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Miles - On the Corner and Beyond


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I saw reference to this on another board, but thought it was worth bringing up here. According to the Miles Beyond website:

Feb 15: A leak confirms plans for the Evolution of the Groove album to be released some time later this year, and a 2007 release for the On The Corner & Beyond boxed set. In addition, there's talk at Legacy of an 80th anniversary album with a selection of Miles' most popular tracks and of a DVD with a 1967 Stockholm concert for release in the next half year or so.

Feb 8: Apparently Sony has commissioned a commemorative album to celebrate Miles' 80th birthday in May. It is to be produced by Richard Seidel, known for his involvement in quite a few more traditional jazz recordings. The album's working title is The Evolution of the Groove, and, sit down for this, is said to consist of remixes, including a remix of the second quintet's "Freedom Jazz Dance" by one Vince Wilburn. Those that have followed the news updates on this site, and read the story of the aborted The Last Word boxed set are now likely to have have eyebrows racing to the ceiling. Bob Belden, who produced, or, as some have it, compiled, all Miles Legacy releases to date, has been dropped. Presumably this is part of the fall-out of the whole 5-year brouhaha surrounding the Cellar Door boxed set. Sony Legacy is very tightlipped about the whole situation, and about The Evolution of the Groove, and the only thing that can be inferred from what they do say is that the 1-CD album is unlikely to see the light of day in the first half of this year.

Something that is also very likely a result of the behind-the-scenes conflict surrounding the Cellar Door boxed set is the sacking of long-standing legal representatives for the Miles Davis Estate, Shukat, Arrow, Hafer & Weber. Peter Shukat has long been the executor of the Estate, and the company was given notice early this year that their services were no longer required. Apparently Darryl Porter now represents the Estate, but other than that he's on the West Coast we have been unable to find out anything more about him. We have no insider information on what went on here, but the story of The Last Word, in which Shukat and Weber were happy to cut a deal, but were later rather embarrassingly called back to heel by Vince Wilburn, suggests something about the relationship between the two parties. In addition, Shukat is also the lawyer of Adam Holzman, the original co-producer (with Belden) of the Cellar Door boxed set. The moment that the Estate, or rather Wilburn, were at odds with Holzman and Belden, Shukat clearly had a conflict of interests.

With all this mess going on, it's not surprising to learn that 2007 is now coined as the most likely release date of the On The Corner & Beyond boxed set, that covers the period 1972-1975. It's produced, or perhaps 'compiled,' by Bob Belden, so this may lead to more legal wrangling and hence delays. Legacy representatives are again tightlipped, but claim that a 2006 release date is not altogether ruled out.

I don't know how credible this website is, but maybe we'll see this box set later this year?? And it's difficult to translate - is this saying Belden is involved or not?

Edited by Aggie87
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including a remix of the second quintet's "Freedom Jazz Dance" by one Vince Wilburn

Yikes.

That for posting that, Aggie. Looks like it could be some great stuff. That '67 concert DVD should be great.

BTW, your A&M boys squeaked one out from the 'Horns tonight, didn't they? ;)

Edited by Free For All
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The box set and the DVD I think are the big things here - mainly the box set in my case, as I listen to music more than I am able to watch dvds.

A remix disc....hmmmm, not sure what to make of that. Though I do think the previous Bill Laswell remix cd is interesting. And another Miles best-of compilation? **yawn**.

And yep Paul, that was quite a game tonight. I caught the second half. Quite a physical, defensive game. Came down to two huge plays at the end: Texas' PJ Tucker unforgiveably letting the shot clock expire w/o taking a shot with 5 seconds left, and then the Aggie's Acie Law making that huge 3 pointer to win it. May help their chances of getting into the NCAA tournament for the first time in about 20 yrs.

Edited by Aggie87
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The sacking of Shukat is no great loss. He's given bad advice to many estates.

The 1967 DVD is LONG overdue. Apparently, a DVD circulated with promos of the 60s quintet box (probably the same). Why the fuck it wasn't commercialized at the time is a mystery.

It's also excellent news because it means the Mosaic box of live 60s stuff may be closer now.

Bertrand.

Edited by bertrand
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I'm very curious as to what exactly will be on the On the Corner box (and the one after that, if they are split in two, as is suggested on Paul Tingen's site). I would think "raw material" like the Silent Way and Jack Johnson boxes. One thing I would really like to see is the inclusion of the A and B sides of the "Molester" single. Plus, if this box (or the one after it) is going to go all the way to 1976 ( :excited: ), then I would love to see the "Holly-wuud" c/w "Big Fun" 45 (just listened to this one last nite, along with "Molester" on a burn I have of "Isle of Wight" -- TOO funky!).

An alternative I would welcome would be a single CD (if possible, maybe it would be a double at the most) of all of Miles' Columbia 45's; A and B sides, with the original 45 mixes, edits, and titles. Sure, it might be a tease to hear such compressed versions of favorite tunes, but I think it might be interesting to give a perspective on how Columbia tried to "market" Miles at various points throughout his career. This especially gets weird in the late 60's and early 70's. I mean, who really thought that paring these tracks ("Molester," "Little Blue Frog," "Spanish Key," etc) down to 3 minutes would increase their chances of airplay on American radio? I find that whole aspect of that period very interesting ... Any thoughts?

Also, just how many studio sessions did Miles do after recording Pangea and Agharta?

