Columbia/Legacy will release, on Jan. 29, the Miles Davis Quintet Live In Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2, the label’s followup to the critically lauded 2011 inaugural release in its “Bootleg Series.” Where that maiden release featured the so-called “second great quintet” of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, the new set-three CDs and a DVD-features Davis on trumpet, Shorter on saxophone, keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette on drums.
According to a press release, “Live in Europe 1969 presents live performances that are previously unreleased, have previously only been bootlegged, or are very rare. The new box represents the first major collection to be devoted exclusively to the short-lived ‘third great quintet,’ sometimes referred to as Miles’ ‘lost band’ of 1969-70. The Miles-Shorter-Corea-Holland-DeJohnette lineup (in tandem with other players) began to solidify during the 1968-’69 recording dates that became the Filles De Kilimanjaro and In a Silent Way albums. And they were at the core of the dozen or so musicians joined together by Miles in August 1969, for the principal sessions that became the landmark turning point of his Grammy-winning Bitches Brew.” The “third great quintet,” the label goes on to note, was never documented in the recording studio-their European tours of 1969, represented on this new package, are some of the only existing recordings of the group, and the first legitimately released audio recordings by this lineup.
The multi-camera color DVD in the package features the band performing in Berlin on November 7, 1969. The music on the CDs is taken from shows in three separate concert settings, starting with two full-length (one hour-plus) sets at the Antibes Jazz Festival in France on CD one (July 25th) and CD two (July 26th). The locale moves to Stockholm on November 5 for the program heard on CD three.
Live in Europe 1969 was produced for release by Richard Seidel and Michael Cuscuna, and was co-produced by Steve Berkowitz, the same team responsible for Live In Europe 1967.
Track listing
CD One – Selections: 1. Introduction by André Francis • 2. Directions • 3. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down • 4. Milestones • 5. Footprints • 6. ‘Round Midnight • 7. It’s About That Time • 8. Sanctuary • 9. The Theme. (Recorded 7/25/69 at Festival Mondial du Jazz d’Antibes, La Pinède, Juan-les-Pins, France.)
CD Two – Selections: 1. Introduction by André Francis • 2. Directions • 3. Spanish Key • 4. I Fall In Love Too Easily • 5. Masqualero • 6. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down • 7. No Blues • 8. Nefertiti • 9. Sanctuary • 10. The Theme. (Recorded 7/26/69 at Festival Mondial du Jazz d’Antibes, La Pinède, Juan-les-Pins, France.)
CD Three – Selections: 1. Introduction by George Wein • 2. Bitches Brew • 3. Paraphernalia • 4. Nefertiti • 5. Masqualero (incomplete) • 6. This. (Recorded 11/5/69 at “The Newport Jazz Festival In Europe,” Folkets Hus, Stockholm.)
DVD – Selections: 1. Introduction by John O’Brien-Docker • 2. Directions • 3. Bitches Brew • 4. It’s About That Time • 5. I Fall In Love Too Easily • 6. Sanctuary • 7. The Theme. (Recorded 11/7/69 at Berliner Jazztage in the Berlin Philharmonie.)
