Official Electric Miles Davis Thread

This is definitely overdue.

 

You and many others. Good luck with that, but don't hold your breath.

 

Me too. Skip the first 2 tracks which were built in the studio and go for Spanish Key and Miles Runs The Voodoo Down, which were live. They have more fire to them. Still, it's the least likely album for me to decide to listen to from that period.

A lot of people say the live stuff is best because the band stretches out. We Want Miles! is a great place to start because he was still approaching things from a similar perspective to the 70's gigs, but this approach dropped quickly. As far as Live Around The World goes, I find most of it tedious because of the polished 80's sound, but the last two tracks (Time After Time and Hannibal) are breathtakingly beautiful.

As for everything else from the 80's, I figure if it's going to sound plastic and artificial, you might as well listen to the studio versions with their more perfect, machine-like performances.

(That said, most of the 80's albums had a live cut or two on them)

 

This is the one that I would really like to see happen. What I wonder is if there would be a licensing problem with these radio broadcasts? I would think the actual tapes (I hope they still exist!) would be the property of the radio stations (NHK?).

 

I'm sure there would be legal issues involved. The radio station may own the tapes, but Legacy would be the only record company that could legally release the material on CD.

 

The same performance is available on LP:

http://store.acousticsounds.com/browse_detail.cfm?Title_ID=60387

I am wondering about the sound quality. Can anyone comment?

 

The sound quality on the DVD is excellent, it was remixed and mastered at Sony by Mark Wilder.

It includes a 5.1 mix in Dolby Digital and DTS and a stereo (2.0) mix in 16 bit 48 KHz PCM.

I have no idea what source was used for the vinyl. Perhaps they licensed the remix from Columbia / Legacy? If they didn't, then I doubt it could sound better than the DVD.

 

Let me go on record as saying I am a huge fan of Miles electric period, I find those to be my favorite albums and often flop as to which are my favorites (BB, OTC, IASW, Live Evil).


Now I have a question about On the Corner both songs on side 2 of the LP ( One and One & Helen Butte/Mr. Freedom X) share the same drum riff. I found that kind of strange that two songs back to back would do that as oppose to putting one on each side. Any idea why both songs have that same riff or any additional insight?

 

I guess because they weren't recorded as different tracks.

The fourth track on the On the Corner box is "Helen Butte/Mr. Freedom X (Unedited Master)" which demonstrates that it was actually a single recorded performance that was later edited into two different tracks.

 

It was a long performance that Teo/Miles just decided to split into more than one track, apparently. Same with "On The Corner/New York Girl" etc. on side one.

"Black Satin" on side one has the same vamp as all of side two.

 

As most posters on this thread should know, and I think the information is probably still on the Tingen website, the heirs of Miles Davis held up the release of IIRC the Cellar Door box set for months over the production credit. There was a story circulating about the booklets having to be completely reprinted with Bob Belden's or Mark Wilder's (can't recall which) names removed. Long and short of it is that the estate would probably represent more of a roadblock than competing record companies.

In the meantime, there is plenty of electric Miles out there on bootleg CD and websites for downloading. Most posters on this thread probably know that also.

 

I've talked to Paul Tingen about this quite a lot, he has informed me that the issues between the Miles Davis estate and Sony have been resolved. That had to occur to enable the release of the various 50th Anniversary reissues of Kind of Blue.

 

I don't believe this is correct, as concerts recorded by Europe 1 were released in a series of CDs in France. I have the 1960 Olympia concert with Coltrane, and also the 11 July 1973 Olympia concert, and they are officially licensed from the radio station for release on CD.

That gig from '73 is a good alternative to the Montreux set if (like me) you're really only interested in the 70's material.

 

Don't think I've ever read a truer post!
Well, I have one kid and I know exactly what you mean, but I can put on Star People and be instantly gratified. Incredible energy - particularly the opener, Come Get It. Even the lengthy blues jam (the title track I believe), holds my interest for the full 19 min. It's a somewhat strange, inconsistent mix but the music is so damn good...

 

Unfortunately it isn't this simple. Columbia had an exclusive contract with Miles Davis from 1955 to 1985. Anything he recorded during that period, either in a studio or at a concert, would require a payment to Columbia (now Sony) to legally release the material. If that hasn't happened, then the recording isn't properly licensed, and should be considered a bootleg.

Of course companies release unlicensed recordings all the time, Sony simply has to weigh up whether it would be worth it for them to legally challenge the release.

 

Hear! Hear! I love the 1980s music, especially the live stuff and it's no accident that "Come Get It" is a live track. The full version has a Bill Evans sax solo, but Teo Macero did the right thing in editing it out of the released version.

 

Right. There's a website of complete Davis recordings, with pictures of the jackets. It includes many recordings that are obviously bootlegs. As I said before, there are hundreds of performances available for download, and probably 50 or more illegally issued recordings from a variety of sources.

 

I stand corrected I wonder if that exclusive contract covered Europe also? Copyright laws etc. are different over there. Perhaps that's why the discs I mentioned were only released in France... with the radio station's logo on them and liner notes from the head of jazz programming for that station. Kind of like when the BBC put out their Peel session discs?

I guess they're as official as a bootleg could ever be

 

At the moment I'm sitting and listening to the 22 Jan '75 show that is taken from the NHK FM broadcast. I know I've mentioned this show several times on this forum, but it's hard to imagine that anyone who had listened to it wouldn't think that it should be released in some form... it tops both Agharta and Pangaea, which is indeed saying something. Miles once said something to the effect that he could put together the greatest rock band in the world... he certainly had by 1975.

 

The BBC titles are probably not a good example to choose as the BBC does everything by the book. Titles by punk bands, etc. that are no longer on major labels tend to get released by the BBC through the likes of Strange Fruit, etc., but they are official albums, and you can bet that they are done in arrangement with the artists, and royalties are being paid. For big name artists like The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, etc. the releases are handled by the artists' own label (EMI/Apple, MCA/Polydor, and Atlantic in the cases of the big three mentioned).

There were a ton of 'grey area' Miles CD releases in the 90s in Europe, mostly out of Italy. I have the Europe 1 title on Trema, and it is certainly a boot, despite saying that distribution is by Trema/Sony Music. It would also not surprise me if the disc was made somewhere else, and just made to look like it was made by MPO in France (so it looks more official). I don't know how Jazz Door, JMY, Trema, etc. managed to get their discs into regular CD stores, but they did!

 

Well, HMV are buggers for carrying bootlegs and have been for a few years. Bootlegging for profit is deplorable in my opinion and I once got close to a fight with a taper while watching Sebadoh at the Reading Festival in '96

Anyway, I shan't feel too much guilt for buying the Trema releases... it's not as if Miles missed out on the money, having been dead and buried for 10 years by the time I bought them.

 

Well, HMV are buggers for carrying bootlegs and have been for a few years. Bootlegging for profit is deplorable in my opinion and I once got close to a fight with a taper while watching Sebadoh at the Reading Festival in '96

Anyway, I shan't feel too much guilt for buying the Trema releases... it's not as if Miles missed out on the money, having been dead and buried for 10 years by the time I bought them.

 

interesting article here: http://www.beefheart.com/zine/002/davis.htm

 

I'd be interested in knowing which are the best sounding digital releases of these albums.

 

Thanks for that - an excellent read. Informative, and inspiring, and one which has got me itching to hear more of this stuff than the 'electric Miles "standards" ' (Bitches Brew and On the Corner) which are all I've encountered up to now