Miles Davis and Friends Paris 1991

[Gheorghe]

I got this from my wife as a birthday present. 
I never had heard about it and it´s a great live event, much better than the posthum issued "Miles Around The World" on Warner, which IMHO is just a sampler, since it´s different recordings, each from another venue, rather than a full concert. 

Besides the fact that a lot of former Davis Alumni are sharing the stage with him, I´d like to mention his own band too.
I think that the last bands, starting with the 1989 band with Kei Akagi on keyboards, and this much thinner instrumentation, just a sextet is much more "jazz" and band playing than former formations with a lot of keyboard sounds and programming and sometimes quite boring tunes. 

Here we have a good keyboarder who plays good solos and not just pushing buttons. I think the better music , I mean more interesting for jazz listeners started with "Amandla". I would say I enjoyed the band he had early after his comeback on "We Want Miles" and this one. 
And Miles is playing much more trumpet and his legendary harmon mute sound is great as ever. I heard he died shortly after this, but there is no evidence of weakness on that event, which goes for 2 hours, with Miles playing much trumpet on all tunes. 
Maybe Kenny Garrett is not what I like most, I liked the saxophone player Bill Evans from "We Want Miles" much more. Garrett´s sound and his solos on simple one chord, two chord vamps sounds much more like a nameless studio musician playing over a recorded track, than real jazz. Okay, he has trememdous power, but something´s with his sound and approach than doesn´t really move me. Especially on the eternal "Human Nature".... it´s always the same game, with those shouts in the highest register towards the end of that A minor vamp, quite boring, and I don´t really know why Miles kept it so long in his repertory, the tune just don´t say anything to me. 
Much better musically is "Perfect Way", and the wonderful Blues in Bb. 
 

Something very interesting happens on the short Zawinul-Shorter duet of "In a Silent Way". Here it is played with very interesting chords, obviously as Zawinul had composed it, and I remember I had read someone that Miles kept the melody but cut out all them chords, to keep it only on E natural, very simple. 
"It´s About Time" also from "In a Silent Way" is fantastic, and to have Steve Grossman and Al Foster is wonderful and Miles plays so great !

The biggest surprise is the really old bop numbers with Jackie  McLean. On the track list only "Dig" is mentioned, but actually they first play "Out of Blue" (that´s based on "Get Happy" ) and after that "Dig" , that´s Jackey McLeans bop line on "Sweet Georgia Brown". Those are really strong with Jackie Mac and Grossman and  that fantastic rhythm section Chick Corea, Dave Holland , Al Foster, they really cook and the big surprise is that Miles who never looked back and was rumoured that he couldn´t have had the chops for the bop tunes even if he would have played them again, really plays short but beautiful solo trumpet on them. 

It´s really an enigma for me why he died so shortly after that, if he could play that strong just a few weeks before. He must have enjoyed that event very very much. 
"Water Melon Man" I think had never before been recorded by Miles, on "Footprints" again he is beautiful, with Wayne Shorter, and the last tune, the wonderful "Jean Pierre" from the 1981 concert bills is here again, with all the musicians all together , all the saxophonists, keyboardists, guitarists, bassists and drummers..... a dream event. 

[Big Beat Steve]

9 minutes ago, Gheorghe said:

It´s really an enigma for me why he died so shortly after that, if he could play that strong just a few weeks before. He must have enjoyed that event very very much. 
 

The internet says this (whatever this may mean in terms of 100% accuracy):

"In 1989, Miles Davis was rumored to be HIV-positive, which he denied. He had been a heroin user for many years, so the infection would have likely been from dirty needles. In 1991, at the age of 65, Miles Davis had suffered repeated bouts of pneumonia. While in the hospital, Miles suffered a stroke. He died September 28th, 1991. The official cause of death was respiratory failure caused by stroke. According to his biographer Quincy Troupe, Miles was taking medication for HIV at the time of his death. That could explain the chronic pneumonia that led to his death. Either that or the lifetime of heavy cigarette smoking."

