Release dates of Miles's records

[medjuck]

I think I've mentioned this before,  but the new Miles Bootleg 4 got me thinking about it again.   It's usually easy to find out when records were recorded but often more difficult to find out when they were released.  This is particularly true of Miles's Prestige releases.   So when the audience at the '55 Newport festival were  surprised by Miles' playing,  it  may have been because they hadn't yet heard "Musings of Miles"  or the session with Monk from  December 24, '54.   Similarly the '69 audience was probably surprised by the selections from Bitch's Brew when In a Silent Way had not yet been released. 

The release dates of the Columbia records are listed in the box sets but the Prestige recordings seem to have been released rather haphazardly often years after they were recorded.  I've been able to find Downbeat reviews of some of them and presume that they're from around the release dates.  Can anyone suggest a better source? 

And which is the correct possessive "Miles'"  or "Miles's"?

 

[mjzee]

 

And which is the correct possessive "Miles'"  or "Miles's"?

 

Miles's.  When it's a person's name, it's always 's, even when the name ends with an s.

[marcello]

mjzee: I didn't know that! There's always something to learn.

medjuck: I was curious, so I looked up his compositions at the BMI site to see if they included the release date (these days, you included the release date when you register the song as well of the title of the album), but that data in not included for anyone to see.

[johnblitweiler]

From reading DB and going to record stores, I remember Bags Groove, Walkin, and the quintet albums with Coltrane, PJJ, etc. were released before the 12" Modern Jazz Giants, which had 'Round Midnight and The Man I Love. So that 1954-56 album didn't appear before late 1958 or 1959.

[Gheorghe]

well about the mistery about how the Newport audience "discovered" Miles in 1955, that´s just how Business went.

Those Prestige records maybe didn´t sell to a broader audience. I don´t think all the crowds that went to Newport where hip to insider´s Labels, not collectors like most of us here are.

They just heard Miles´ trumpet, it appealed to them, they thought about it as something "new", and that´s when Miles became a big name .

About Bitches Brew. It was recorded in August 1969 I think, and Miles "did" Europe in July , all those big spots, and that´s where he played some of the later recorded Bitches Brew Stuff.

Bitches Brew and other "new" stuff , I mean "new" to the record buyer wasn´t necessarly "new" to the Musicians. I´ve often heard Musicians tell "we go record what we now do live".

[l p]

interesting that he was plying Miles Runs the Voodoo Down and  spanish key 1-2 months before recording them for the bitches brew album.

july 1969 doesn't seem to have been a euro tour. just 2 days in antibes.

 

edit:

it's possible that he recorded early versions Miles Runs the Voodoo Down and spanish key in the studio in the spring/summer 1969.

Edited July 28, 2015 by l p

[JSngry]

Regarding Prestige, remember that all but the first "Classic Quartet" albums were recorded in two "marathon" sessions for the purpose of contract fulfillment, and that Miles had already begun recording for Columbia. Weinstock knew that big things were to come, so he had four albums in the can ready to release as time went by.

AMG gives the release dates as follows:

Cookin' - July 1957

Relaxin' - March 1958

Workin' - September 1959

Steamin' - May 1961

Other than that, relevant to Newport, July 17, 1955

Blue Moods - Recorded July 9, 1955 (!)

The Walkin' session was first released on two 10" LPs, so they probably would have  would have been heard by then.

Per Discogs, the three quintet pieces with Sonny came out in 1954 http://www.discogs.com/Miles-Davis-Miles-Davis-And-The-Modern-Jazz-Giants/release/4076578

The Bags' Groove session first came out (without the alternates) on two 10" LPs...sometime in 1955

None of these sources are exactly definitive, obviously, but it seems safe to say that the audience at Newport in 1955 would have already had access to Walin', the quintet with Sonny, and, maybe a Bags' Groove 10'. Whether or not they/some of them had availed themselves of that access is another question. I don't know if it would be unsafe to speculate that the whole "comeback" buzz/marketing was made possible by "people" not paying too much attention past the Capitol Birth Of The Cool 10", material which grew in stature only after its initial releases.

[GA Russell]

I was not aware that any members of the audience considered Miles's performance to be a comeback.  I thought that the concept was entirely an invention of George Avakian, for the purpose of promoting Miles's new relationship with Columbia.

[clifford_thornton]

If I'm not mistaken, this first 'comeback' was from heroin and other health problems he'd had. He kicked in 1954.