The Cellar Door Sessions 1970

Description by OLDIES.com:

Here is the Miles Davis collection that his legions of American fans have most eagerly awaited. Previously available as a fraction of the music herein and only initially issued domestically (in edited form on the two-LP set Live Evil, The Cellar Door Sessions was recorded December 16-19, 1970 at a club in Washington, DC, where the great trumpeter-bandleader Davis was at the helm of one of his most stimulating groups.

Product Description:

Contains previously unreleased material. Some of the recordings on the CELLAR DOOR SESSIONS were originally released in edited form on the 1971 double-LP LIVE EVIL.

Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); John McLaughlin (electric guitar); Gary Bartz (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone); Keith Jarrett (Fender Rhodes piano, electric organ); Michael Henderson (bass guitar); Jack DeJohnette (drums); Airto Moreira (percussion).

Recording information: Cellar Door, Washington, D.C. (12/16/1970 - 12/19/2005).

There is an entire universe contained in this box. Sumptuously packaged and scrupulously annotated, CELLAR DOOR SESSIONS 1970 is a six-disc set that documents Miles Davis's extended residency at the Washington, D.C., club. Davis is backed by a group of genius musicians: keyboardist Keith Jarrett, drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist Michael Henderson, saxophonist Gary Bartz, percussionist Airto Moreira and guitarist John McLaughlin (who appears only on the last two discs). Together they pioneered an ecstatic fusion of jazz, rock, funk, and abstract sound-painting that established the blueprint for the future of progressive music.

Each disc contains a different live set, and while songs are often repeated across the set lists, no two tracks sound the same. The players improvise at a fever-pitch, pushing themselves to endless invention, and the ensemble's interplay--expressionistic, protean, and fierce--is near telepathic. The influence of rock artists like Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix can be heard in the layering of deep funk rhythms and psychedelic inflections (especially with Miles's wah-filtered trumpet), but the overall sound seems to subsume and transcend the entire history of 20th century music. In a career full of musical innovation, this is some of Miles's most visionary work, and this essential set (which also boasts splendid remastering) documents it for a near-religious listening experience.