The At Fillmore album is actually a fun listen; you get a brief summary of each night. And for historical reasons it's nice to have too. There's no material there that's not on the box set, but it's a unique presentation that's a special experience.
At Fillmore is just a different sort of artistic statement, because Teo really made a point of making some hard, jarring edits--you're supposed to notice them, I think. The cuts create a sense of a collage. He was assembling an alternative perspective, if not new compositions, out of the raw material from the stage; maybe under the direction of Miles, or at least with the final approval of Miles, but it seems like he had a lot of personal creative freedom in his role at the time. I prefer to listen to the performances as played by the musicians, without the edits, but LP stands up on its own, too.
For the nitpicky, there is one brief section of keyboard tuning/noodling at the beginning of the Friday side that is not in the box set.
Listening to Aura now. This one I like. A bit all over the place in the beginning with big band, classical and even a bit of the 1985 bad cop vibe on «Orange». I prefer the atmospheric tracks.
I can't be without "Miles Davis at Fillmore." I bought the two LP set in '73 or so and have lived with it since. I love the Bootleg edition, and had bootleg copies of the nights before that. But I mainly listen to "Miles Davis at Fillmore"--it's part of my musical foundation. The mixes are different between the two releases as well as the edits.
Getting there . Just moved last week and still living out of boxes. Tutu is a personal favorite of mine and I'm going to really enjoy this one.
I guess we have come to the point in the timeline where Miles appeared on a Toto track. Don’t Stop Me Now on the 1986 Fahrenheit album: Fahrenheit (Toto album) - Wikipedia
A good call, not least because there is a Tutu connection! Around this time, Miles was looking for songs and collaborators for his first Warner Bros. album and one of the people he contacted was Steve Porcaro of Toto. Porcaro had co-written "Human Nature" which Miles loved and played almost to the end of his days. Porcaro had two songs in mind for Miles ("Exist" and "Walk of Life") and Miles duly arrived at Jeff Porcaro's studio in LA to record them. But the sessions didn't work out and the project was abandoned. But while Miles was around, Toto asked him if he wouldn't mind recording on a tune they'd recorded? The result was "Don't Stop Me Now," which I really like. Miles also played it live. Steve Lukather has described the session: Steve Lukather: Interviews: The Last Miles: The Music Of Miles Davis 1980 - 1991: A book by George Cole TLM: Can you explain the origins of "Don't Stop Me Now?" SL: Originally it was just something David [Paich] started out with the original melody. He just had a little piece and I jumped in and said: "That's ****ing gorgeous!" We were thinking of doing like a Jeff Beck Blow by Blow thing, where I would be the featured melody and soloist on it, because I came up with the bridge and the turnaround at the end. And then the whole Miles thing happened and we changed our whole attitude about it. We thought, "He'll probably say no, but what the **** - nothing ventured, nothing gained." A vortex opened up and he allowed us to share the honour with one of the greatest legends of all time. Of all the rock and roll bands to do something with him. I don't know why, I think he just liked our vibe. He was so nice to us; he was just the opposite of what we had heard. TLM: Can you describe that first meeting with Miles? SL: Miles was coming over to the house and we were all sitting there having a drink, because we just wanted to meet the guy. David had two grand pianos all set up in his living room. There's a real funny story about when Miles came in. David used to have a stuffed life-sized German Shepard [dog] by the front door in attack mode! Miles walks in and the first thing he does when he sees the dog is jump back! And Dave goes "It's okay Miles, the dog's fake!" And Miles takes one look at us all in the room and then at the dog and says: "I've got some **** to make that dog come alive!" We just howled laughing! Then he came in and we introduced ourselves. He was very gracious because we'd heard stories that he could be pretty tough if he didn't dig the vibe. We tried to be as mellow and respectful as possible. He was just talking **** asking things like: "What are you guys doing?" We were walking on eggshells because we didn't want to set the cat off. So we moved very slowly. He spent a couple of days hanging out with us and he got a chance to see that we had