The Miles Davis Lost Quintet and Other Revolutionary EnsemblesMiles Davis’s Bitches Brew is one of the most iconic albums in American music, the preeminent landmark and fertile seedbed of jazz-fusion. Fans have been fortunate in the past few years to gain access to Davis’s live recordings from this time, when he was working with an ensemble that has come to be known as the Lost Quintet. In this book, jazz historian and musician Bob Gluck explores the performances of this revolutionary group—Davis’s first electric band—to illuminate the thinking of one of our rarest geniuses and, by extension, the extraordinary transition in American music that he and his fellow players ushered in. Gluck listens deeply to the uneasy tension between this group’s driving rhythmic groove and the sonic and structural openness, surprise, and experimentation they were always pushing toward. There he hears—and outlines—a fascinating web of musical interconnection that brings Davis’s funk-inflected sensibilities into conversation with the avant-garde worlds that players like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane were developing. Going on to analyze the little-known experimental groups Circle and the Revolutionary Ensemble, Gluck traces deep resonances across a commercial gap between the celebrity Miles Davis and his less famous but profoundly innovative peers. The result is a deeply attuned look at a pivotal moment when once-disparate worlds of American music came together in explosively creative combinations. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 Miles Goes Electric | 7 |
2 Bitches Brew in the Studio and on the Road | 35 |
Leroy Jenkins Musica Elettronica Viva and the Peace Church Concert | 57 |
Musical Rumblings in Chelsea | 79 |
5 Miles Daviss Increasingly Electric 1970 and a Reflection on His 197175 Bands | 97 |
6 Circle | 113 |
7 The Revolutionary Ensemble | 133 |
Timeline | 165 |
Reconsidering Miles Davis at Fillmore Live at the Fillmore East 1970 in Light of Miles at the Fillmore 2014 | 171 |
Circles Performance of Its Members Compositions | 183 |
Notes | 189 |
| 239 | |
Discography | 251 |
| 257 | |
Comparisons and Contrasts Inside and Outside the Jazz Economy | 149 |
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Common terms and phrases
Altschul Anthony Braxton appears approach Artists audience audio compact disc band band’s Barry bass bassist become begins Bitches Brew building called changes Chicago Chick Corea chord Circle close Coleman collective complete composer compositions concert continues Cooper create Creative Dave Holland Davis’s developed direction Don Cherry drummer drums early electric Ensemble experience Festival figures Fillmore Fillmore East final followed going hear heard idea improvisation included interview Jack DeJohnette jazz Jenkins John joined kind later Leroy lines listening live loft Lost Quintet March material melodic Miles Davis minutes moved musicians notes organ performance period phrases piano players playing Quartet Quintet quoted recalls recording released repeated Revolutionary Ensemble rhythm section rhythmic rock saxophone sessions Shorter solo soon sound space Street structure studio textural thing tour trio tune vamp wanted York