Edited by Little High People
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That site has an update today, that Little High People is (are?) referring to:

March 2: Surprisingly, given what's written below, Bob Belden is back on his Miles Davis job with Sony Legacy, and currently researching and compiling the On The Corner boxed set. Apparently there's enough for a five CD-set of sessions from June-December 1972, and Belden is therefore pushing for a separate "Studio 1973-76" box. Fingers crossed he stays in his job and the sets get realized and released without excessive delays.

...there's also a Quicktime video clip from a 1 Nov 73 concert in Berlin....

Edited by Aggie87
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  • 3 weeks later...

Yes, I think Cuscuna was working on it. There would be a box assembling some of the best live stuff from the second qunitet, so I guess '67 or maybe even '68.

This would be a legit release of stuff that was out in Europe. There are rights issues to be worked out, hence the hold up.

Bertrand.

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Yes, I think Cuscuna was working on it. There would be a box assembling some of the best live stuff from the second qunitet, so I guess '67 or maybe even '68.

This would be a legit release of stuff that was out in Europe. There are rights issues to be worked out, hence the hold up.

Bertrand.

Very exciting news--hope it works out.

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Yes, I think Cuscuna was working on it. There would be a box assembling some of the best live stuff from the second qunitet, so I guess '67 or maybe even '68.

This would be a legit release of stuff that was out in Europe. There are rights issues to be worked out, hence the hold up.

Bertrand.

I'm guessing '69 rather than '68 -- there's only one known live recording from '68, and it's supposedly of very poor quality.

Guy

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An alternative I would welcome would be a single CD (if possible, maybe it would be a double at the most) of all of Miles' Columbia 45's; A and B sides, with the original 45 mixes, edits, and titles. Sure, it might be a tease to hear such compressed versions of favorite tunes, but I think it might be interesting to give a perspective on how Columbia tried to "market" Miles at various points throughout his career. This especially gets weird in the late 60's and early 70's. I mean, who really thought that paring these tracks ("Molester," "Little Blue Frog," "Spanish Key," etc) down to 3 minutes would increase their chances of airplay on American radio? I find that whole aspect of that period very interesting ... Any thoughts?

Also, just how many studio sessions did Miles do after recording Pangea and Agharta?

There was supposed to be a 45 of the Evans/Miles "I Loves You Porgy" that would actually have been longer than the album track. Schaap included the longer solo on the Porgy and Bess box set but for some reason never spliced it to the head used on the album. (I made my own splice using pro-tools. It make a great version of the song.)

There are bunch of concerts from the fall of '67 which I have copies of.

They'd make a great box set.

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I hope this box is the last one. I think I have enough Miles to the rest of my life. Is there anyone here who's been buying these since the Plugged Nickel in 1995? 12 years is just too long to wait for all of these.

I've bought them all. It is too long to wait, but I have lots of bootlegs to listen to in between!

I'll never say I have enough Miles, again. I might have said that about five years and a hundred discs or so ago! :excl:

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  • 1 month later...

Update from Miles Beyond website:

In addition there will be some very fresh and not so good news of accountants reportedly having taken over at SonyBMG and having ordered the abandonment of a whole slew of jazz releases, including, quite possibly, the On The Corner and 73-76 boxed sets. I need to check a few more facts before giving more details. But if correct, perhaps this site will start a campaign similar to the freefiona.com one: enter freemiles.com. Instead of sending Sony apple-related things, we could, well, stand en masse on the corner, or something... The next update will also have details of a Miles Davis conference in July in Italy, that promises to be a cracker... Later...
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  • 2 weeks later...

Further update from Miles Beyond. Bad news, considering BMG's history of back catalogue neglect.

http://www.miles-beyond.com/news.htm

"OK, here's the current SonyBMG insider story, inasfar as it can be known. Reports suggest that there's a war going on within the company between the Sony side and the BMG side, which the latter is winning. This apparently means that the accountants having taken over, one of whom has stipulated that all jazz titles are now subject to draconian accounting rules that leave only compilations un-affected. This far-reaching measure led an informant to complain that the accountants were in effect "wiping out an entire music genre... the jazz album."

"With regards to Miles releases this means that as things stand, only the below-mentioned 80th anniversary album is still definitely on the cards. The release of the Evolution Of The Groove album is uncertain, as is the release of the 1967 Stockholm live DVD. Work on the On The Corner & Beyond boxed set has been halted... "

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If they're shutting down production of Miles reissue titles--purportedly one of their best sellers in jazz--then this is a VERY bad sign of things to come. Sounds as if the only chance for classic jazz to see the light of day would be through Mosaic. Economically speaking, how much more could they do than they already do? Not much, I'd imagine.

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just curious ... why are you guys so concerned about Miles reissues specifically ?

i've got so much Miles i'll probably never listen to it by the end of my life. in fact, it's even worse than that. because i don't take notes when i'm listening to live Miles, i can't even remember which tracks are the really good ones. so it's not like i can go back and quickly figure out the best tracks to plug into when i need a Miles fix.

it's like these guys who collect tapes of live shows. eventually, they end up with so much they have no idea what to listen to. a lot of them can't even make good recommendations, outside of a few gems. they get confused, people start relying on lists on websites -- not necessarily having any relation to your personal preferences.

place Miles in the large spectrum of jazz musicians whose music is either unobtainium or worth its weight in platinum , and Miles got by far the best treatment of anyone. relatively speaking ... beyond what he deserves.

all this money spent on reissued / unissued Miles would be much better spent supporting those amazing musicians making their living day-by-day from self-produced and marketed music.

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