a sense of humour, we had respect, we had interests in lots of music and that we weren't just a bunch of rock 'n' roll punks. Then we seized a window of opportunity. TLM: How did you ask Miles to play on the track? SL: We explained we were making a record [Fahrenheit] and then said: "In fact, we've got a tune that we'd love you to play on." And he looks at us like "yeah, alright, I hadn't heard that one before!" Dave said: 'It's something like a Sketches of Spain vibe we're looking at, but we don't want to get in your face about it. Can we play the song for you one time? I sit down at one piano and Dave sits down at another and we start playing "Don't Stop Me Now." I was playing the melody and at the end of it he looks over at us and says "What is this? ****ing Ferranti and Tycher? [a piano duo from the 1960s]" - we laughed our asses off! Then he said "Yeah I liked that, it's a nice tune." We didn't think much of it and then he went to work with Steve and cut some tracks. TLM: Describe the recording process. SL: Miles wanted to cut the horn at Jeff's studio [called The Villa] and we were all over there cutting the Fahrenheit record. So just in case, we cut the track and left the melody off - we just left open spaces. When Miles got there, we said "Hey man would you mind just playing the tune? Just blow on it and see what happens? If you don't feel comfortable that's cool." We had the music, so we ran it down together with him and he was kind of playing around the melody - he wasn't really playing the melody. So we figured, we're not going to tell Miles Davis what to play, so we said, "Miles, we have a take of this, would you mind just giving it a listen and play whatever you want?" He says "Okay, I'll play like that. You like that old **** right?" So he gets out the Harmon mute and he played it down - one take. We're all stood there completely freaked out - it was unbelievable. At the end, the song just kind of fades out, but he just kept playing the blues. I was sitting there with chicken skin on my arms - it was unbelievable moment. And that's how we ended the record - with just Miles blowing. Later on, [saxophonist] David Sanborn came down to play on a different tune on the record and he'd heard that we had cut a tune with Miles. He said: "I gotta hear it," and so we played it and he flipped and said "Please just let me be on the track!" So he doubled the melody and played a couple of flurries. So we got Sanborn, Miles and us on one track - that was pretty cool. Looking forward to the Tutu discussion getting going!
Just to backtrack a second, we could mention the earlier Warner studio sessions from late 85 / early 86 (as released on the Last Word box set)? A quick summary of the details is on Paul Tingen's site: MILES BEYOND The Last Word Liner notes Firstly Maze from September 85 (familiar from all the '85 concert setlists). Very much a workout in the style of much of the live repertoire a the time, but still great!:
I love MD and his work. WHat a visionary. I was lucky to see him twice. First time was at the tiny Manchester Apollo theatre(UK) in 89. Tommy Smith was support and excellent. Miles and his band had a massive amount of amps and speakers with banks of gear and stacks. These were days before satellites when bands had proper amplification. The band put on a powerhouse show of heavy jazz, blues rock. I vividly remember Kenny Garrett standing and dwarfed in front of a massive speaker stack and absolutely rocking out to a 15 minute version of human nature. Miles himself was on form. And when he played a totally solo version of time after time with the aching beauty only Miles was capable of, I shed a tear. We saw him a year later at the Glasgow SECC. We were in the front row. That night miles was awful and had more in common with level 42 than miles davis. It was a painful experience As for his albums. Well it depends on my moods. I particularly like the complete on the corner sessions. Of course number 1 is Kind of blue followed by In a silent way. And its vinyl(copied to dsd 128) or cd all the way. They are perfect. Miles davis is the man and always will be
And next there were the Rubberband sessions, once again detailed by Paul Tingen in the link above. A few of these tunes made the live set in late 85. It would be nice to hear all the Rubberband material. Can't find a decent link to any of it though. However See I See was recorded next, regarded as still part of the Rubberband sessions but in truth a bit of a one-off, around the same time Miles also started working with George Duke on Backyard Ritual, which of course did appear on Tutu. I think this could have ended up on there too.
