Miles Davis Live - What It Is: Montreal 7/7/83

In the summer of 1975, after performing for over three and a half decades, Miles Davis retired from music due to ailing health and general burnout.  He didn’t pick up his horn again until sometime in 1980.  During this period, by his own admission, he kept himself occupied with various activities, including women, cocaine, cognac, occasional showgoing, women, beer, sleeping pills, speedballs, Percodan, Seconal, a brief stint in jail for failing to pay child support, and, of course, more women.

But even legends experience moments of vulnerability.  So when he decided he had had enough of his highly charged lifestyle (and with some persuasion from Columbia executive George Butler), he assembled a band, booked studio time, and made up for lost time.

The initial results of Miles Davis’s "comeback" were mixed.  His first album after the hiatus, "The Man With the Horn" was released in 1981.  It featured two different bands. One band included keyboardist Robert “Bobby” Irving III and Miles’ nephew Vince Wilburn on drums.  The other band featured guitarist Mike Stern, bassist Marcus Miller, saxophonist Bill (no, not that Bill) Evans, and drummer Al Foster, who was the only holdover from Miles’ 1970s groups.  As a result, the album straddled the line between Miles’ desire to update his funk-fusion sound from the previous decade and his attempt to try something entirely new—in this case, incorporating snappy funk-pop into his repertoire, even including a track with soul vocals.

Fans were generally delighted to see Miles back, but there were a few areas where he needed improvement.  For anyone who had followed his journey up to that point, two things were evident: he had some catching up to do in incorporating the sound of the 1980s into his music, and his trumpet chops weren’t quite back yet.  By his own admission, he hadn’t completely overcome his drug and alcohol addiction, so it would take a year or so of performing shows and eventually making positive changes before he started sounding like himself again.

'Miles Davis Live - What It Is: Montreal 7/7/83' was a June 18, 2022, Record Store Day drop.

The show was recorded live on July 7, 1983, at Theatre St. Denis, Montreal, Canada, as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

In 1983, as you'll clearly hear, Miles got his trumpet chops back.  And speaking of chops, the backing band is guitarist John Scofield, saxophonist Bill (no, not that Bill) Evans, bassist Darryl Jones (future Sting, Madonna, and Rolling Stones collaborator), drummer Al Foster and percussionist Mino Cinelu.  They were on a break from Miles' 'Decoy' recording sessions, so they were "well oiled" and ridiculously tight.

There’s nothing slick or mediocre here: "Speak (That’s What Happened)", "What It Is" and "Hopscotch" are right out of his mid-70s playbook, with frantic tempos, percussion, and best of all, Miles kicking the crap out of his solos.  Also, Miles developed a technique of playing trumpet with one hand, using the other to accentuate his jabbing figures on synth, approximating both Prince's synths circa 'Dirty Mind' and the brass sections Gil Evans used to arrange for him.  Which is fitting, because the melody on "Speak (That’s What Happened)" was itself arranged by Evans, based on an improvised John Scofield figure from an earlier session.  As with all the best Miles shows, the (roughly) 85 minute set ebbs and flows organically.

For the freeload, what are of your favorite musical "comebacks"?