For any Miles fans out there who've made their way through the Montreaux 20CD set, there's more out tomorrow. A 4CD set of the complete Friday and Saturday night shows at the Blackhawk in San Francisco from 1961.

I haven't seen it mentioned here yet, so I thought I would bring it up. I'll be getting it tomorrow and listening tomorrow night.

Here's the Amazon link (although I found out through an e-mail from miles-davis.com, there's nothing on their website yet):

http://www.amazon.com/exe...80-2297469

The set is also available as 2 2CD sets (Friday night and Saturday night), also out tomorrow.

Enjoy!

your link is broken...


Miles Davis: In Person Friday & Saturday Blackhawk: Complete 4-CD set Remastered

up for medoc2003...

oops, i didn't see that this thread had already been started, otherwise, i would have just posted on this one, instead of starting another one. in case folks only open this thread...


miles davis at the blackhawk

here's another installment of, "i'm spending way too much money on miles davis". i was in tower records and happened to notice that columbia records has re-released "miles davis - in person friday and saturday nights at the blackhawk" as a 4 cd set.

the original releases were two single lps (then two seperate single cds). the re-release has basically two full hours of music that hasn't been released before. i had been saving for the 20 cd montreux set, but had to get this one first. i much prefer the acoustic miles to the electric miles.

these dates, in general, have been woefully overlooked in the past by miles fans. they are from april 21 & 22, 1961 which was sort of a transitional period for miles. coltrane had left and it was prior to the formation of the "second great quintet" with wayne shorter and herbie hancock.

for historical perspective, in 1957 miles released 'miles ahead' with the gil evans orchestra, which received great critical acclaim. in 1958 miles had released 'porgy and bess' with orchestration by gil evans, which was a very popular seller. in 1959, he released 'kind of blue' which is regarded by many as the single greatest jazz album of all time. in 1960, he released 'sketches of spain', which again was acclaimed by critics as a masterpiece. then coltrane left to form his own group and began to take miles mantle as the envelope pusher and trend setter in jazz. miles released a couple of albums in 1961, that didn't break new ground, and so critics sort of panned them. it seems sort of funny, because he had released about 4-5 albums in succession that are still regarded today as all-time greats, but when he followed it up with merely a normally great record, everyone was sort of disappointed.

also, during that time the new thing in jazz was avant-garde. ornette coleman, don cherry, and others were changing jazz. coltrane embraced the new movement to some extent, but miles did not. coltrane incorporated some of that style into his new releases, but miles didn't, and so the miles releases in 1961, were panned because they didn't follow the avant-garde trend of the day. miles was seen as 'too old school'. he would change that when he formed the "second great quintet" mentioned above.

so the live at the blackhawk sets were always looked at as lesser works, because of the stuff mentioned above. now, divorced from the historical perspective, lack of trendiness, etc. you can appreciate them for what they are. great jazz sets.


sorry for the repeat

Cool!. In the last 2 weeks I got the Montreux set, The Montreal DVD and the Miles Davis Story DVD and I thought to myself "Oh well, I guess that's everything now" and now I hear this news! Still, I wish they'd release more live stuff from '65-68, there's hardly anything out there.

toejam said:

the 5cd complete jack johnson set is scheduled for the first part of september...

save your money

medoc2003 said:

no need to be sorry... especially when it comes to md