Marcus Miller says in George Cole's book that he'd take the title track from Tutu and put it on the Amandla album, and that would be the best album he and Miles did together. I agree, though Portia is a stunner too. Parts of Tutu are kind of insubstantial and dated. For anyone interested in Miles' music beyond the 70s, get Cole's book. It's great.
just to update my comments about seeing Miles at Manchester Apollo in 89. Ive been playing some miles live tonight and a memory was sparked. Miles that night played beautifully. But it was his lengthy solo in time after time thats come back. He was on stage with just the keyboards and percussion. Time after time slowly built up to the most amazing crescendo. We all know he was in agony with his lips later in his career and the harmon saved his career. That night after about sevens minutes of the harmon, Miles suddenly removed it and went open horn. OMG i can still feel the emotion of that moment as miles just went into an aching open horn solo that only one person could have played. my wife held me as I shed a tear or two at the aching beauty in that moment that only miles could draw out from his trumpet. To hear Miles go open in that way was unforgettable. I remember the pompous magazine, Wire, tearing miles apart for a terrible show(their review) In cardiff two nights later. Where were they when it mattered in Manchester? Maybe miles was ill that night in Cardiff. All i know is that in Manchester that night when we saw him he was magnificent.
There's an interesting article about the Cardiff and Manchester shows here: Miles out of his way - Davis in Wales
One more thought about Aura. When I think of Aura I think of Scandinavian jazz, and when I think of Scandinavian jazz I think of ECM. Three of Miles' sidemen went on to have long stints on ECM - Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and Keith Jarrett. Did Miles ever pass comment on their work with ECM?
Agreed! And without further ado: Tutu recorded at Capitol Recording Studios, Los Angeles and Clinton Recording Studios, NYC, January – March 1986 original issue: Warner Bros. 9 25490-1 (LP), 9 25490-2 (CD) and 9 25490-4 (cassette) in September 1986 Producer: Tommy LiPuma and Marcus Miller (except on "Backyard Ritual," Tommy LiPuma and George Duke) singles: "Full Nelson" b/w "Thomaas" (7"); "Backyard Ritual" b/w "Thomaas" (7" and 12"); "Tutu" b/w "Portia" (7" and 12") From Miles' autobiography: "I recorded my first album for Warner Bros. in 1986, called Tutu, after Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The song "Full Nelson" is named for Nelson Mandela. At first we were going to call the album Perfect Way, but Tommy LiPuma, my new producer at Warner's, didn't like that title, so they came up with Tutu, and I really liked that. At first I didn't care what they called it, but after I heard the name Tutu I said, yeah, that would work. That was the first album where I worked with Marcus Miller as much as I did. The album started with some music that George Duke, the piano player, sent me. As it turned out, we didn't use George's music on the album, but Marcus heard it and wrote something off it. Then I told Marcus to write something else. He did, but I didn't like that, so it went back and forth like that for a while until we came up with something that we both liked. "When we recorded Tutu we didn't decide on any music in advance. The only thing we decided was what key a song was going to be in. Marcus wrote most of the music on Tutu, but I told him what I wanted, like an ensemble here and four bars there. With Marcus I don't have to do much because he knows what I like. He would just put down some tracks and I would come in and record over them. He and Tommy LiPuma would stay up all night getting the music on tape, and then I could come and put my trumpet voice over what they did. First, they programmed the drums on tape, the bass drum and then two or three other rhythms and then the keyboards. "Then Marcus brought in this guy named Jason Miles, who is a synthesizer programming genius. He started working with the music, and it kept happening like that. It just kept growing; it was a group effort. George Duke arranged a lot of the music on Tutu. Then we brought in all the other musicians, like Adam Holzman on synthesizer, Steve Reid on percussion, Omar Hakim on drums and percussion, Bernard Wright on synthesizers, Paulinho da Costa on some percussion, Michael Urbaniak on electric violin, me on trumpet, and