Sunday, April 12, 2009

Miles Davis - Two Miles Live (1971) (mp3, 160kbps)


I purchased this one (!!) in a shop in Greenwich Village that probably doesn't exist anymore. It's a doozie, in part because there are no song dividers. Track 1 is 52 minutes and Track 2 is 49 minutes. It also happens to represent an especially inspired performance of Miles' band as they stormed across Europe in 1971.

The band had existed in very much this format before the trip to Europe, but Jack DeJohnette was not able to make the tour. As a result, the far inferior Leon Chancellor got the dream call to tour with Miles. Amazingly, he more than rose to the occasion. Keith Jarrett brought his beautiful boogie-woogie, and Gary Bartz and Michael Henderson showed they could keep up and even add their own special talents to the jam. But it is Miles, directing traffic, changing it up, conducting with his horn, on and off the wah-wah pedal, he is strong and he is in charge. Almost all shows from this tour were broadcast, so there are some fine examples of what this combo could do, but the sound quality on this release is noticeably better than the others.

Compare this recording to the official releases Complete Celler Door and Live/Evil, both of which feature Dejohnette on drums and the wonderfully destabilizing guitar of John McLaughlin. Unlike the jagged genius of those sessions, this recording give us a polished, platinum stilletto.

Disc One: 52.11
Band Warming Up
Directions (J. Zawinul) 15:09
Theme stated at 3:58, 4:57.
Honky Tonk (M. Davis) 13:04
What I Say (M. Davis) 16:42
Sanctuary (W. Shorter-M. Davis) 3:05

Disc Two: 48.57
It's About That Time (M. Davis) 17:36
Yesternow (M. Davis) 14:27
Funky Tonk (M. Davis) 19:30
Sanctuary (W. Shorter-M. Davis) (closing theme) 1:14


Miles Davis - Trumpet
Gary Bartz - Soprano & Alto Saxes
Keith Jarrett - El Piano, Organ
Michael Henderson - El Bass
Ndugu Leon Chancler - Drums
Charles Don Alias - Percussion
James Mtume Foreman - Percussion

The link is in the comments.

5 comments:

MPomy said...

http://lix.in/-491fd4

Art Simon said...

I was going to post this one, and thought I would do a quick search to find out if anyone else had. Great Album! I've got some more 70s Miles over at postmiles.blogspot.com. Thanks!

-Art

MPomy said...

Thanks for the tip and the kind words. It's nice to get a comment that isn't "your link doesn't work". I'll be checking back at PostMiles regularly.

cooliusj said...

Thanks, great music. Is there any recordings from Miles Smiles era?

MPomy said...

Sorry, I got nuthin' from that era.