Search - Miles Davis :: Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (Spkg)

A Primer for Wynton Marsalis

o dubhthaigh | north rustico, pei, canada | 09/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"and for anyone else who just simply didn't get what Miles was on about. This collection from the Cellar Door sessions in 1970 is not only a definitive statement on what Miles was seeking (and keep in mind he was not after what could be sought, in much the same way that Heidegger was after Thinking rather than what was thought), it is one of the greatest sessions ever captured on tape from any musician. There was more going on here than perhaps at any other time. In addition to the drive supplied by Jack DeJohnette, there were the internal group dialectics pitting Keith Jarrett on an instrument he despised against John McLaughlin, whose relevance Jarrett clearly questioned. In such an atmosphere, there was nothing but passion on the line. Miles was in superb physical condition at this time and his thinking was as adventuresome and as creative as it ever would be. Miles explores and examines, excoriates and inspires his colleagues through the material that would surface on all sorts of releases. Collected here there is an undeniable sense of cohesion and direction. These were, after all, Directions in Music.

What further enhances this set is the marvellous re-mastering. Having been present for one of these sessions I can attest that the sound here is as intimate as if you were there, no more than 30 feet away from a wild amalgamation of the best and the brightest in jazz. The funk, the drive, the noetic hair-pin turns in construction and then de-construction of what is on offer here is exhilarating and it is preserved in a sonic package that will leave you tingling.

If you are convinced that jazz should never have gone down M Street, that it should have hewn a closer path to its New Orleans roots, well, welcome to the equivalent of Hurricane Katrina. Jazz and Miles were never the same after these sessions. The impact this had on experimental music in every discipline is hard to play down. Classical and progressive rock artists alike fell under the penumbra of these adventures. Jazz, dance, funk, spoken word performance, all these and more were liberated by the tsunamic force of these rhythms. The crowd knows what it came to see. That I can attest to as well. This was ground zero for how every conceivable aspect of music would be forever impacted.

No matter how many pepsi-cola lounges you build, it will never be about the furniture. Here in what had been a haven for Neil Young, Roberta Flack, Donald Byrd, Roger McGuinn, Joni Mitchell and others, MUSIC itself leaned over and took this remarkable ensemble of musicians and the punters who came to listen into its confidence. And it is all beautifully captured here. This is why men and women pick up an instrument.



Having listened through this again a few days after having written this review, I must say that what else has hit me is how incredibly creative and inspired Teo and Miles were to cull bits and pieces and edit them into tracks for CDs that astounded me way back when and still gobsmack me now with their power. It's quite one thing to recognize that you have a work of brilliance in front of you, it's altogether something else to hear several other works of brilliance there in. Just thought I'd mention that..."

The Name of this Band is Miles Davis

Dean Monti | 12/20/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Long awaited and well worth the wait.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 12/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."