Miles Davis – 'The Cellar Door Sessions 1970'

 

1970 was a hectic year for Miles Davis.  He took his ensembles into the Columbia recording studio fourteen times during the first six months of that year, twice as many times as he did in 1969, the year he recorded 'Bitches Brew'.  He also had a busy touring schedule, including historic performances at The Fillmore East and The Isle of Wight festival.

'The Cellar Door Sessions 1970' is a 2005 release of several 1970 concerts given by Miles Davis, at the 'The Cellar Door' nightclub in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC.

Significant portions of Miles' 'Live-Evil' were edited and compiled from the music that appears on CDs 5 and 6.  But none of the performances are in any way like 'Live-Evil', which was edited, streamlined, remixed and interspersed with fragments of tracks from the Jack Johnson Sessions.

This is one of the few recordings that has Keith Jarrett playing electric piano.  'Live-Evil' and this collection are the only live recordings of John McLaughlin live performances with Miles Davis.

The centerpiece here is the fast, funky "What I Say", built on a manic bass line courtesy of Michael Henderson, but really driven by Gary Bartz's energetic soprano sax solo.  It totally takes off once Bartz starts playing, and this song gets longer at every performance.  Contrary to the 'Live-Evil' mix and fortunately, none of the versions here is marred by Airto Moreira's intrusive tambourine, so that nothing disturbs this excellent track.

Gary Bartz and Miles

When this was released, I wasn't sure that I really wanted to listen to multiple versions of "What I Say", "Directions", "Honky Tonk" etc., but being presented, as they are, as one full set per CD, it's just tempting to pick out one CD and listen to one full performance, and to another one on another day.  The different versions of the tracks only share the theme and the basic rhythmic structure; everything else is pretty much reinvented from scratch at each performance.

One of the interesting things about Miles' electric phase is that these recordings are much more obviously ensemble pieces than music primarily attributed to him, even though he provided most of the concept and direction.  More than on the Fillmore East performance from a few months earlier, the band on The Cellar Door Sessions sounds more like a tightly integrated ensemble of equals.

Along with Miles on electric trumpet (with wah-wah), are:

Gary Bartz on soprano and alto sax
John McLaughlin on guitar (CDs 5-6 only)
Keith Jarrett on electric piano and, electric organ
Michael Henderson on bass

Jack DeJohnette: drums
Airto Moreira: percussion (CDs 2-3-4-5-6)

For the freeload, what are your favorite albums recorded in 1970?