Miles Davis - Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (Spkg)
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Miles DavisEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2005-12-20
Music Label: Sony
Free Music Notes for Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (Spkg)
Free Music Review: Long awaited and well worth the wait.
Hit: 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.
Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (Spkg) Poster
These mythical, Washington, DC December dates, released for the first in this impressive six-CD compilation, are an extension of Miles Davis's fusion LP, Live-Evil. Davis?s piercing, electronically altered trumpet tones fire up of his young Turks; keyboardist Keith Jarrett, drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist Michael Henderson , percussionist Airto Moreira, saxophonist Gary Bartz, and guitarist John McLaughlin. Davis's acoustic fans hated the adventurous and extended, jazz-rock excursions of selections like "Directions," "What I Say," and "It's About That Time," but there was no denying the complex interplay and improvisations, especially with Jarrett's rare Fender Rhodes electric piano and organ solos. Bartz's snaky, alto and soprano sax lines are equally astounding in this context, as is McLaughlin's "Hendrixsation" of the jazz guitar tradition. Davis bragged that he could "put together the greatest rock n' roll band you ever heard." He came pretty close to doing just that. --Eugene Holley, Jr.Jazz Music CDs
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