuff

Drakes best live performance that I've witnessed

And the 2 CD set does it justice almost as great as the seminal Wels Chicago sets

And my point is that many of the above are classic bands giving classic performances and I've been blessed to witness them.

[Steve Reynolds]

And this October a current classic band gets a rare week as still these sorts of dudes are not yet welcome at the 'classic' venues. Will be nice to see how the week goes:

In Order to Survive

William Parker, Rob Brown, Lewis Barnes, Cooper-Moore, Hamid Drake

I imagine it will be recorded and hopefully released as a box one day

Methinks long after we are gone, someone other than me will post on a thread one day imagine being able to see those dudes live from 10 feet away

Fwiw I urge anyone close to take one night to hear Hamid Drake in that room.

[fent99]

On Coltrane; the one I keep coming back to is the Newport 63 performance since I just love all the tunes.

[russes01]

Rollins Paris 1958 - Italian Jazzway - favorite live Rollins record.

Don't have this....who is on Drums? Is there a date on it?

[russes01]

Gotta get the hang of this on the phone. Sonny in Paris is w- Art Taylor and Gilbert Rovere - the date could be wrong but it is an amazing session without a break can't get started , three little words, can't get started (reprise) 3 (reprise) st Thomas, is side 1.

[russes01]

Google says Sonny in Paris was 1965 - my LP is near legit sounding mono - have never heard any of the cd versions.

[king ubu]

Sonny Rollins

Paris (FR), Salle de la Mutualité

1965-11-04

Sonny Rollins (ts), Gilbert Rovère (b), Art Taylor (d)

Medley:

I Can't Get Started > Three Little Words > I Can't Get Started > Three Little Words > St. Thomas > There Will Never Be Another You > When I Grow Too Old To Dream > Mademoisselle de Paris

41 min

boot ("The Paris Concert '65", Magnetic MRCD 121)

[Matthew]

I would go with:

Cecil Taylor: It Is In The Brewing Luminous. I was stunned when this album ended, it was a complete WTF, but in a very good way. At the end of the album, when Lyons and Taylor are playing, I had no idea jazz could sound like that.

[PHILLYQ]

I would go with:

Cecil Taylor: It Is In The Brewing Luminous. I was stunned when this album ended, it was a complete WTF, but in a very good way. At the end of the album, when Lyons and Taylor are playing, I had no idea jazz could sound like that.

You could also make a case for 'One Too Salty Swift Goodbye', a briliant set that I try to play in its entirety at least once a year, and everytime I'm blown away by it.

[danasgoodstuff]

Coltrane "Creation", yeah that. Beats the official Half Note, and that's pretty darn good.

Sonny @ the VV is lovely, but it's hardly a band at all since it was the first time the three of them had played in public (and the last?).

James at the Apollo? QMS, Happy Trails? Elvis C @ the El Macombo? Five Live Yardbirds? Stones in Brussels?

Miles, Cellar Door, the parts without Johnny McL since he wasn't part of the working band.

Ellington in Fargo, ND. A (really great) day in the life of a (really great) working band.