HWright

It has been reported in recent years that Alice and Ravi Coltrane have in their possession master tapes and/or copies of many of the Coltrane Impulse era recordings previously listed in discographies as "lost." Some of this material has come out but she has gone on record (I believe) as saying that she intends to stagger its release and so we can't count on seeing much of it any time soon. One part of this archive that has always fascinating me is the studio recordings from 1966. Although I consider Lewis Porter's book on Trane to be the best to date, I find his coverage of 1965-67 to be somewhat lacking. First of all, he lumps it all into one chapter and while he does provide excellent analysis of some of the 1967 material (no doubt taken from a separate article he wrote on the subject), he glosses over some of the material from that period or just mentions it in passing. He has a chronology in the back of his book which is quite interesting, but, no doubt not wishing to compete with himself (he and a colleague of his whose name I can't recall have published a separate discography), he only says "sessions for Impulse" under each date, which doesn't really help much. Based on what other books and resources (Thomas, Simpkins, Wild) say, this is what I think I know: after Trane died, (in the 1970's) Alice put out two albums that contained much of what he recorded in the studio during 1966. These albums are: (1) "Cosmic Music" (CRC AU 4950): contains "Manifestation," "Reverend King" and two tracks by Alice without Trane: "Lord Help Me to Be" and "The Sun." (2) "Infinity" (IMP A9225): contains "Joy," "Peace on Earth," "Leo" and "Living Space." These two albums are considered very controversial because Alice made significant overdubs to the material. Subsquently, undubbed versions of some (all?) of the tracks did come out on later LPs, but to the best of my knowledge the only track that has come out on CD in the USA is "Living Space." Once when I was in London I saw a Japanese version of "Cosmic Music," but since I assumed it contained the overdubbs (and was costly), I balked. If I saw it again I might buy it, just out of curiosity. In addition, there were other "lost" sessions from 1966 that have never been released in any form. David Wild says they included tracks such as "Darkness," "Lead Us On," and "Call" which have never been heard before, in either live or studio versions. While I always used to wonder why Alice and Impulse didn't put out a CD with the "Cosmic Music"/"Infinity" material undubbed, now it seems to me that they are holding it back so they can put it out along with the "lost" material and so we won't hear any of Trane's 1966 studio material until it all comes out. When that will be, I don't know. Anyone have any thoughts about this or know anything more about it?

I decided I couldn't wait any longer to hear "Agharta" again and bought the current edition of it and listened to it last night. On the whole I like it a lot more now than I did some ten years ago when I first listened to it in the music library when I was in college--it's very listenable, especially when compared to the live recordings from 1970-1973. Michael Henderson's bass playing seems the main improvement over the live recordings from 1973. In addition, the guitarists seem more coordinated and Sonny Fortune seems to be able to assert himself more than Dave Lieberman did (in that respect he reminds me of Gary Bartz on "Live/Evil"). That said, some of the tracks go on a bit long and when I listen to more than one of them in a row I understand why some find this music ultimately boring.

Thanks! Just to put my own views on Miles' electric years, I like everything up to and including "Jack Johnson" (contrary to Tingen, by the way, I think that even if some of the "new" material on the Miles box sets is less than first class, it all merits release and can hardly tarnish the reputation of Miles or anyone else involved in the sessions, no matter what Teo or anybody else says), but have mixed feelings about what came after that. I've been giving a number of the '70's recordings a second chance in recent years but so far only "On the Corner" has been rehabilitated. I bought "In Concert" and "Dark Magus" when they were reissued a few years back (around the same time as the Filmore discs and "Live/Evil") and found them both unlistenable for the most part. I've always meant to pick up "Agharta" (I did listen to it in the library), but put it off so long that now I'm waiting for a new edition.

Greetings. I am the same HWright from the BN Board, the one who very rarely posted...I've been reading this Board for some time but only joined today... Maybe this has been covered elsewhere on the Board, but I'd just like to add that for those interested in the electric period of Miles, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Paul Tingen's new book "Miles Beyond: The electric explorations of Miles Davis 1967-1991" (just came out in paperback in the USA). As much as I enjoy Chambers, Carr and the other older Miles books, Tingen's book is a must because he is the first writer to do new and different research on the most controversial period of Miles' career. Chambers, as far as I know did all his research in the library and Carr only interviewed certain people. Examples: (1) Tingen interviewed people other than Keith Jarrett about the 1970/71 group! (2) He interviewed members of the "On the Corner" sessions and (3) spoke with people in the "Agharta" group as well. It's still a fairly small book and has it quirks (chiefly philosophical), but it's a worthwhile addition to any Miles critical library. Favorite insight from the book: he says that Miles' first solo on "Bitches Brew" (the track) is a quote/parody of Blood, Sweat and Tears' hit "Spinning Wheel." Tingen also has a website for his book, although apart from having better photos, it's no real substitute for the book itself: http://www.miles-beyond.com/ His book went to press just as the "In a Silent Way" box was coming out and before the "Jack Johnson" box was available for preview, so he doesn't deal in much detail with the unreleased material from that period, but he does comment on the "Bitches Brew" box set. On his site he promises in 2004 an updated sessionography taking into account these recent developments.