Customer Reviews

In Concert: Live at Philharmonic Hall

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Having heard a dozen or more Miles Davis concerts from this era, this 9/72 date is probably my least favorite. Miles seems to be attempting to take ON THE CORNER to the stage, but he hasn't found out how to do it yet (of course, just to hear him trying is sufficient to get this CD into my player at least every year or two--and uncovering fresh surprises with each rehearing).

Miles plays well on amped wah-wah trumpet, underrated bassist Michael Henderson provides a solid anchor, and Mtume's percussion crossfire is always superb. However, the brilliant rhythm guitarist Reggie Lucas hadn't yet honed in on his trademark sound, either as a sideman or as a soloist. Al Foster sounds better on later gigs, too--his beats often don't GROOVE here. The electric sitar adds color, but the inability to stop that droning sound on a dime tends to clash with the staccato syncopations and backbeats laid down by the rhythm section (you can hear it within the first ten seconds of disc two). Keyboardist Cedric Lawson doesn't seem to have much to offer to enlighten Davis' music (I greatly prefer Miles' own organ playing--also heard here).

For fans looking to analyze the entirety of Davis' career, IN CONCERT adds further context to this step of his musical journey--quite provocative despite the flaws. However, for an outstanding representation of this challenging period, I'd skip this one and look first to 1975's twin-towers PANGAEA and AGHARTA, recorded after Davis found and developed the best sidemen--four of whom are already on board here--to interpret his progressive jazz/funk/world musical vision.

After reading some of the reviews here, I didn't expect too much from this 2 disc concert set from September 29, 1972 (my 17th birthday). I got very lucky and picked this SBM remaster used (like new) for less than 1/2 price! I've heard much of the music that followed this period, especially Agharta and Dark Magus. Those discs really are something else - intense, blistering funk. But I really like this one too - Miles playing is far stronger and lively here than on those later releases. This band has some of the line up from On The Corner, indeed, Miles brings some of his On the Corner release to the stage and I think it's a stellar result. Ife (an "On the Corner" outake that eventually found its way onto 1974's "Big Fun") is superb played live. Both disks are fun listening ("Foot Fooler" and "The Slickaphonics") I dig the sitar with the wah-wah... can't say I've ever heard a sitar played through a wah-wah before. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the inset color pic shows Dave Liebman and Pete Cosey who are not present in this line up. So what? It's just a picture folks.

If you like Big Fun, On the Corner, Agharta and Dark Magus, I think you'll like this though it is much "lighter" and not nearly as up in your face as Agharta and Dark Magus - there's a lot of interesting stuff going on here including some background chatter and laughter between band members here and there. You get some interesting sitar behind a supercharged "Theme from Jack Johnson" (Funky Tonk) - an interesting take on this piece. "In Concert: Live at the Philharmonic" doesn't leave me drained like Dark Magus and Agharta (not a slam on those two releases, they are just so... VERY intense). This is a lot more fun and playful I think. I'll probably pop this into the player a little more often than Dark Magus and Agharta. I also think this is far better than the earlier electric stuff such as "Live at the Fillmore" which was drenched in distorted Fender Rhodes and Hammond B3 organ riffs. Unlike some of the other reviewers here, I believe that Miles is very much at the top of his electric game here so don't let the negative reviews put you off. It's such a shame critics trashed On the Corner and this follow-up concert release. What we really have here is another great night with Miles in concert! Come on now, how can that possibly be bad? I love this one. Buy it!

Having absorbed everything I can find on Master Miles Dewey Davis, the creative and transcendent musical Mystic, I have found this to be absolutely superb!! The funk is, to me(not a funkster by nature) so deep and dense its a phenomenal experiement of many depths and dimensions, perhaps STILL ahead of its time....cant imagine, like the other reviewers above, only putting this in once in awhile--this is gonna be forever at my fingertips...

its definitely an ALIVE version of ON THE CORNER, and even the Jack Johnson takes are heavily influenced by the ON THE CORNER feeling and vibe...the music, thankfully, doesnt go as far out as perhaps the FILMORE sets, and thus is not hard on the ears at anytime what so ever--it keeps a steady groove, sometimes much more repetitive than any other musician(s) would dare to go--I do wish though that the Bass was a bit more upfront, but there's so much else going on that night, that it makes up for the lack of "heavy bottom" we have gotten used to from this period and shortly prior...

the congos and tablas and sitar make this thing truly a world music gumbo, another brew that Miles masterfully stirs with his trumpet--which is nothing more than the fetish, the tool of invocation itself, if you dig it...

a must have, so buy it,pull the shades and enjoy....

