Guy Berger

February 21 1970 in the Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor Michigan

I’ve been listening to a bunch of Miles Davis live recordings I downloaded a long time ago and this one really hit the spot. It’s noteworthy for two reasons: 1) the only known live recording between the lost quintet’s fall 1969 European tour and the early March concerts at the Fillmore East 2) a rare Miles live recording with John McLaughlin The band is Davis, Shorter, McLaughlin, Corea, Holland, DeJohnette, and Moreira. They play “It’s About That Time”, “I Fall in Love too Easily”, “Sanctuary”, “Bitches Brew”, and “Masqualero”. If you think of a spectrum stretching from the “very free, only slightly rock-ish” fall 1969 recordings to the “bye bye free jazz, hello funky grooves” fall 1970 recordings, this one is a lot closer to the former. The musicians really seem to relish the music and challenge each other. Highly recommended to people who like the officially released March 7 1970 Fillmore East concerts (IT’S ABOUT THAT TIME). Two other recordings I listened to after this one are the April 24 1970 gig in Berkeley (minus Shorter and McLaughlin, plus Steve Grossman) and the June 20 1970 gig at the Fillmore East (Jarrett makes the band a septet again). It’s amazing how quickly the band’s sound evolved in just 4 months!

Same. HttSG is a very nice album. High quality "guitar fusion". The Al DiMeola albums are generally cheesier, and much more formulaic, though they have their moments.

Still very reluctant to restrict the kinds of activities that are likely accelerating transmission of the virus, unfortunately.

The situation seems to be getting a lot worse, fast, in large parts of the Southeast and Southwest. I hope everyone out here stays safe - even if your state/local government is encouraging reckless behavior that will cost lives, you can be proactive and safe.

Disagree... I feel like Iverson highlights specific elements of Peterson’s style that irritate Peterson’s detractors. (Though some of it may just be ex-post rationalization)

doesn’t seem like it. From Losin: “After the flurry of Columbia studio activity and live recording in the spring of 1961, Davis was relatively inactive during 1961-1962. He was evidently unhappy with Hank Mobley, though he did not replace him until sometime the following year. J.J. Johnson was added to the group as another solo voice, and the Sextet was booked at the Club Renaissance, Los Angeles (October 12-19); Minor Key Club, Detroit (December 7-10); Jazz Gallery, New York (December 21, 1961-January 3, 1962); Howard Theatre, Washington (January 12-18 -- Johnson apparently did not make this gig); Indiana University Auditorium (March 24 -- a benefit for the Indiana NAACP for which Davis did not show!); April 17-22, Village Vanguard, New York; May 19-28, Mardi Gras, Kansas City; June 1-10, Music Box Theatre, Los Angeles; June 12-July 1, Blackhawk Supper Club, San Francisco; July 4-10, The Penthouse, Seattle; August 16-19, Minor Key, Detroit; August 24-25, La Comédie Canadienne, Montreal (Davis filled in for an ailing Sonny Rollins for the August 25 matinée); September 17-22, Showboat, Philadelphia; November 13-19, Village Vanguard, New York. A four-night engagement at the Music Box Club, Cleveland (December 6-9) was canceled and rescheduled for December 27-30. Mobley is still listed as the saxophonist at the end of 1962.” ”The problems Davis had throughout 1962 with keeping a working group continued into 1963. His quintet was booked at the Philadelphia's Uptown Theatre from December 25, 1962 through January 1, 1963 (Wednesday-Tuesday); in addition to missing one of the sets on December 25, Davis walked out and missed the last two nights (and was later ordered by the musicians' union to pay the promoter $8000). A two-week engagement at Chicago's Sutherland Lounge, January 30-February 10 (Wednesday-Sunday) was followed by the sudden departure of Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers. Davis was forced to cancel an eight-day engagement at Gino's Club in St. Louis, February 15-23 (Friday-Saturday). He was booked for two weeks at the Blackhawk Supper Club in San Francisco, March 5-17 (Tuesday-Sunday), but the opening was delayed for a week while Davis recruited some West Coast players. In addition to Jimmy Cobb, he ended up with Frank Strozier on alto, George Coleman on tenor, Victor Feldman or Harold Mabern on piano, and Ron Carter on bass (at the time Carter was playing with Art Farmer). The sextet played a ten-day gig at Shelly's Manne-Hole in Los Angeles, April 5-14 (Friday-Sunday). Cobb left during or immediately after this engagement and was replaced briefly by Frank Butler. The quintet with Feldman on piano and without Strozier went into Columbia's Hollywood studios these sessions. Butler remained in Los Angeles and the rest of the group returned to the East Coast, where they were booked for one night at the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore (May 9; "The Miles Davis Quintette" was listed as Davis, George Coleman, Frank Strozier, Harold Maybern [sic], Jim Cobb. I can't believe that Carter didn't play with the group, so either it was not a "quintette" or else one of the horns, probably Strozier, didn't play). Davis fired Strozier and Mabern soon afterward, hiring Hancock and Williams; and the new Miles Davis Quintet -- Davis, Coleman, Hancock, Carter, Williams -- went into Columbia's 30th Street Studio on May 14, then hit the road: Jazz Villa, St. Louis (May 27-June 4); Sutherland Lounge, Chicago (June 5-16); Jazz Temple, Cleveland (June 20-23 -- listed as the Miles Davis Sextet); Village Vanguard, New York (July 2-14).”

Those trio albums are enjoyable but this band was much much better after Dewey Redman joined. I know it is a minority opinion but the best Jarrett is combos with horns, followed by Jarrett in trio format, followed by piano solo Jarrett, followed by multi instrument solo Jarrett. The guy benefits from having his “heroic self expression” bounded by consideration for other musicians.

Yeah, that's unlikely. But a world in which the number of ongoing new cases is very small and we have the testing/tracing regime to quickly nip outbreaks in the bud is very different than what we're experiencing in the US. A lot of activities that are safe in the former regime will be risky in the latter. New Zealand is not the only country that has succeeded.

Let's start with one specific thing... there are countries out there that have licked this thing, where infections are at a very low level and monitoring is really good/vigilant. A lot of the economy can reopen. A lot of the economy can reopen safely in that situation. Unfortunately in the US we decided not to do that. So instead we're ending up with the worst of both worlds, a lot of deaths and an economy whose reopening capacity is more limited. Estimates of herd immunity range from 25% to 70% of the US population. We're still far short of that. Even if we magically optimize for the least risky and intentionally infect them, we'd still end up with a lot of additional deaths.

As an only-partly-recovered CD addict, worth mentioning most of the BS/SN stuff is on Spotify.

Yes, but far fewer in countries that have managed to suppress this epidemic... and economic activity has recovered closer to normal in those, too. Really sad for the USA.

And they'll lift the new lockdown once the latest outbreak ends, presumably quicker than the initial one in Wuhan. This is a highly contagious illness without a vaccine and very low immunity among the population - you'll periodically have flareups even in countries that are doing a good job. But in those countries, the flareups will typically be smaller/shorter.

A lot of places around here have gone cashless, which would avoid that problem... but I’m guessing a lot of lower-income folks don’t have cards or smartphones

Let me flip this, it's actually *relatively* good news - places that have managed to significantly reduce cases can now catch and end outbreaks early. More prone to both, I believe. Glad you are ok. Generally I am an optimist on the vaccine as in we will develop an effective one and the public will be able to get it sometime next year. (It will take a long time to manufacture doses.) Maybe in the interim we'll also get some useful therapeutics. Unfortunately, there will be a lot more deaths in the meantime.