DESCRIPTION WITHOUT PLACE.
criticism. decorum. innards. bric-a-brac. nostalgia. nausea. polemics. diatribes. litanies. symphonies. polaroids.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Miles Davis, “So What” (12.23.65, 2nd Set) from The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel
Merry Christmas.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Miles Davis Quintet, “Agitation” Paris 11.6.67, from Live in Europe 1967
These new live recordings are incredible of course. The nearly identical setlists from night to night may scare off the casual fan, or goad the devotee into muttering “Overkill,” but I’m experiencing the opposite effect; they’ve made a missing part of my Miles Davis collection - that “one that got away” - all the more difficult to live without. So, if anyone has a decent digital copy of The Complete Live At the Plugged Nickel 1965, which is out of print and selling on Amazon for about $400 (and about which all sorts of crazy shit has been said), I can offer up any or all of the following complete box sets and would be glad to do so:
- On the Corner Sessions
- Bitches Brew Sessions
- In A Silent Way Sessions
- Jack Johnson Sessions
- The Cellar Door Sessions
- Live at Montreux (all 20 discs)
- Live at Carnegie Hall 1961
- Live at NY Philharmonic 1964
- Live in Europe 1967
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Teo Macero died last week.
The seasons of Miles Davis’ career have always fascinated me. His oeuvre has no parallel among American artists; the changes that took place in jazz music under his guidance are so various, so distinctive, and so profound in their individual incarnations that I would be hard-pressed to name a similar innovator in any art form, from any time period. Teo Macero produced Miles Davis in the late-60s and early-70s, one of Miles’ many peaks. I just recently purchased the Complete Jack Johnson Sessions, which Macero did not want released. He stitched a record together out of months of live studio jamming, seven hours worth collected for the 5-disc boxed set. Seeing how Macero made two epic tracks from these seven hours is a window into the mind of a producer. Macero leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of collaboration in music. RIP.
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Soundtrack Miles
A friend asked me to pick a great song. Just one, and email it. This sounds difficult. One song? Just one. Well, let’s raise the stakes.
Say you’ve already emailed this friend 60 great songs. Take the 60 best songs you’ve ever heard and exclude them from the choices. Bryan asked me for my 61st favorite song.
I chose Miles Davis’ Nuit Sur Les Champs-Elysee (Take 1), from a french film soundtrack he recorded in a few evenings while on a European tour. He repeated the same handful of melodic themes over and over for the albums two dozen tracks. This first take is as gorgeous as I’ve ever heard Miles play. At just over 2 minutes, its also one of Miles’ shortest tracks of this period, and he’d probably never play for so short a time during the rest of his career.
I knew nothing of the film, so I googled it. I could tell you this is the Miles album I listen to when I used to take long walks alone through the Upper West Side’s Riverside Park late at night. But that story is the long-winded version of the wikipedia entry for the movie. It mentions Miles’ soundtrack and states: “…the loneliest trumpet sound you will ever hear, and the model for sad-core music ever since. Hear it and weep.
So fucking true. The problem with jazz music is not that it isn’t great, truly great: it is. Its that everything you’d want to say about it has already been said.
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