Columbia/Legacy Recordings has announced the March 25th release of Miles at the Fillmore-Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3. The four-CD box set will present Davis’ four-night stand at promoter Bill Graham’s Fillmore East in New York City, June 17-20, 1970, in its entire full-length unedited form for the first time.
The concerts occurred two months after the release of Miles’ Bitches Brew, when the band comprised Davis, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Airto Moreira and Steve Grossman. The set features more than two hours of previously unreleased music, including bonus tracks recorded at Fillmore West in San Francisco
According to a press release, “The set also includes a 36-page booklet featuring a 2,200-word first-hand account by Carlos Santana (as told to author Ashley Kahn); an introductory producers’ note written by reissue producers Richard Seidel and Michael Cuscuna, providing a concise overview of Miles’ Fillmore period and the project itself, its correlation with the original Columbia double-LP, especially the additional 100 minutes of unreleased music from the shows, and 35 minutes of unreleased music on the bonus tracks; and a 2,500-word chronologic essay by Cuscuna, who was also a first-hand witness (as a disc jockey on New York’s influential WPLJ-FM) to Miles’ development at the time.”
The four-CD box set, the press release continues, “devotes one disc to each of the four nights that Miles and his group performed at the Fillmore East. As issued on the original Columbia double-LP in 1970 (Miles Davis at Fillmore) the music, whose original set lengths ranged from 46 minutes to nearly one hour, was edited by producer Teo Macero to accommodate a seamless sampling of music from each night on each of the four LP sides. Furthermore, no song titles were listed, and the LP sides were simply labeled ‘Wednesday Miles,’ ‘Thursday Miles,’ ‘Friday Miles’ and ‘Saturday Miles.'”
For the new box set, the producers returned to the original remote live recording tapes, produced by Macero and engineered by Stan Tonkel. For the bonus tracks, the producers chose three songs from the April 1970 Fillmore West shows that were in the band’s repertoire, but were not performed at the Fillmore East in June.
Miles At The Fillmore-Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 is the third entry in the Miles Davis Bootleg Series of previously unreleased (or only bootlegged) live performances.
Track Listing
Disc One (Fillmore East, Wednesday, June 17, 1970) – Selections: 1. Introduction by Bill Graham • 2. Directions • 3. The Mask • 4. It’s About That Time • 5. Bitches Brew • 6. The Theme • Bonus tracks (Fillmore West, April 11, 1970): 7. Paraphernalia • 8. Footprints.
Disc Two (Fillmore East, Thursday, June 18, 1970) – Selections: 1. Directions • 2. The Mask • 3. It’s About That Time • 4. Bitches Brew • 5. The Theme • 6. Spanish Key (Encore) • 7. The Theme.
Disc Three (Fillmore East, Friday, June 19, 1970) – Selections: 1. Directions • 2. The Mask • 3. It’s About That Time • 4. I Fall In Love Too Easily • 5. Sanctuary • 6. Bitches Brew • 7. The Theme • Bonus track (Fillmore West, April 11, 1970): 8. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down.
Disc Four (Fillmore East, Saturday, June 20, 1970) – Selections: 1. Directions • 2. The Mask • 3. It’s About That Time • 4. I Fall In Love Too Easily • 5. Sanctuary • 6. Bitches Brew • 7. Willie Nelson • 8. The Theme.