Recorded 9/29/72, a few months after the sessions for On the Corner. Most of these musicians played some part in the June sessions, but the September tour was where these men were first assembled together as a working band. This concert in New York, according to Peter Losin's sessionography, was just the sixth live gig for the band (following one date in Ann Arbor and a 4-day weekend run in Boston), and it does show.

The first set can be a slog, due mainly to a muddy sound and some occasionally dull beats laid down by Al Foster & Co. There are times when the percussion just seems not quite engaged with the bass or soloists, isn't tight on the transitions between pieces, or doesn't quite have the funky edge that the music requires. I think Miles probably instructed Foster to stay locked into a groove, as he told his drummers to do in the studio in June, and Foster tried to follow orders but hadn't played most of the material enough to get a real *feel* for doing it right. (No slam intended. Listen to the shows from '73-75, and you'll hear that Foster would get a feel for what Miles wanted to do with the funk better than any drummer Miles ever had.) The section that works best on Disc 1 is the opener, "Rated X," which the band actually did get to work out together in the studio earlier in the month.

Foster and the rhythm section come out in much better form for the second set, opening with "Ife," another number Foster, Henderson, Mtume, and Badal Roy had played together, back in June. That's the highlight of the concert for me. As the band navigates the shifts in dynamics, tempo, and mood through the piece, and transitioning into "Right Off" to close the show, you can hear the future of how Miles' band and music would come together in the next few years.

The concert isn't an essential recording. None of the soloists besides Miles really stand out; sometimes they can be prone to noodling. The sound is so muddy, you really need to listen with headphones or in the middle of a surround system to appreciate what the band is doing. However, Miles is in good form, and as usual everything has a way of clicking together when guided by the phrasing of his horn. It's fun tuning in closely to Michael Henderson's bass, as well. Even at this early stage, he's on it.

If you're just looking into Miles' 1970s bands (post B*Brew), I'd advise starting with (in no particular order) Jack Johnson, Live/Evil, Get Up With It, It's About That Time (3/7/70 Fillmore East), Pangaea & Agharta, and Dark Magus. And if you want more, here's a flawed but interesting transitional piece to help you connect how he got from point to point.

One beautiful thing about Miles is how a career that seems to take such twists and turns, through so much music which sounds so strangely different from what came before or after, really does link together. The more connecting threads you discover, the better you realize it, and the greater your understanding and appreciation of even the most familiar, major works. Here is another small piece to the puzzle.

This is one of the strangest bands Miles Davis ever led -- a transitional group featuring guitar, keyboards, electric sitar, saxophone, bass, congas, tabla and drums. The musicians are constrained to producing sound and adding to the rhythmic density, so nobody gets to shine individually. (The saxophonist and keyboardist are especially lame.) When this works this band sounds great; "Rated X" justifies buying this set, starting from a rhythmic babble to a swelling wave of funk, until Mike Henderson enters in the middle of Miles's wah wah trumpet solo... awesome. The band also cooks on the other 1972 pieces, "Black Satin" and "Ife" (though the later runs waaaaay too long at 28 minutes). On the minus side they sound pretty wimpy on the more rockin' Jack Johnson material; they should have stuck to the droning, spacy stuff. None of the musicians except Miles and Henderson seem to develop any individual personality either, and the shaky sound means Miles is difficult to hear. It's not surprising that Miles would soon ditch this group for the raw, primal sound you can hear on Dark Magus, Agharta and Pangaea. Basically, if you like On the Corner, you'll definitely want this; if you hate it, this will be garbage to you. I personally like to put this exciting but flawed record into the CD player once in a while.

No matter what phase of his career, Miles had two music personas - in the studio and on stage. And in the electric phase, Miles was in perpetual motion in introducing themes and musicians in both venues.

The double CD set brings the funk from the outstanding studio sessions that brought On The Corner, with a taste of the sonic boom captured in Agharta and Pangaea.

