Miles Davis: 9/14/72, Paul's Mall (Boston)

[Guy Berger]

I'm listening to this recording of Miles Davis's nonet*, recorded about two weeks before their Philharmonic Hall concert (issued as In Concert) with better sound quality. This is the band with the electric sitar and tabla. Miles's playing (w/wah wah) is excellent. A dense, delicious polyrhythmic stew. My only complaint is that you can barely hear Michael Henderson.

They perform Black Satin, Rated X, Honky Tonk, Right Off and the Sanctuary theme.

Guy

*Birth of the Cool, this ain't.

Edited April 29, 2007 by Guy

[Guest donald petersen]

i liked this band. wish they had stayed together longer.

i am not a big guitar guy so this band was nice as it was not so guitar shredding heavy as the longer-lived band with lucas and cosey. lucas by himself was more mellow.

i like cedric lawson being there also and the indian-ness.

[Guy Berger]

i liked this band. wish they had stayed together longer.

i am not a big guitar guy so this band was nice as it was not so guitar shredding heavy as the longer-lived band with lucas and cosey. lucas by himself was more mellow.

i like cedric lawson being there also and the indian-ness.

I think this band needed one more strong soloist. How are the early '73 gigs w/Dave Liebman and Pete Cosey?

Guy

[B. Clugston]

I think this band needed one more strong soloist. How are the early ‘73 gigs w/Dave Liebman and Pete Cosey?

Guy

Like a wah-wah wall of sound, kind of like the final freak-out section on Dark Magus. Things got so noisy that some of the extra musicians, particularly Balakrishna, became redundant. Lonnie Liston Smith was an interesting addition.

[Michael Weiss]

I heard Miles at Paul's Mall in the summer of 1974. That shit was LOUD. Miles had his hand signals going.

Edited May 5, 2007 by Michael Weiss

[GA Russell]

I lived in Boston in September of '72. I'm sorry I didn't go to see this.

[Guest donald petersen]

my only early '73 stuff is of such bad fidelity that you can't really tell what's going on (the howard university show). i wish i had a better recording.

i find the stuff prior to the congealed later 73 band more interesting because of the song selection. the setlist later on got kind of dull and repetitive, IMO. i like the paul's mall gig a lot and i also really like the live at the philharmonic hall disc which other people don't. i like reggie lucas' guitar solos too-they aren't shredding viruosity but work well in the music. i liked this whole band with the indian musicians and an actual keyboardist (i wish i knew more about cedric lawson).

i don't know where my paul's mall CDR is so i am listening to the philharmonic set right now-yeah i really like this stuff. who's on sax? carlos garnett i think? he's fine. but i like having a keyboardist so that when miles solos, there is a little keyboard action behind him.

though i could see this group getting boring live...the unrelenting tabla and wah guitar, though sweet...it could get irritating.

[Guest donald petersen]

just popped on a CDR of 9/10/72...also terrible sound.

but i like this stuff.

i really like the tension in "rated x" before the bass kicks in what that snaky riff.

[John B]

my only early '73 stuff is of such bad fidelity that you can't really tell what's going on (the howard university show). i wish i had a better recording.

The second set of the Howard University show is as far out and wild as I have ever heard Miles get. It basically turns into a wall of churning noise for a while. Part of that is probably due to the fidelity of the recording, but mostly it is the playing of the band. I've heard two versions of this show. One was mp3 sourced and one long track the other, which I got off of dime, sounded much better. I would love a pristine recording of the show.

[Guest donald petersen]

i'm actually listening to a bad sounding tape of 4/5/73 right now and it is pretty cool.

the themes are not themes i have heard before (the notes say that one of the themes is based on a james brown tune)...but it sounds pretty good. there is too much of liebman's soprano but the organ/keyboard is more involved..not just for color...more propulsive.

i also just listened to my 9/14/72 tape...that 72 stuff is so weird. i like it so much but it is so harsh and weirdly mixed too sort of-just because tablas can get that sort of high sound and it really cuts through. i guess garnett is a lamer soloist than i remembered him to be. this is a pretty good sounding recording.

[Guest donald petersen]

but the early 73 stuff reminds me of late 71 stuff actually...