Available in
4CD boxset and digital configurations, Miles Davis & John Coltrane - The
Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 brings together, for the first time in
an authorized edition with state-of-the-art production, five mythic concert
performances as heard by lucky audiences during the epochal Spring 1960 Jazz At
The Philharmonic European Tour.
Showcasing
the musical chemistry shared by Miles and Trane, The Final Tour: The Bootleg
Series, Vol. 6 offers five of the best recorded shows from that pivotal 1960
tour (Coltrane's last as sideman): two shows from Paris's L'Olympia Theater on
Monday, March 21; two shows from the next night at Stockholm's Konserthuset;
and one from Copenhagen's Tivolis Koncertsal three days later, on March 24.
The box set
was produced by the multi-Grammy winning team of producers Steve Berkowitz,
Michael Cuscuna and Richard Seidel. And mastered by multi-Grammy winning Sony
Music engineer Mark Wilder. The set is authorized for official release by the
Miles Davis Estate, the John Coltrane Estate, and Columbia Records/Legacy
Recordings.
Miles Davis
and John Coltrane were each implementing their own jazz revolutions at the time
these recordings were made and the electrifying sonic frisson produced by the
sometimes-competing/sometimes-intertwining musical visions of the artists
perplexed contemporary jazz fans--many of whom were just getting acquainted
with the recently-released and now iconic Kind of Blue.
"Much
happened on that 1960 tour onstage and off, including powerful, emotionally
charged performances in which one can hear the swinging, divergent energy of a
band, and the unfiltered reactions of the European audiences: the crowd
responses are indeed an inherent part of these historic performances,"
writes Grammy Award®-winning music historian Ashley Kahn in his in-depth
revelatory liner notes penned especially for this collection. "The common
judgement on this music is that it represents a great jazz ensemble audibly
straining to hold itself together...An equally convincing interpretation of the
1960 situation is that Miles and his quintet were redefining what a great band
could sound like, and how much music it could contain—at one time, in one
concert, even in one tune. It's not that the bandmembers were so much apart,
but rather that each were more themselves within the same unit—that divergence
could co-exist and make music together."
The repertoire performed in this collection is a
veritable Miles Davis "Greatest Hits" including " 'Round
Midnight", "Bye Bye Blackbird", "On Green Dolphin
Street", "Walkin' ", "All Of You" and
"Oleo", all of which he had made his own and had been performing for
some time. As well as more recent additions to the repertoire which were
composed by Davis – "So What" and "All Blues" -- both from Kind Of Blue.
The Final
Tour is essential listening, an invitation to travel through time to experience
the enduring beauty and magic of Miles and Trane at the peak of their
collective powers. The ensemble includes Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane
(tenor sax), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums),
all of whom had been performing together since the Kind Of Blue album.
The Final
Tour closes with a rare contemporaneous audio interview with John Coltrane
(conducted by Swedish deejay Carl-Erik Lindgren). "Do you feel
angry?," asks Lindgren. "No, I don't," says Coltrane. "I
was talking to a fellow the other day, and I told him, the reason I play so
many sounds, maybe it sounds angry, I'm trying so many things at one time. I
haven't sorted them out."
Originally
broadcast on European radio in March 1960, these concert recordings have been
long sought after and prized by collectors and are now officially available at
last as the latest installment in Columbia/Legacy's acclaimed Miles Davis
Bootleg Series.
For 12"
vinyl collectors and audiophiles, Columbia/Legacy will release The Final Tour:
Copenhagen, March 24, 1960 as a single 12" vinyl album.
A 2LP
12" vinyl edition of Miles Davis & John Coltrane - The Final Tour:
Paris, March 21, 1960 will be reissued exclusively through Vinyl Me, Please as
part of their new VMP Classics subscription featuring the best jazz, blues
& soul reissues on 180g black vinyl with exclusive listening notes.
Available by signing up at http://www.vinylmeplease.com/
The first
five volumes of The Miles Davis Bootleg Series have enjoyed numerous honors and
accolades:
Live in
Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1 (released September 2011) was the most
acclaimed historic jazz box set of 2011, receiving a "5-star" review
from Down Beat magazine, where it was voted Historical Album of the Year in the
Down Beat 2012 Readers and Critics Poll.
The album was ranked #1 reissue in the Readers Poll of JazzTimes
magazine while the Jazz Journalists Association voted it Best Historical or
Boxed Set. The set peaked at #3 on
Billboard's Top Jazz Album Charts.
Miles Davis
Quintet – Live In Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 (released January
2013) won the Jazz Journalists Association Historical Record of the Year, voted
Historical Album of the Year in the Downbeat Readers and Critics Poll, and #1
reissue in both the Critics and Readers polls of JazzTimes magazine. Like its
predecessor, the album also peaked at #3 on Billboard's Top Jazz Album Charts.
MILES AT THE
FILLMORE – Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 (released March 2014)
won the Jazz Journalists Association Historical Record of the Year, voted the
#1 Historical Album of the Year in the 2014 Downbeat Critics Poll, #3
Historical Album of the Year in the 2014 JazzTimes Critics Poll, and included
in Rolling Stone's Best Reissues of 2014 list with a 4.5/5 STAR rating. The set
peaked at #1 on Billboard's Top Jazz Album Charts.
MILES DAVIS
AT NEWPORT 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 (released March 2015) was voted
the #1 Historical Reissue in the 2015 JazzTimes Critics Poll and won
Historical/Reissue/Vault Release in the 2015 JazzTimes Readers Poll. The set
was also named in Downbeat's "Best Albums of 2015" list, received 4
Stars in the Historical category and in Downbeat's Critics Poll was the winner
in the Historical Album category. The set won the 2016 NAACP Image Award for
the Outstanding Jazz Album category.
Miles Davis
Quintet: Freedom Jazz Dance: The Bootleg Series, Vol 5 (released October 2016)
was #2 Historical Album of the Year in Downbeat's 65th annual Critic's Poll
(August 2017 issue) and #6 Historical Album of the Year in Downbeat's 82nd
Readers Poll (December 2017 issue).
No comments:
Post a Comment