 |
| Miles in 1969 Photo by Guy Le Querrec. A print hangs in the Button Factory. |
In 1969, Miles Davis embarked on a transformative journey, breaking free from his previous musical identity and embarking on one of the most exhilarating career trajectories in modern music history. He ventured into uncharted territories, giving birth to entirely new genres and embarking on musical quests that continue to captivate audiences to this day.
Miles's band on this pivotal point on which his career would turn were, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Jack DeJohnette. This line-up became known as "The Miles Davis Lost Quintet" as it did not record in the studio in this configuration.
While Miles' 1970–1972 bands were funkier and the gigantic 1973–1975 ensembles took abstraction to its limits. The 1969 quintet was the first and only to delicately balance the frantic bop of Miles’ pre-electric period with what would become one of the most revolutionary albums in music history, Bitches Brew.
'1969 Miles: Festiva de Juan Pins' was recorded live at La Pinède, Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, France, July 25th, 1969. It was produced by Teo Macero, and released in October 1993, for the Japanese domestic market.
Tracklist
1. Directions
2. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
3. Milestones
4. Footprints
5. 'Round Midnight
6. It's About That Time
7. Sanctuary
8. The Theme
The Davis Quintet toured Europe in October-November 1969 as part of the Newport Jazz Festival in Europe produced by George Wein.
'Gemini' is a bootleg, that has one song, a 45-minute version Miles' composition, "Gemini". In typical bootleg fashion, this CD claims to have been recorded live in Paris, November 3, 1969, but this is a Radio Televisione Italian (RAI) radio broadcast from Teatro Sistina, Rome, Italy on October 27, 1969.
Be that as it may the performance and audio is sweet.
For the freeload, what were you doing in 1969?
Acid.
ReplyDeleteBrown?
DeleteJust my trousers.
DeleteNo, actually, tiny blue pills with an unforgettable metallic taste. "Microdots."
y'all were adults...at 11 I was trying to decide whether I wanted to be basketball player, a baseball player, or Che Guevara. O fer 3
ReplyDeleteI was 22, and living in Hermosa Beach, CA. My husband (then boyfriend) Jerry and I took a year of after graduating from Caltech, and before moving to Boston in 1970 for our postgraduate degrees. Our days were spent surfing, smoking Michoacán, drinking Olympia beer, and dropping acid. Our nights were spent in the cocktail lounge of the Casa del Mar hotel in Santa Monica, where I did my piano lounge act as “Barbara Brando”, while Jerry mixed cocktails. It was more or less the most Idyllic year of my life.
ReplyDeleteANON RF: Sophomore year in high school in Newport RI. Just started smoking, a mistake I corrected 33 years later. Playing bass in a garage group trio during summer vacation, covers of Cream and Hendrix (and, God help us, Blue Cheer), with a shit hot 17 year old guitarist on lead. Basically still awful young, a naive and annoying little squirt, as Eddie Haskell would put it. But things have changed radically. Now, I'm a naive and annoying old geezer.
ReplyDeleteI remember one moment: I was lying in the garden of my grandma, looking up to the moon. I tried to see what's going there, but it was too far...
ReplyDeleteFirst fam vaca, went to the Rockies from the flatlands. I was 13 & awed by the mountain range. I also later begged my mom to let me go to Woodstock. How will you get there, she said. I'll hitchhike. Nope. Thanks Babs
ReplyDeleteI started junior high in the fall of '69, and was still playing Pop Warner football (which I really enjoyed, in part because they grouped us by weight, so I was with kids one year younger than me).
ReplyDeleteI had turned on to electoral and legislative politics gradually, after the police riot in June 1967 outside the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, when LBJ was speaking inside. So, I was paying attention to Nixon's first year in 1969. I actually remember finding out about homelessness, because he closed the residential section of the large Veterans Administration Hospital next to my parents' house. There used to be scuzzy beer bars on San Vicente Blvd. across the street from there (think Hard Rock Cafe from the "Morrison Hotel" album cover), and they shut down with the loss of their clients. And there were folks camped out on grassy verges next to the V.A. grounds. For a young person like me, it was a shock.
