Miles Davis - 70's Sessions

I love Miles' stuff from the seventies. This isn't to say that I don't like his earlier stuff, but I've always found his electric period to be the most fulfilling. Miles' electric era stems from 1968 through 1976, the year he took an extended break/early retirement. At the time, many people said that Miles was out of his comfort zone and didn't know what he was doing, but time has brought a lot of the naysayers around realizing that he really was on to something and clearly inspired in doing so.

It's easy enough to say that you can take "Bitches Brew" as an introduction to electric Miles, but "Panthalassa", a Bill Laswell conceived compilation covering this era, is far more accurate. Laswell took the original masters and remixed them to make them as clear as possible without losing the vibes of the original releases. He did this brilliantly, even including a few unreleased pieces from the "On The Corner" sessions, but best of all he didn't try to modernize the sound by including any techno or drum'n'bass sounds. There was a companion remix album to "Panthalassa" which did just that, bringing in Jamie Myerson, Doc Scott and King Britt, among others, to make more "club-friendly" tracks, which was an utter failure, but at least an additional Laswell production was included making it worthwhile for the extra fifteen minutes of "On The Corner" extracts.

If you're not familiar with Miles in the seventies, go get the two albums I mentioned above and see how much further you want to explore. For me, I wanted to dive in as deep as I possibly could, which meant spending a lot on expensive imports, at least until Columbia started issuing their beautiful box-sets covering the periods of "Bitches Brew", "On The Corner", "In A Silent Way", "A Tribute To Jack Johnson" and the "Cellar Door Sessions" which were used for "Live-Evil". These sets normally feature the word "Complete" in their names which is generally inaccurate. Don't get me wrong, they're great sets, but when you have to include six or seven discs in a set surrounding an album which was created from sessions upon sessions where the tracks are essentially remixes of these recordings, it becomes really hard to feature everything. It's a shame as these already incredible sets would be beyond belief if they did contain every take, mix and edit created, but it's hard to get people to pay three or four hundred dollars for a set of that size. It sounds like an argument in favor of a digital subscription service where you pay a yearly flat-fee for all the downloads you could want, but until someone can get me a meeting with Rick Rubin I'm sure this won't go anywhere. That said, there are some really nice unreleased recordings from all of these eras in circulation among fans and traders which are as good as it gets until an official release may occur, which is great if, like me, the six or seven discs of each individual box-set isn't enough Miles for you.

It's hard to include everything I've found, which is a lot, especially since some of the material has been released elsewhere, so I've compiled a disc's worth of recordings which have not been officially issued as of yet. Alternate takes of some of the tracks have been issued here and there, but everything in today's post is completely unavailable through standard, official sources, so prepare to get your Miles-fix!

Before I go any further, I want to give a shout to the fabulous Miles Ahead website which has been the source for session dates and band line-ups featured here for each of the tracks. If you want to learn more about Miles, what releases may contain versions of some of these tracks or about some of the available bootlegs featuring unreleased sessions, you definitely want to pay them a visit.

One last note, if you have any additional Miles session recordings and would like to discuss or share them, please drop me a line as I would love to hear from you. I'm especially interested in hearing the complete 1976 recordings and 1978 comeback sessions.

Miles Davis - 70's Sessions
PART ONE
PART TWO
NOTE: The original files have been deleted since they're included in a much larger post located HERE.


March 20, 1970, Columbia Studio, New York
01 So What (incomplete take)
Miles Davis (Trumpet)
Steve Grossman (Soprano Saxophone)
John McLaughlin (Guitar)
Herbie Hancock (Organ)
Dave Holland (Electric Bass)
Lenny White (Drums)

April 7, 1970, Columbia Studio, New York
02 Untitled Original
Miles Davis (Trumpet)
Steve Grossman (Soprano Saxophone)
John McLaughlin (Guitar)
Herbie Hancock (Organ)
Michael Henderson (Electric Bass)
Billy Cobham (Drums)

November 6, 1974, Columbia Studio E, New York
03 Sound (Take 2)
04 What They Do (Take 13)
Miles Davis (Trumpet, Organ)
Sonny Fortune (Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Flute)
Pete Cosey (Guitar, Drums, Percussion)
Reggie Lucas (Guitar)
Dominique Gaumont (Guitar)
Michael Henderson (Electric Bass)
Al Foster (Drums)
James Mtume Forman (Conga, Percussion)

February 27, 1975, Columbia Studio B, New York
05 Turn Of The Century
Miles Davis (Organ)
Sonny Fortune (Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Flute)
Pete Cosey (Guitar, Percussion)
Reggie Lucas (Guitar)
Michael Henderson (Electric Bass)
Al Foster (Drums)
James Mtume Forman (Conga, Percussion)

May 5, 1975, Columbia Studio B, New York
06 Minnie (Takes 3 and 4)
07 Minnie (Take 6 Remix)
10 Untitled Original (Take 2)
Miles Davis (Trumpet, Organ)
Sam Morrison (Tenor Saxophone)
Pete Cosey (Guitar, Percussion)
Reggie Lucas (Guitar)
Michael Henderson (Electric Bass)
Al Foster (Drums)
James Mtume Forman (Conga Percussion)

March 30, 1976, Columbia Studio, New York
08 Untitled Original (Take 3)
09 Untitled Original (Take 5)
11 Song Of Landa (Take 6)
Miles Davis (Organ)
Sam Morrison (Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Flute)
Mark Johnson (Electric Piano)
Pete Cosey (Guitar, Percussion)
Michael Henderson (Electric Bass)
Al Foster (Drums)

December 27, 1976, Unknown Studio
12 TDK Funk (incomplete take)
Miles Davis (Organ)
Pete Cosey (Guitar, Percussion)
Michael Henderson (Electric Bass)
Al Foster (Drums)
NOTE: This session was for a TDK commercial, hence the track's name although it's most-likely a fan or bootlegger attributed name. The trumpet solo is from the issued version of "Calypso Frelimo" recorded September 17, 1973. The rhythm track is an excerpt of "What They Do", take 14, from November 6, 1974. Miles may not have been directly involved in the session that created this track.



NOTE: I erroniously listed track ten as Mother, Dearest Mother, a track from a 1976 session. It is actually an untitled piece from May of 1975, the same session which Minnie is taken from. I haven't changed the file's info but I did correct it on this page, so if you're wondering why track ten is listed out of order here, that's why. It'll be further corrected in a future post which will be expanding upon this topic.