The price has been fluctuating on Amazon since it was put up for preorder. My own preorder, placed on December 9th is showing I’m going to pay £14.05 for it.
In the last two months I've been buying these up gradually, I got the 1 disc CD version of Vol.1 (1967 Europe) followed by the 4CD Vol.4 (Newport) & on Monday I received the 4 CD/DVD set of Vol.2 (1969 Europe). I have to say they've been an absolute revelation for me, they've cost me less than £30 in total & will improve my quality of life immeasurably. Given I didn't have any of the Newport Volume previously, that one in particular has been an absolute delight, I can't wait to get home from work to listen to some of this music.
I just saw that this will be released as a "hi-rez" download also, but only in 24/44 The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 | Miles Davis
Since the new year I have been buying and absorbing this excellent bootleg series. It's funny---I purchased all the metal spine box sets box when they were released. I loved those sets, but said to myself "I'm done with Miles now, I have more than enough". Fast forward to the beginning of this year. I had an urge to listen to some Miles, not having listened to him in a couple years. Instead of pulling out one of the trusty metal spine sets, I had some amazon gift cards and decided to take a chance on the first three volumes of this bootleg series. I was hooked again! My advice: Don't be put off by the title "bootleg series". These are amazing recordings AND the sound quality for the most part is exceptional. I was especially amazed at how good the first volume sounds. Those three concerts from 1967 sound incredible. I'm really surprised at the clarity and mixing. I just bought Vol. 4 & 5 to tide me over to the 1960 Miles/Coltrane set. I'll chime in on what I would like to see in future projects: 1975 Japan Kind of Blue session reels. I think they could do something similar to the Miles Smiles set with session reels followed by master takes. I know some would say this is really milking this classic album, but I would love to hear more of the sessions besides the short little snippets we got on the KOB 50th Anniversary 2 CD set. 1973 Live set. They really should include a DVD of the Vienna show with this set---such amazing quality! 1981 Live. Some complete shows from the We Want Miles era.
The Vienna '73 show was awesome! Miles was the coolist cat ever in those days! The WE WANT MILES shows were smoking too! Mike Stern was a MONSTER!
I was witness to an excellent argument on Facebook yesterday regarding the Dragon version of this release being 'official.' This guy picked the wrong person to argue with because he works for Sony/Legacy and is intimately involved with the Official release of this. He was very eloquent about there never being an 'official' version of this concert, but several people argued vehemently with him anyway. He even explained that the European laws are different and that it's more of a gray market release than anything. My two favorite lines were: "arguing on the internet is like throwing Jello underwater" and "facts are stubborn things."
The Dragon set has been out for ages. It has not be just released recently, it was widely available in the 1990s on CD and before that on vinyl. So it was no bootleg or a recent grey market release. I think this is basically a case of semantics. To the guy from Sony, the Dragon release, although perfectly legal, was not "official", because it was no done in cooperation with either Sony or the Miles Davis estate. While I understand this position, it actually does not really matter all that much. And by the way, just because some guy who works for a major label says so, it does not mean that it is so. It would be downright stupid to believe everything that someone says who works for a record label. Just from reading this forum, you could easily compile a book of outright lies and false statements by record labels. If you have the time, please copy/paste the relevant part of the coversation. It would like to read it.
Yeah he made this pretty clear and even tried to side-step the argument to say how great the music was, but the official vs. unofficial argument raged on. There was also a pointless statement about the Dragon sounding better than the Sony...which he hadn't heard yet to be able to make that comparison. Besides being a 'label guy' he is a dedicated music fan who loves Jazz and Miles. I've known him for about 15 years, he's a VERY Reliable Source in my book.
Exactly. To me it means squat that a release has the Sony logo on it. Dragon released this while Miles was alive, so at least he got some money from that. I've bought all the B Series releases so far, but not sure about this one. I mean, there's nothing new on it, and 4/5 is already out on official releases. They should have gone for another tour, early 50s stuff, '73, '75, '81, whatever.
Dragon has been supported by grants from the Swedish state. I find it highly unlikely that the artists are not recompensated. Sony made a blunder this time.
He may be to you, but not to me, because I don't know him. In addition, he is not there on personal business, but to represent a company which forces him to follow the company's official line. The statement that this new release is official, while others were unofficial, might be a good selling point at Sony's headquarters, but it is actually not very convincing for those who know their way around in the music business. Take these statements with a grain of salt, even if they are made by someone you respect. Well, even if that is true (and it may very well be untrue), Miles does not get a dime from this release as well.
What appears to be the full sessions is "out there". There's really precious little of the session that's not on the 2 CD set, sadly.
Wow! I did not know that. I thought those little 1-2 minute session excerpts on KOB Deluxe were small chunks of larger session reels.
Thankfully I have never come around to buy any of the previous European 1960 tour releases, so I'll happily pick the new official set. And even if I had any I'd most probably re-buy this material, just to give Sony an incentive to continue this marvellous series.
I don't have the European tour releases either and so patiently awaiting the next volume in this superb series.
Richard Brody’s assessment in The New Yorker: Listening to Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s Final Tour Listening to Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s Final Tour
I got a shipping notice from Amazon UK today (got in at 13 gbp plus shipping), but being in the US I don’t expect it particularly soon. However I did just get Vol 5 in the mail the other morning from eBay so I ought to dig into that
