Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West
Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West | ||||
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jazz-rock | ||||
Length | 79:20 | |||
Label | CBS/Sony | |||
Producer | Teo Macero | |||
Miles Davis chronology | ||||
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Miles Davis live chronology | ||||
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Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West is a live double album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on April 10, 1970, at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, shortly after the release of the trumpeter's Bitches Brew album and the recording of Jack Johnson (1971). Black Beauty was produced by Teo Macero, Davis' longtime record producer. A
Black Beauty was first released only in Japan by
Background
Black Beauty was recorded in concert at the Fillmore West in San Francisco on April 10, 1970, when Davis performed as the opening act for the Grateful Dead.[2] The performance took place soon after his studio album Bitches Brew had been released to stores, and he played some songs from the album. Davis led an ensemble that featured soprano saxophonist Steve Grossman, bassist Dave Holland, keyboardist Chick Corea, drummer Jack DeJohnette, and percussionist Airto Moreira.[3] After the departure of saxophonist Wayne Shorter from the group earlier that year, Grossman was enlisted by Davis to participate in an April 7 recording session for his next album Jack Johnson (1971) before joining the live band.[4]
The April 10 show was the second of four concerts Davis played at the Fillmore West that month and one of his first concerts in a rock venue, having performed at New York City's Fillmore East a month earlier.[4] His change to rock venues, suggested by Columbia Records president Clive Davis, helped the label market Bitches Brew to the counterculture audience.[4] According to Holland, the trumpeter's music around this time became well received by the rock audiences they encountered. "I heard quite recently from one of the [Grateful Dead's] ex-members that they were very nervous that they had to play up next to Miles", Holland said. "It was a time when people were not that worried about musical categories. And this was some pretty strong in-your-face music. People loved it."[5] Davis said the Fillmore West shows were an "eye-opening experience" for him. While he became friendly with Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia, who was a fan of Davis' music, there were several thousands of mostly young, white hippies who were generally unfamiliar with him.[6] Davis recalled:
The place was packed with these real spacey, high, white people, and where we first started playing, people were walking around and talking. But after a while they all got quiet and really into the music. I played a little something like [from] Sketches of Spain and then went into the Bitches Brew shit, and that really blew them out. After that concert, every time I would play out there in San Francisco, a lot of young white people showed up at the gigs.[6]
Composition and performance
The songs in the band's set list were: "Directions", "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down", "Willie Nelson", "I Fall in Love Too Easily", "Sanctuary", "It's About That Time", "Bitches Brew", "Masqualero", "Spanish Key", and "The Theme".[7] They were performed as one continuous and uninterrupted piece of music, a practice Davis had begun in 1967. He later explained in his autobiography that performing these kinds of long musical suites without breaks allowed more space for improvisations in concert.[8]
Most of the band's improvisations on Black Beauty centered around
Back in the days with Louis Armstrong and King Oliver, the band would play exactly the same improvised phrase together, in unison. Nobody knew how they could do it. It was like magic. What happened was that King Oliver would play the phrase during the bars before. Louis would hear it and so when it came around the next time he would play it. I learned from Miles how these kind of cues can be used to change direction, or introduce a new section. Miles often used phrases to show us where we'd go next. When we were playing a tune, Miles would superimpose something on top of it, and as soon as he did that we'd know that we were moving to another song, or that this or that rhythmic thing was about to happen. That's the great thing about a working band, you start to develop an intuitive sense for what's going on. You're listening all the time and you build up this language which becomes very personal to the group.[9]
According to
Some of the songs, including "I Fall in Love Too Easily", "Masqualero", and "The Theme", were from Davis' 1950s and 1960s repertoire. "The Theme" was originally recorded in 1955 by his
Release and reception
Black Beauty was originally released only in Japan in 1973.[4] It contained four side-long tracks spread across a double album, grouping the songs as medleys titled "Black Beauty Part I", "Black Beauty Part II", and so on, all of which credited Davis as the composer.[16] He did not want the actual segments specified on the track listing out of a distaste for critics and listeners who arduously analyzed his music; according to DeJohnette's wife Lydia, "Miles really felt that critics and people spent too much time in their mental mind, analyzing and talking for hours about something that really just is."[15] Columbia spent several years identifying some of the individual compositions to ensure royalty payment for the actual composers.[17] The Japanese release also mistakenly credited Michael Henderson—Davis' other bassist during this period—rather than Holland in the liner notes.[18]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Tom Hull – on the Web | B+[26] |
The record was only available in the United States as an import until 1997, when it was
:Black Beauty preserved an inkling of why the
amphetamines into a beat that rocks. Yet this unique sound is evolving fast. Still nominally beholden to theme-and-variation, Black Beauty is soloists' music, and as such the corniest electric Miles on record.[27]
Davis biographer
Track listing
All compositions were credited to Miles Davis, except where noted.
