February 1 2012

The new Sony release "Miles Davis Quintet - Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Volume 1" is a must have.  The second great Miles quintet, with Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter is documented live on two cds and one extraordinary dvd.  The set list is virtually identical each performance, with radically different interpretations of each tune.  Miles would lead into each tune before the end of the last, creating seamless concertos.  Herbie has described what they did as controlled freedom; they would play within the form of the tune, and then go outside.  A look, or a motif, would signal when it was time to return to the form.  Weather Report would later incorporate this technique, as does The Kai Eckhardt Band, with whom I'm recording my latest cd.