Miles Davis is a performer that music literally cannot get enough of. Even the biggest acts eventually run out of music to feed their fans-every live gig starts to run together-but Davis, possibly the greatest jazz musician of all time, continues to dazzle. If a catalogue were to exist, consisting of every performance he ever gave, we wouldn't complain. At least the world will be one concert series closer come March. Columbia/Legacy will be releasing a series of gigs from both Fillmores East and West in Miles At The Fillmore: Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 (double-colons?).
Davis, at the time playing the trumpet, and his six-piece had been booked into Fillmore East during the summer of 1970 to open for pop star Laura Nyro (one of those events that seems totally befuddling nearly 45 years later). The Fillmore East shows were released that year as Miles Davis At The Fillmore, but Davis hoped that the West Coast recordings would find their way to fans as well.
Davis had just recorded Bitches Brew-a controversial classic that still divides jazz fans-and fan Carlos Santana wrote in the album's liner notes that Davis was gripped with artistic fury that came out beautifully in his live performances.
"The sound of Miles at the Fillmore was the sound of the Black Panthers. It was the sound of Vietnam. . . You can hear that anger and darkness and the craziness of everything that was still in the air from the Sixties," Santana wrote.
He credits Davis's performances at the Fillmore for his appeal to a rock audience, and his later induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
Miles At The Fillmore: Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 will be released on March 25.