Marcus Miller on bass guitar and everything else. "Prince wanted to put a song on Tutu, even wrote a song for it, but when we sent him the tape and he heard what was on there, he didn't think his tune fit. Prince has high musical standards, like me. So, he just pulled his song meant for the album until we can do something else at a later date. "[The following year,] Marcus Miller and I had already started working on the music for the film Siesta, a film that was set in Spain and starred Ellen Barkin and Jodie Foster. The music was to be a little like what Gil Evans and I had done on Sketches of Spain. So I asked Marcus to try to work up some music with some of that feeling. In the meantime, Tutu won a Grammy award in 1987, and that made me food good." Irving Penn's rear cover photo (uncropped) From The Last Miles by George Cole: "When Tutu was released in September 1986 it hit the music world like a whirlwind. In every respect, Tutu was a milestone recording and everyone seemed to be talking about it. The reason could be put down to the M-factor – Miles, the music and the marketing. Every new Miles Davis record was eagerly awaited by the jazz world, but with Tutu the excitement and expectation was at fever pitch. Miles had moved from Columbia to Warner Bros – just what was he going to deliver? The music on Tutu not only stretched your ears, it also challenged your perception of what jazz was – and of the kind of music you expected Miles to play. Although Miles's music had always been constantly changing, the change was generally evolutionary rather than revolutionary. "Almost as soon as Tutu was recorded, Miles began including the tunes from it in his concerts in March 1986, some six months before the album was released. Even "Rubberband" was sacrificed for tracks from Tutu. From mid-1986 until early 1988, the songs from Tutu dominated Miles's live sets, with each concert featuring four or more tunes from the album (some concerts would include up to six tunes). Miles continued to play at least one or two tunes from Tutu right up until his final concerts. "Some music critics were less than impressed with the results, especially certain jazz critics who dismissed Tutu as a bland pop/funk record. The Penguin Guide to Jazz said: "Miles's first post-CBS albums were an uneasy blend of exquisite trumpet miniaturism and drab cop-show funk, put together with a high production gloss that camouflaged a lack of real musical substance." "Jason Miles says, "The people that said that are only living in the past, and wanted Miles to go back, but that was something that Miles would never ever do." Tommy LiPuma adds, "The jazz police think I'm a pariah. I'm so amazed that I run across this a lot. They put music on an altar and God forbid if you do anything that doesn't fit into this niche. I grew up right in the thick of that music. I used to buy bebop and I love all this music. If you want to go back and listen to that music, go and play a record. But if you keep doing the same thing, it just gets tired. You have to keep moving forward." "George Duke says Tutu is his favorite Miles post-retirement album because "It made a statement. People are forgetting that any musician's greatest works are likely to come during their early days when they're hungry, and their middle period when they're mature. As people get older they lose their chops. Having said that, Miles only looked ahead and you can't dismiss that period because Miles never stopped looking forward and he's still making music that's challenging and interesting. That's more than you can say for the majority of jazz musicians who get in one rut and stay there." Marcus Miller & Miles From The Last Miles by George Cole (continued): "Tutu was another example of Miles's refusal to stand still and how he always wanted to make music for now. As [Marcus] Miller notes, "To even create music at sixty that's still relevant and still controversial is incredible. How many sixty-year-olds were creating that kind of activity and that kind of reaction? He changed the face of jazz five or six times and he's sixty years old and he's still doing it. I think that's amazing in itself – he remained relevant to the end of his life. Miles was still searching, he was still vulnerable and he was still making mistakes at sixty. I find it almost unbelievable that anybody could find that something to criticize." Felton Crews, George Duke and Miles playing "Tutu" at Montreux Jazz Festival '86 (PC: Dr. Jean Fortunet)