If I was listening to the radio, it was probably still KHJ and KFWB, L.A.'s Top Forty stations. In the next year or two, kids at school turned me on to KMET and KLOS, two successful-but-hip FM stations.
D in California
At this time of year I was in grade 10, wondering how the heck it would all turn out. I had already missed the Summer of Love, and it looked like I was going to miss a lot more. I did and, as it turned out, it didn't matter! Adventures awaited...
ReplyDeleteGood mornin' everyone, in 1969 i did all five-years-olds were suppposed to do. Fantastic trips to the next block, sword fights in the garden, children's tv shows, teasing my siblings, driving my parents crazy, having incredible adventures, forming gangs, etc. Lots of laughter, but also tears. We had fun competitions, like who could eat the most pancackes, or who dared to eat a fly, all nonsens. So, all perfectly normal. The worst part was the daily kindergarten. I never wanted to go to but had to. I tried everything i could. Despite that, i always had to go.My parents were merciless about it. But the real drama and horrow show began 6 or 7 years later. Have a nice day, best regards, Mike
ReplyDeleteWould have been 12 at the time. As a typical 12 yr o;d boy, I was probably masterbating.
ReplyDelete...is that like being really good at masturbating?
DeleteI was talking about baiting a hook to fish!
DeleteAt what age did you start your apprenticeship?
DeleteLink
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/fSDcvRuzTfF
being a troubled yout ... I blame society.
ReplyDeleteJuly 1969
ReplyDeleteWOW - seeing the ad in the Arts section of the Sunday NYT. The full line-up of each of the 3-days festival, from the top to the bottom of the page.
August 15 - Friday
As we enter the Thruway in Albany, we were alone, no traffic. We didn’t know the venue had changed. At the merging of the Mass turnpike, sudden stop, and for the next 70 miles, it was "stop ´n ´ go" until... we couldn’t get any further. We left the car beside a very old barn.
It took us a 2-hour walk to reach the site, with a little drizzle now and then.
At the back of the site, on top of the hill, Chip introduced Joan Baez. The sound system was outstanding, as if we were at Carnegie Hall, the lights beaming from the towers showed where Joan was on stage, we were that far.
Friday night, it was a grassy site. On the opposite hill, there was a campsite with "100s" of campfires... & the mix of Joan, the light rain, the campfires behind the stage and the smell of the grass... sublime moment.
We got back to the car. Waking up, we were 2 dozen sleeping everywhere in the barn.
Saturday was a beautiful day, with a few cloudy periods. Not a drop of rain... for us. We got back to the site in the afternoon, Keef Hartley was playing, and we noticed the change. It was a disaster area. The hill was all mud, and the smell... a dumping site. A few days like this, and an epidemy would develop. We left.
In the evening, stopping at the first service area on the Thruway, we were greeted by a screaming employee yelling to no one - "What the hell is going on, it’s the 4th time I’m mopping the floor in the last hour"... we laughed... not telling him why.
It was a peaceful and good vibes event despite the problems.
We were caught by surprise & excited to witness this moment in such a scale.
... one story ... among the million who went - yeah - there were that many scattered all over, off the site.
- hippies... for the media. 99.99% were not.
- boomers’ music... created by the generation before - war babies. Most were borne between ´39-‘45.
- In "Gimme Shelter" at Altamont, the ridiculous 3-feet high stage...
Back home on Sunday, didn’t think much about it, until the film came out and made it a cultural reference, since, between ´66 &´72 I saw about 60 concerts/festivals... lucky, to have lived the sixties fully.
It was a confortable rain when Joan played
Summer of '69 I would've been playing baseball, mowing lawns to earn money to spend on records, buying records and then listening to them with my best friend who I'd met the year before. High school loomed just ahead with the threat of upperclassmen dragging freshmen into the can to give them whirlies (sticking your head into the toilet and flushing).
ReplyDeletein the beginning or 1969 i was on probation in anticipation of dismissal, provided i had no more run-ins with the law. by the end, i had turned 18, probation was over, I had barely made it out of high school and i had a girlfriend! The quiet(s) before the storm(s).
ReplyDeleteI was born January 10th, 1969
ReplyDelete