[Gheorghe]

1 hour ago, Big Beat Steve said:

The internet says this (whatever this may mean in terms of 100% accuracy):

"In 1989, Miles Davis was rumored to be HIV-positive, which he denied. He had been a heroin user for many years, so the infection would have likely been from dirty needles. In 1991, at the age of 65, Miles Davis had suffered repeated bouts of pneumonia. While in the hospital, Miles suffered a stroke. He died September 28th, 1991. The official cause of death was respiratory failure caused by stroke. According to his biographer Quincy Troupe, Miles was taking medication for HIV at the time of his death. That could explain the chronic pneumonia that led to his death. Either that or the lifetime of heavy cigarette smoking."

Oh I didn´t know that, and I had thought that Miles had stopped hard drugs much earlier and had stopped smoking also soon after his comeback. There were reports that he only drinks mineral water and eats fish and salads, or maybe this was just "promotion" to create a model citizen ? 

But anyway, what remains is his music, and I hope for others I wrote enough interesting stuff about it in my little review.....

[Gheorghe]

Any more love for that great date ? Anyone....

[Teasing the Korean]

8 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

Any more love for that great date ? Anyone....

Miles's hair during this period is a real stumbling block for me.

[Jim Duckworth]

9 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

Any more love for that great date ? Anyone....

I've always wanted to hear this performance.

[Rabshakeh]

On 1/4/2023 at 9:54 AM, Big Beat Steve said:

The internet says this (whatever this may mean in terms of 100% accuracy):

"In 1989, Miles Davis was rumored to be HIV-positive, which he denied. He had been a heroin user for many years, so the infection would have likely been from dirty needles. In 1991, at the age of 65, Miles Davis had suffered repeated bouts of pneumonia. While in the hospital, Miles suffered a stroke. He died September 28th, 1991. The official cause of death was respiratory failure caused by stroke. According to his biographer Quincy Troupe, Miles was taking medication for HIV at the time of his death. That could explain the chronic pneumonia that led to his death. Either that or the lifetime of heavy cigarette smoking."

 

On 1/4/2023 at 11:29 AM, Gheorghe said:

Oh I didn´t know that, and I had thought that Miles had stopped hard drugs much earlier and had stopped smoking also soon after his comeback. There were reports that he only drinks mineral water and eats fish and salads, or maybe this was just "promotion" to create a model citizen ? 

I'd never heard this. Looking at the internet, I am amazed to see it treated as "fact", not just by the Quoras but also by some legacy media outlets. Whether that's because it is substantiated or because whatever intern writes for what's left of them is doing his/her "research" through Google isn't clear.

[medjuck]

2 hours ago, Jim Duckworth said:

I've always wanted to hear this performance.

There are a couple of cd releases and Bravo broadcast an hour tv show taken from it so there's probably some videos around. (I taped it at the time then made a DVD from the tape so it looks pretty awful.) 

[Gheorghe]

13 hours ago, Jim Duckworth said:

I've always wanted to hear this performance.

I would have liked to be there. Just a few days before or after that, Miles also played in Viena and it´s a shame I was not there, but I was giggin´ in other towns. The last time I had seen Miles was one year before and it was magic, compared to the somehow silly shit of "Human Nature" and "Time after Time" from all those years between 84-88. 

 

13 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Miles's hair during this period is a real stumbling block for me.

Well I know more about the musical thing, but at some point, even if it is not associated with my thread here, I can share some of your opinions about Miles´ styling in the late 80´s. 
I liked the way Miles looked just in the first weeks after his comeback in 1981, it was honest, he looked like an aged Miles after 5 or 6 years of abuse of substances and all those illnesses like hip operations, bursitis and whatever...., but he was "Miles" , and then he just slicked his hair back or wore a cap. And he had his trousers tight to the legs, so it looks handsome and slim.

I don´t know which japanese style icone he had consulted later, but he began to look like a sad parody of his old self. The exagerated afro (a hair wave) made him look like a poodle and make his head too big, while those wide trousers made him look even shorter than he actually was. 

About the release of that CD I think maybe it was difficult to release as an official album since there was so many musicians on it who where under contract by other labels. 

Same thing about a Dizzy All Stars think also done in Paris about the same time that also had Stan Getz and others, I couldn´t even find it on discogs....