Miles never hesitated in experimenting with his sound, which confounded critics then and - to a certain extent - now. The Philharmonic Hall concert again demonstrates that Miles pushed the "boundaries" to create timeless pieces that continue to shape musicians in various genres.

As with almost all good jazz once you've heard the studio recording, you'll want to hear how it translated live. The recording quality is excellent compared to unofficial recordings of this band. However, it suffers from the same problem as "Dark Magus". Putting Miles' rock/funk oriented bands in a symphonic space just didn't work. The acoustics of the space are all wrong for that and also, it tends to dampen the playing of Miles band which were by now, used to performing in rock venues. That said, I highly recommend this album and also it shows the band as continuing to evolve. While the band looks back to "the theme from Jack Johnson" it looks forward on "Ife", a nearly 30 minute long jam, the sound of which is where Miles' next band would go on recordings such as Pangaea and Agharta. With the cover art (by the same artist who did the artwork for "On the Corner") you might be fooled that this a dated 70's jazz excursion but don't make that mistake. This is Miles pushing the boundaries of jazz, still true over 30 years later.

the review below does a good job, but It still somewhat sticks to the idea that this concert is not essential.
This was one of the first miles davis discs I experienced, and I fell in love with it. But now, after having listened to a large volume of miles' music, including many bootlegs, I have to say that this IS essential to anyone interested in this man's electric period. Sure the music is a bit muddy (note that muddy doesn't mean that you can't hear everything that's happening if you are paying attention), sure the band doesn't play PERFECT, but what they are playing documents a very unique style period for miles that lasted only about 6 months, and this is the only live recording from it that I've heard that isn't too obscured by the quality of recording. One of the best moments is when disc one starts off with an almost evil, angry mood, with the entire band playing percussively, it is quite unique and in my mind, awesome! A strong, confident start that induces a very pleasant mood in me! The muddy sound that people complain about, I feel, is even almost PROPER for it! This recording is definitely good for headphones, imagining what it would have been like to be at this concert instills a sense of awe in me. As a whole, I find that one of the best ways to enjoy this concert is in a manner where your amount of attention to it varies; let your mind weave in and out of the music. I find that I won't even notice a fair amount of the falling apartness when I, say, put it in my discman and go for a walk. Unlike most other reviews of this album, I say DON'T put this one off if you have an album or two and want more! The version of honky tonk is quite unique with the bass embracing different beat values, and theme from jack johnson is absolutely INCREDIBLE! Theres some strange sound bouncing along in one ear, its so happy and I can't help but to strut! If you really liked his earlier seventies stuff, get this before his later seventies albums!

Yes, the cover is funky. However, the liner notes are indeed weak and the pictures are misleading because Pete Cosey did not play this particular concert.

The first tune, Rated X, sort of builds up, Badal Roy's tabla, Khalil Balakrishna's sitar, percussion, then Miles' comes in while the overall sound is creeping up and slowly the whole thing starts whirling around and finally chugging along until they slow things down on Honky Tonk in a similar way, before jumping into The Theme from Jack Johnson given an On the Corner intro-touch.

The first set concludes with a frenzied Black Satin and the second set gets even funkier with Ife which seems to pop up in some form in all of Miles' 70s shows, but never with these sounds encircling such a fat groove.

Having said this, I think Dark Magus had the fattest grooves of Miles' 70s shows, and it has a heavier, lurching beat driving it. BUT, I personally have trouble listening to parts of Live at the Fillmore East because of all the annoying synth-organ self-indulgence. Similarly, Pete Cosey's guitar work on Pangea and Agharta is a bit overblown and he sounds better when he stays tight. His guitar's sound is too thin and instead of sounding like Hendrix he sounds more like, uh Joe Satriani.

The point is this is a fantastic live show, up there with Dark Magus and Live Evil. The sound quality is fine!

Some folks should upgrade their sound system before they buy so many CDs and criticize the sound quality of those albums.

If you dig On the Corner then you'll love this.

Miles Davis&crew not only went into a World music vibe here but took on Sly,Jimi,&James all at once and anything else that was Funky at the time.this disc has alot of Groove.The Band is tight.worth a Listen that's for sure.