Frequent Fire: Miles Immemorial

It is May 26th and that can only mean one thing.

88 years ago today Miles Davis III was born. He changed music not once, not twice, but a total of about five or six times.

He is responsible for so many innovations and so many indispensable records, it's impossible to overstate what he means to the music of our lifetimes. Not just jazz music either.

The only jazz musician ever inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Miles' "electric period" music alone -- in which he almost singlehandedly fused jazz with rock into some of the most frighteningly intense sonic assaults that will ever be mounted by anyone -- stands as such a monumental influence on other musicians that without him what we know as modern music is almost inconceivable.

You could point to several of his recordings -- Birth of the Cool, Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, Miles Smiles, Nefertiti, Bitches Brew, On the Corner and Agharta -- as being benchmarks that altered the trajectory of music and art irrevocably. Precious few musicians can even claim one such album.

As essential as his albums are, his live concerts are the stuff of myth and legend and have transformed the lives of millions of people. The live work from 1970-75 has no precedent and no one has approached it since. During those years Miles must have been tapped into some eternal, galactic Funk Force that drove him to create music undreamt of at the time and arguably still light years ahead of its time.

To celebrate I am going to post two segments. Two facemelting concerts from the same venue in Tokyo, dating from the halcyon days of the mid-1970s, and a compilation of all the tunes made by Miles in yet another genre he pioneered: that of quieter, mellower, ambient-themed compositions in jazz-rock fusion. You should pull all of them down from the cloud immediately if not sooner.

Miles Davis III

Directions In Music, 1969-74

I.

Miles Davis Septet
Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall
Tokyo, Japan
6.19.1973
pre-FM fan remaster

cd1
01 Turnaroundphrase
02 Tune in 5
03 Right Off
04 Funk
05 Unknown F

cd2
01 Ife
02 Aghartha Prelude
03 Zimbabwe

Total time: 1:30:55

Miles Davis - trumpet, organ
Dave Liebman - tenor and soprano saxophones
Pete Cosey - guitar, percussion
Reggie Lucas - guitar
Michael Henderson - bass
James "Mtume" Heath - congas, rhythm box, table percussion
Al Foster - drums

II.

Miles Davis Septet
"Another Unity"
Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall
Tokyo, Japan
1.22.1975
EN pre-FM remaster

01 Prelude & Funk
02 Maiysha
03 Ife
04 Mtume
05 Turnaroundphrase
06 Tune In 5
07 Untitled

Total time: 1:19:58

Miles Davis: trumpet, organ
Sonny Fortune: alto & soprano sax, flute
Pete Cosey: guitar, synthesizer, kalimba, table percussion
Reggie Lucas: guitar
Michael Henderson: bass
James "Mtume" Heath: percussion, rhythm box
Al Foster: drums

both shows are zipped together

1.03 GB FLAC

III.

Miles Davis

Shhhh.... Peaceful

ambient recollections

1969-74

cd1

01 In a Silent Way

02 Recollections

03 Shhh, Peaceful (EN secret edit)

04 Nem Um Talvez

05 Selim

06 Lonely Fire, pt. 1

07 Yesternow, pt. 1

08 Guinnevere

cd2

01 Ife (variation 1)

02 Orange Lady

03 Yaphet

04 Little Church

05 Ascent

06 Right Off (interlude)

07 Early Minor

08 Take It or Leave It

09 Ife (variation 2)

10 Peace

11 Sanctuary

12 He Loved Him Madly (flute edit)

Total time: 2:37:43

916 MB FLAC

all material archived together/May 2014 archive link

88 years and a lifetime that changed the world forever... now that's my idea of a Memorial Day.

May 26, 1926 - September 28, 1991