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90 of 95 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Name of this Band is Miles Davis, December 20, 2005
If you own Live-Evil, you have something good. But if you like Live-Evil this is even better. And you should not hesitate if you're on the fence. Do not make the mistake of thinking you will just hear extended takes of Live-Evil material -- it's more than that. For all the hype these sessions have generated over the years, I did not expect this to be as good as it was. And yet it exceeded my expectations by Disc One and just got better from there.
To my ears, this is perhaps the last truly great quintet that Miles would lead. There would be other great Miles music after this, but this band deserves the kudos that have been given what has been referred to as the "lost" quintet that preceded it (Shorter/Corea/Holland/DeJohnette). And it's one of the best representations I can think of that successfully bridges jazz, rock and fusion. it's also the band I'd recommend to anyone who mistakenly believes Miles was "done" and/or "sold out" when he turned electric.
I don't know if it's in the mix or in the take, but Michael Henderson sounds better here than he does on Live-Evil. There are solos by Gary Bartz that will blow you away. Keith Jarrett proves that he could have been a demon of fusion, had he chosen that path. Jack DeJohnette never errs. And Miles turns up the heat and keeps it there throughout.
I will probably never play Live-Evil again, now that I have this and the little Hermeto gems that were included with the Jack Johnson box set. Although I agree with the reviewer who appreciated the difficult task it must have been to construct Live-Evil from these wonderful sessions. I have to wonder, in retrospect, if they chose the sessions with McLaughlin on guitar for Live Evil partly as a marketing strategy -- since McLaughlin was also a rising star at the time. And although the sessions with McLaughlin are excellent, they're not my favorites -- the band sounds tighter, more cohesive, with the quintet.
Listen to this band. You will not be bored. You will be amazed.
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39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Long awaited and well worth the wait., December 23, 2005
At the end of 1970, Miles Davis was on fire. While his band was in a constant state of turnover, it worked out because his music was in a constant state of fierce evolution. Having incorporated electric instruments and rock rhythms into his bands for the past couple years, Davis was losing the understanding of critics and to some extent his audience. With ears of a couple generations later and the recent explosion of evidence of undocumented bands, it's possible to really reevaluate this period in Davis' evolution.
One of the bands that was woefully underdocumented was the sextet on this album-- Gary Bartz (saxes), Keith Jarrett (keyboards), Michael Henderson (bass guitar), Jack DeJohnette (drums) and Airto Moreira (percussion). Recorded in December of 1970 during a week-long stretch at Washington D.C.'s Cellar Door club, only some highly edited music from the last night (when the band was joined by guitarist John McLaughlin) was previously released (as part of "Live-Evil"). With this set, we can finally hear what this band was all about.
Generally, each set was about an hour-long continuous performance, usually opening with "Directions" and running through a handful of themes during the course of the performance. The music is deeply rooted in groove and funk-- this is no doubt the influence of Michael Henderson, who had a Motown pedigree, but also of Davis' infatuation with the music of Jimi Hendrix. This placed the rhythm section in a fairly unusual position-- Henderson would lay down a vamp (albeit a bit looser than he would a couple years later) that would form the core of the piece while DeJohnette and Moreira would set up a percussive stew using rock and funk grooves but firmly rooted in jazz and Brazillian music (I don't really know how to describe it-- it feels like, but doesn't sound like, a rock groove when DeJohnette plays). But it's Keith Jarrett's performances that are the revelation. Notorious for his hatred of electric instruments (more on that below), Jarrett performs on two keyboards simultaneoulsy, eliciting an oddly associative performance. Henderson indicates in his liner notes that Davis instructed him to ignore what Jarrett is doing-- it's pretty clear this is the case, but somehow it all fits together. But perhaps most remarkable is that Jarrett's performances don't really change when a soloist is above him. As far as the soloing goes, Bartz is firmly rooted in a modal/proto-free jazz school, playing angular and excitable Coltrane-influenced solos, but Davis is stunning. Inspired no doubt by the energy and volume of the music, Davis explores his upper register and his technique, playing with a fire and fierceness that seems to shed his label as a delicate and romantic player.
