OK this is already "old news" but I just read a review and got excited)



9/15/2005

Review of Work: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970

ELECTRIC SHOCK






Album Information
Album: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970
Artist: Miles Davis
Desc: CD Review: Artist: Miles Davis
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Genre: Jazz

By Jason Ferguson

Although Bitches Brew gets the bulk of the credit for launching Miles Davis into the psychedelic stratosphere, that 1969 album, however groundbreaking, was a walk in a quiet park compared to the electric violence that thundered out of speakers when the needle dropped on the 1970 Miles at Fillmore album.

Listeners were quick to figure out that the pastoral expansiveness of Bitches Brew – which itself was the result of a few years of sonic evolution – took on a defiantly unpredictable personality when Miles and his band took the stage. Ill content with being the jazz guy who rock kids could dig, Miles was bent on shaping his group into something that burned with rock's visceral fire and jazz's improvisational virtuosity. His live shows of that period were menacing and relentless, tapping into a sort of extraterrestrial groove that was unfamiliar yet instantly accessible.

By the end of 1970, Miles had all but abandoned the material on Bitches Brew and the majority of the band who recorded it, as he ushered in another sonic phase. The transition is perfectly captured on The Cellar Door Sessions 1970. This excellent six-CD box set documents a four-night stand by Miles and his band at the Cellar Door in Washington, D.C., the weekend before Christmas 1970.

Some of this material made it to the phenomenal Live-Evil LP, which (like most of Miles' "live" albums of the era) was heavily edited by Teo Macero, resulting in an album that gave the effect of a live concert but was far from an accurate document. For example, John McLaughlin is featured throughout Live-Evil, when he was only present at one night of the Cellar Door shows.

In the new collection, six of the sets are presented in chronological order, making it easier to grasp the metamorphosis Miles was undergoing at the time.

Though Miles had yet to arrive at the driving hostility found on other "live" albums (like Dark Magus), he was obviously moving away from droning spaciousness and into something far more aggressive. "Inamorata" is the best example of this shift, as the song – played every night – employs grinding, two-hand keyboard riffs by Keith Jarrett and four-to-the-floor rhythm attacks by Jack DeJohnette and Michael Henderson with as much facility (and emphasis) as the brief interludes of atmosphere from Miles' trumpet. Those interludes get briefer and briefer, even as the song is played longer and longer as the weekend rolls on. By the time John McLaughlin shows up on Saturday night, it's turned into a viscous and suffocating monster that's as threatening as it is transcendent.

Miles allows plenty of room for his sidemen to shine. Though Henderson was new to the lineup, it's impossible to imagine any of these numbers without his funk-laced electric bass. Likewise, Gary Bartz's tonality on alto and soprano sax is in the forefront so often that sometimes you wonder if Miles is the auxiliary player. But it is Jarrett – beating the living crap out of two electric keyboards – who adds the most audibly effective difference, sounding more like Larry Young on a PCP bender than a subtle Scientologist.

Such youthful antagonism was strongly encouraged by Miles, who wanted his live performances of the era to be as brain-frying as the most acid-drenched rockers. The incredible shows documented on this collection prove that he succeeded completely.

music@orlandoweekly.com

I went looking for this in stores last week (to stare at it in awe, not actually to buy it - I have no money for this), but I guess it's now been delayed until Oct. 25th.

From what I've read on Miles Davis sites, it has apparently been delayed for years, and promo copies have been floating around for a few years now. Hmmm, did Stevie Wonder have anything to do with these sessions?

booyah said:

Don't know about promo's floating around, I do know about testpressings getting out a couple of years ago of which CDR copies were made and circulated...

Neversin.

Neversin said:

Guess that's what I heard about then. The people 'in the loop' have had this stuff for a little while.

Delayed indefinitely. Or until next year. Like the deluxe version of Kind of blue, which was meant to have had a whole extra disc of session material -pfalse starts, conversations, alternate takes. Widely bootlegged.

booyah said:

I'd love to get my hands on all that stuff, but I'm guessing this has as much a chance of getting released as that "The Last Word" set from 3 years ago...

Neversin.

booyah said:

Well, it was a feature in the latest DOWNBEAT (Herbie Hancock cover), so I hope it's out soon. I've put each Miles box on my Christmas list for the family exchange, so I hope this makes the cut by early December.