Miles Davis' best live album?

My funny valentine for sure for me!

..and I've had the plugged nickel box set...

 

The Live at the Fillmore (It's About That Time) has a lot of distortion. It was the first time Columbia tried to record the band live, and the recording wasn't released until years later. Caveat Emptor.

If you can't find Complete Plugged Nickel get the Seven Steps box set. It has the Carnegie Hall performances released separately reedited into the original running order of the performances. Those would be My Funny Valentine and Four and More. IIRC, Tony Williams suggested Sam Rivers for the gig and Miles felt that he overplayed. George Coleman was a great fit, but both of them were evidently transitional members until Miles settled on Wayne Shorter.

You can divide Miles into unplugged and plugged in. I dig plugged in. For plugged in Miles I suggest Complete Cellar Door Sessions, which is kind of an electric version of Plugged Nickel in that it's a series of sets where they work over a small number or tunes in interesting variations. Recorded over several days time, like Plugged Nickel, IIRC. Only difference is that Miles added musicians during the gig, John McLaughlin and Airto.

Second place goes to Agharta, which is an absolute steam roller of heavy grooving guitar based jazz rock. Live at Philharmonic Hall is underrated, as is We Want Miles (a comeback effort).

 

Airto was a member of the band for most of that year, but missed the first night of the Cellar Door sessions for unknown reasons.

 

The Blackhawk sets for me too.

Best Wishes
David

 

If we're counting Japanese-market releases, I'd have to recommend this one:

1969 Miles

 

I would have to agree about the Blackhawk dates. Last night, I was listening to the Mosaic vinyl set and was once again wowed by both the performances and the "you are there" quality of the recordings. What a fantastic set!

 

See also this thread, which deals only with the electric period live albums:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=127567

 

He didn't exactly "let him go". Rivers was going to leave anyway; he had different ideas than Miles and didnt want to keep playing the standards that were in the set list at the time.

Plugged Nickel is the best, Blackhawk, the Philharmonic Hall concert from 1964, and if you are interested in the electric period, get the Cellar Door set right away, followed by Pangaea then Agharta (Pangaea has a little more dynamics than Agharta, with a lot of nice flute playng by Sonny Fortune and some great atmospheric guitar).

 

Pangea. It's so dense sounding, there's nothing like it anywhere... try the Japanese pressings...

 

I'm planning on picking up Agharta and Pangaea soon.... am I correct in thinking they weren't part of the extensive Columbia/Legacy CD re-issues series?

 

Agharta.

This music will sound futuristic 100 years from now, and yet it was recorded 35 years ago.

 

Miles in Europe was always my personal favorite.

 

Miles in Berlin is my personal favorite. My Funny Valentine, Four and More, the Blackhawk sets and the Plugged Nickel are also great, but there is something special about Miles in Berlin.

 

They were in the latest released Box, but not individually, and I don't know if they used the late 90's version, Japan 2006 or did a remaster on them.

http://plosin.com/milesAhead/CCAC.html

There is a thread here somewhere about this box. It initially had Quality issues (with the packaging) and buyers got another set from Sony I believe.

edit : here it is: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=187001&highlight= there is arguement there about those 2 discs and the masstering.



As far as the 2 year old Darcy thread goes - Plugged Nickel Box

 

How about Dark Magus? Forgot to mention it earlier... no Columbia/Legacy reissue of that one either?

 

We Want Miles and the Montreux boxed set for me!

 

Yes there was...there was a Sony/Legacy reissue of all the 70s fusion live albums except Agharta/Pangea. The first ones were in digipacks then they were released in double jewelboxes.

 

Yes, although they both got the Legacy treatment for the editions included in The Complete Columbia Album Collection.

Dark Magus (Columbia Legacy edition) was issued in 1997. That edition is included in The Complete Columbia Album Collection.

 

I totally agree about the Montreux box set. It documents Miles' under-appreciated 80s bands live. As a 20 disc set, it might be a bit much, however. My favorite live set is the Warsaw 1983 set that you can find on Dime.

 

I confess that I couldn't grab the music at all when I heard it for the first time. It was too dense, too complex, too lound... It was unpredictable, too.
But the music has been growing with me every time I listened to it.

 

Dark Magus!

 

The digipacks were the first U.S. issues of Black Beauty and Dark Magus.

 

I'm surprised there's not more love for Agharta. Its not all gold but some of that stuff is the most intense noise he or anyone ever laid down. The guitar playing (Cosey?) is simply jaw-dropping.

 

Friday Night At The Blackhawk
Lincoln Center February 12 1964 (released in the Seven Steps box or as My Funny Valentine and Four & More)
It's About That Time: Fillmore East 1970 (Bitches Brew, but then a lot more intense)
Live Around The World (featuring the definitve Time After Time)

I haven't heard the Plugged Nickel set, it's way too expensive for my budget. Sorry.

 

I love Agharta. It's one of my top five Miles albums, live or not, especially the first half of it. Cosey is awesome on it. He melts my brain with his playing. I think Miles is pretty good on it as well, whereas he sounds fatigued (or just absent) on Pangaea.