On the last night, the presence of John McLaughlin makes all the difference-- the music gets a looser quality and Davis seems even further inspired-- indeed, it seems that much of Davis' best playing was done with McLaughlin at his side. This goes from being a tight, frantic electric rock band to something even more.
Sonically, it sounds fantastic-- its definitely a live recording, it's got that late '60s/early '70s recorded-in-a-club sound to it, but it's crisp, clear and well balanced, all the instruments are audible and presented in a good spot in the mix.
This set is packaged similar to the rest of the recent Miles Davis Columbia boxed set-- a booklet-style folio contained in a slipcase, with each disc housed in its own envelope. The accompanying 96-page booklet contains essays by all of the performers and the reissue producers, Bob Belden and Adam Holzman. The producer essays are informative-- Belden provides an introduction, Holzman an analysis of the music, but the musicians' essays are of mixed quality. Some of them write rather nice, heartfelt things, but some of them seem overly concerned with agendas beyond discussing the music (although admittedly Henderson's defense of himself and the music comes off a bit poor). Of particular note is Keith Jarrett's rant about both electric keyboards and a rather bitter attack on Marcus Miller. find this sort of thing distracting. A final note-- this set was delayed a substantial amount of time by Miles Davis' nephew, Vince Wilburn, who has partial control over his estate. Evidentally, he took issue with Holzman and Belden being credited as reissue producers and demanded they be changed to reissue compilers. My set has a sticker over the production credits to this effect, I actually can't believe the set was delayed for several months for something this trivial.
In the end, this is a fantastic set-- it's not quite the "Holy Grail of Lost Recordings" or the "Music That Will Change the Course of Everything" it's being lauded as by overenthusiastic fans, but it's awful good music and well worth the investment for any fan of Davis' work. Highly recommended.
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great way to spend some cash, December 27, 2005
This boxed set was a surprise Christmas present. I am a certified Miles Davis fan. If you enjoy Miles' early Jazz Rock ventures, such as In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-evil, or On The Corner, or, if you are a fan of any of the incredible artists who played on these live performances some 35 years ago in Washington D.C., then stop reading this review, wasting valueable time while you could be listening to the music and reading the cool 100-page-or-so-long liner notes, with personal takes on the proceedings detailed by each of the performers. Very interesting. The music is more vital today than ever, with the advent of Jam bands, and new Jazz players who come from non-jazz backgrounds, such as Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, and others.
If you aren't a big Miles fan but are into Jack DeJohnette, hear on these recordings Jack paying his dues and playing with fire and intensity, as a conduit between the great bass ostinatos of Michael Henderson(who played with Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Aretha Franklin) and Keith Jarrett's sizzling Fender Rhodes Electric piano work. Or, maybe you're curious how Keith could pull off his free-associative and ever-creative jazz style in such an eclectic mix. He does so with flying colors. Miles steps in from time to time and plays using a Wah pedal on the trumpet, and he's still playing with muscle as opposed to 10 or more years later. The final 2 discs features John McLaughlin and he is playing fast and great, but not over the top. All the members are considerate of each other, and because Miles set out to construct a band that was both virtuosic in their technique and improvisational skills, and yet grooving, jamming the whole time for the younger target Rock audience, the band WORKS. The Live-evil recording that was a result of part of these shows didn't get some good reviews by jazz critics at the time, but they were sitting back in the 60s waiting for the swing to come back. It didn't, Miles didn't look back, but now we can look back to a time when Jazz-Rock Fusion was in its infancy, and all the players would go on to become stars in their own right. We can look back on this great recording. It may be a gimmick to get Miles freaks to spend some money, but this gimmick works! It helps that the package is a nice faux-leather with a large booklet. You'll enjoy this. It is a boxed set that has musical and historical value. If you simply want a time when you are listening to some good Miles group music and you feel a sense of musical exhilaration and joy, maybe it would be worth the money...
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