MILES DAVIS & JOHN COLTRANE - The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6
Columbia Legacy
Miles Davis (trumpet); John Coltrane (tenor); Wynton Kelly (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); Jimmy Cobb (drums)
Norman Granz (announcements);
Carl-Erik Lindgren (interviewer with Coltrane )
Koncerthuset, Stockholm – March 22, 1960 (first concert) & March 22, 1960 (second concert)
Miles Davis & John Coltrane - The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 (4 cds) brings together, for the first time five authorised concert performances from Norman Granz’ Spring 1960 Jazz At The Philharmonic European Tour. It was, of course, the final time that Davis and Coltrane toured together. The CD set includes concerts recorded in Paris, Copenhagen and Stockholm with music culled from the original master tapes.
This is a wonderful set of recordings and a tribute to the radio stations of Europe who had the taste to record this group. It is also a compliment to Sony music engineer Mark Wilding. The recordings have been circulating for years and it is good to note that they have never sounded better.
The Bootleg Series has not always lived up to its name. Volume 5 included unissued takes from the studios, hardly bootlegs! However, the concerts on Volume 6 are real bootlegs. Nine bootlegs concerts have been available across the years. Sony has included five: two shows from Paris; two from Stockholm; one from Copenhagen.
This was a group on the verge of dissolution. Coltrane did not want to make the tour and he made that quite clear to Davis. He knew that he wanted to start his own group, which he did as soon as they returned to the US. In the meantime, we have the intriguing prospect of Davis playing one way and Coltrane exploring furiously alternative ways of expression. Coltrane states in an interview, included in the box, that Davis had not put any limitations on him. Nevertheless, he seems intent on going his own way in his solos. Listen to ‘All of You’ and ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ from Paris. What is going on with the audience as Coltrane solos? Some say the audience is approving; others say that they are whistling their disapproval. Davis has just completed a solo that was inspired, beautifully constructed and Coltrane weighs in with a solo played in a style that must have been shocking to many in the audience. It is a little like viewing a Matisse at the side of a Pollock.
Throughout, Davis is at his most lyrical, the concerts took place about a year after the ‘Kind of Blue’ recordings. This was the peak of Davis’ conventional period with solos that are inventive, expressive with long, concise, melodic lines.
The repertoire performed in this collection include : 'Round Midnight", "Bye Bye Blackbird", "On Green Dolphin Street", "Walkin' ", "All Of You" and "Oleo", all of which they had been performing for some time. "So What" and "All Blues" are included from Kind Of Blue.
Kelly, Chambers and Cobb are a rhythm section that can more than cope with the different styles of Davis and Coltrane; it is as if they ignore the schizophrenia and go on their jaunty way. Perhaps that was the best musical strategy. Whatever, it works.
The tour is important; it is a juncture. Revolution was the air. Both men went off on very different routes. Davis created another quintet that would redefine further what jazz could do. Coltrane went on to expand the kind of playing that we hear on these discs, continuing to discover what he wanted to say. In the six-minute interview he rebuts the criticism that he is simply angry with a statement that he plays this way because he had so much to say.
The essay by Ashley Kahn, included in the box, argues that the this was not a group splitting apart but was a redefinition of how diverse styles could work, could be in one concert, even in one tune showing that divergence could be successful.
If you do not have these concerts already, and many people will have them, the quality of the enhancements to the sound might recommend purchase. These tracks are as essential as any in the discography of Coltrane and Davis. The concerts may well persuade others to search out the other European bootleg concerts that Sony elected not to use. There are just as many great moments in Germany, Holland and Switzerland.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
Columbia Legacy
Miles Davis (trumpet); John Coltrane (tenor); Wynton Kelly (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); Jimmy Cobb (drums)
Norman Granz (announcements);
Carl-Erik Lindgren (interviewer with Coltrane )
Koncerthuset, Stockholm – March 22, 1960 (first concert) & March 22, 1960 (second concert)
Miles Davis & John Coltrane - The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 (4 cds) brings together, for the first time five authorised concert performances from Norman Granz’ Spring 1960 Jazz At The Philharmonic European Tour. It was, of course, the final time that Davis and Coltrane toured together. The CD set includes concerts recorded in Paris, Copenhagen and Stockholm with music culled from the original master tapes.
This is a wonderful set of recordings and a tribute to the radio stations of Europe who had the taste to record this group. It is also a compliment to Sony music engineer Mark Wilding. The recordings have been circulating for years and it is good to note that they have never sounded better.
The Bootleg Series has not always lived up to its name. Volume 5 included unissued takes from the studios, hardly bootlegs! However, the concerts on Volume 6 are real bootlegs. Nine bootlegs concerts have been available across the years. Sony has included five: two shows from Paris; two from Stockholm; one from Copenhagen.
This was a group on the verge of dissolution. Coltrane did not want to make the tour and he made that quite clear to Davis. He knew that he wanted to start his own group, which he did as soon as they returned to the US. In the meantime, we have the intriguing prospect of Davis playing one way and Coltrane exploring furiously alternative ways of expression. Coltrane states in an interview, included in the box, that Davis had not put any limitations on him. Nevertheless, he seems intent on going his own way in his solos. Listen to ‘All of You’ and ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ from Paris. What is going on with the audience as Coltrane solos? Some say the audience is approving; others say that they are whistling their disapproval. Davis has just completed a solo that was inspired, beautifully constructed and Coltrane weighs in with a solo played in a style that must have been shocking to many in the audience. It is a little like viewing a Matisse at the side of a Pollock.
Throughout, Davis is at his most lyrical, the concerts took place about a year after the ‘Kind of Blue’ recordings. This was the peak of Davis’ conventional period with solos that are inventive, expressive with long, concise, melodic lines.
The repertoire performed in this collection include : 'Round Midnight", "Bye Bye Blackbird", "On Green Dolphin Street", "Walkin' ", "All Of You" and "Oleo", all of which they had been performing for some time. "So What" and "All Blues" are included from Kind Of Blue.
Kelly, Chambers and Cobb are a rhythm section that can more than cope with the different styles of Davis and Coltrane; it is as if they ignore the schizophrenia and go on their jaunty way. Perhaps that was the best musical strategy. Whatever, it works.
The tour is important; it is a juncture. Revolution was the air. Both men went off on very different routes. Davis created another quintet that would redefine further what jazz could do. Coltrane went on to expand the kind of playing that we hear on these discs, continuing to discover what he wanted to say. In the six-minute interview he rebuts the criticism that he is simply angry with a statement that he plays this way because he had so much to say.
The essay by Ashley Kahn, included in the box, argues that the this was not a group splitting apart but was a redefinition of how diverse styles could work, could be in one concert, even in one tune showing that divergence could be successful.
If you do not have these concerts already, and many people will have them, the quality of the enhancements to the sound might recommend purchase. These tracks are as essential as any in the discography of Coltrane and Davis. The concerts may well persuade others to search out the other European bootleg concerts that Sony elected not to use. There are just as many great moments in Germany, Holland and Switzerland.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