1973 double LP
1997 CD reissue
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Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[29]
Musicians
- Miles Davis – trumpet
- Steve Grossman – saxophone
- Chick Corea – electric piano
- Dave Holland – electric bass
- Jack DeJohnette – drums
- Airto Moreira – percussion
Technical personnel
Original
- Teo Macero – production
- Teruhisa Tajima, Shuichi Yoshida – cover design
- Tadayuki Naitoh – front cover photo
- Sandy Speiser – liner photos
Reissue
- Bob Belden – reissue production
- Tom Ruff – reissue mastering
- Randall Martin – reissue design
- Chick Corea – reissue liner notes
See also
References
- ^ Miles Davis - Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West Album Reviews, Songs & More | AllMusic, retrieved 2023-11-21
- ^ Tingen 2001, p. 114; Davis 1997, p. 117.
- ^ a b c Alkyer, Enright & Koransky 2007, p. 330.
- ^ a b c d e f Tingen 2001, p. 114.
- ^ Tingen 2001, p. 83.
- ^ a b Jackson & Gans 2015, p. 156.
- ^ a b Szwed 2004, p. 465.
- ^ Tingen 2001, pp. 38, 115.
- ^ a b Tingen 2001, pp. 115–16.
- ^ a b c Heckman 1997.
- ^ Davis 1997, p. 117.
- ^ Tingen 2001, p. 116.
- ^ Szwed 2004, p. 310; Tingen 2001, p. 114.
- ^ Szwed 2004, pp. 310–11.
- ^ a b Tingen 2001, p. 115.
- ^ Tingen 2001, p. 115; Chambers 1998, p. 205.
- ^ Szwed 2004, p. 310.
- ^ Anon. 1981, p. xxii: "Michael Cuscuna says Dave Holland has confirmed that he — not Michael Henderson — is the bassist on Miles Davis's 'Black Beauty' album (CBS/Sony SOPJ-39/40), recorded at Fillmore West in San Francisco."
- ^ Jurek 2002, p. 314.
- ^ Christgau 2000, p. 73.
- ^ Larkin 2011.
- ^ Sinclair 1997.
- ^ Cook & Morton 2006, p. 329.
- ^ Considine 2004, p. 215.
- ^ a b Campbell 2012.
- ^ Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Grade List: Miles Davis". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
- ^ Christgau 1997.
- ^ Chambers 1998, pp. 204–205.
- ^ Corea 1997.
Bibliography
- Alkyer, Frank; Enright, Ed; Koransky, Jason, eds. (2007). The Miles Davis Reader. ISBN 978-1-4234-3076-6.
- Anon. (1981). Jazz Journal International.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link - Campbell, Hernan M. (2012). "Review: Miles Davis – Black Beauty". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved July 4, 2016.
- ISBN 0-306-80849-8.
- Christgau, Robert (1997). "Miles Davis's '70s:The Excitement! The Terror!". The Village Voice. No. October 14. Retrieved July 4, 2016.
- Christgau, Robert (2000). Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. ISBN 0-312-24560-2.
- ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
- ISBN 0-14-102327-9.
- Columbia/Legacy. C2K 65138.
- Davis, Erik (1997). "Freakin' the Funk – Revisiting Miles Davis's '70s Visions". Spin (August).
- Heckman, Don (1997). "Unleashing More of the Davis Legacy". Los Angeles Times. No. July 27. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
- Jackson, Blair; ISBN 978-1-250-05856-0.
- Jurek, Thom (2002). "Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West". In ISBN 0-87930-717-X.
- ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
- Sinclair, Tom (1997). "Miles Davis Live Albums". Entertainment Weekly (August 1): 75. Retrieved July 4, 2016.
- ISBN 0-684-85983-1.
- ISBN 0-8230-8346-2.
Further reading
- Grady, Pam (2016). "Miles Davis Left a Major Mark on S.F." SFGate.
- Jones, Josh (2014). "The Night When Miles Davis Opened for the Grateful Dead in 1970: Hear the Complete Recordings". Open Culture.
External links
- Official website
- Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West at AllMusic
- Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West at Discogs (list of releases)