Miles Davis - 26/07/1969

Has anyone listened to this?

Despite the poor sound quality (which my steadily-dying headphones probably didn't do much for), it's great, hot set. One particular moment that sticks in my mind is a Miles-Chick Corea duet. For a couple of minutes, Corea creates an electronic setting for Miles's trumpet, playing under and around him and sometimes swirling up in a quick run. I have no idea whether or not this was common by 1969, but those few seconds seem to hold boundless promise. In fact, I liked Corea's playing a lot, another highlight of which is his comping on Nefertiti towards the end of the set (speaking of which, I don't think the session listing linked to in the original post correlates exactly with this mp3, most notably, the voice-over in the middle of the set is cut out).

More generally, the set goes in a long arc from frenetic to more settled and swinging. I hadn't heard this group yet (Sony released a recording a year or two ago, anyone heard it?) and found myself reaching for descriptors. This group's dynamic seems so idiosyncratic : it's not rocking, it's not funky, it's not swinging (for the most part) and it's not really free, even if you can hear elements of all of the above. I wonder: who, in your opinion, continued this kind of music?