Miles Davis Septet - 1975 Tokyo

• published: 14 Jul 2015
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Miles Davis Septet Another Unity Shinjuku Kohseinenkin Hall, Tokyo - January 22, 1975. Very good soundboard. After listening to this release and to the 1975 official Japan tour albums (Agharta and Pangaea), it’s hard to imagine that a few months down the road, Miles Davis was seriously thinking about quitting music. According to the wikipedia, by the time the group reached Japan in February 1975, Davis was teetering on a physical breakdown and required copious amounts of vodka and narcotics to complete his engagements... (set 1): 00:00 Band warming up 2:33 02:33 Funk 21:22 23:55 Maiysha 15:44 (set 2): 0:39:39 Ife 18:19 0:57:59 Mtume 4:10 1:02:09 Turnaround Phase 5:20 1:07:29 Tune In 5 4:06 1:11:35 Untitled 10:31 Lineup: Miles Davis - trumpet, organ Sonny Fortune - alto & soprano sax, flute Pete Cosey - guitar, synthesizer, kalimba, table percussion Reggie Lucas - guitar Michael Henderson - bass James “Mtume” Heath (aka Foreman) - percussion, rhythm box Al Foster - drums ...But by then, the band had the moves down pat; the music was exciting and Miles was practically bleeding his horn. In his Autobiography, he said: “When I finished all the gigs with Herbie and came back to New York in the summer of 1975, I was thinking seriously about quitting… “I quit primarily because of health reasons, but also because I was spiritually tired of all the bullshit I had been going through for all those long years. I felt artistically drained, tired. I didn’t have anything else to say musically… I was sick and tired of going in and out of hospitals and hobbling around, on and off stage. I was beginning to see pity in people’s eyes when they looked at me… “I thought I might be gone for maybe six months, but the longer I stayed away the more uncertain I was whether I was going to come back at all. And the more I stayed away, the deeper I sank into another dark world, almost as dark as the one I had pulled myself out of when I was a junkie… In the end it took almost six years and even then I was doubtful whether I could truly come all the way back. “From 1975 until early 1980 I didn’t pick up my horn; for over four years, didn’t pick it up once.” One week after this Tokyo show, Miles was in Osaka and the Osaka shows were recorded and released as Agharta and Pangaea. Agharta is considered a high point of the electric Miles and fans such as Tom Djll (writing in One Final Note) much preferred the official release as opposed to the bootleg: “At the end of this bootleg bout, we find the official concert recordings of the 1975 band - Agharta and Pangaea - still the champions of the electric Miles canon (they sport awesome covers, too). “Simply put, those records are better recorded and better mixed (although no less than three different mixes on various CBS/Sony domestic and Japanese issues have been offered over the years, adding to the general confusion about this period). But the prime reason the official releases stand out is because the musicians knew that Columbia, in the person of Teo Macero, was rolling the tape, and that posterity might be standing in judgment someday.” Then there are fans such as emperor nobody who would swear by this: “This concert almost eclipses Agharta and blows away Pangaea… I’ll say that this is as tight, as focused, as dynamically diverse, and as balls-out shredding as ANY MILES ELECTRIC SHOW that I have ever heard, period. Whatever Pete Cosey’s on in this one ought to be put in the water supply, that’s all I can say.” Or fans can just sit back and enjoy all the different shows.