Miles Davis and the "Lost Quintet"

Miles Davis' late 1969/early 1970 performances with the "Lost Quintet" (Miles Davis (tpt); Wayne Shorter (ss, ts); Chick Corea (el-p); Dave Holland (b, el-b); Jack DeJohnette (d)) are unquestionably some of the most exciting of this long career. Named for the fact that they never recorded as a five-man lineup in the studio, and up until the 2001 release of Live At Fillmore East (March 7, 1970): It's About That Time, had never been featured on an official release, the "Lost Quintet" played an overwhelmingly important role in bridging Miles' older, more familiar material with his new electric direction. This meant that sets saw the unlikely pairing of standards like "'Round Midnight" or "I Fall In Love Too Easily" with "Bitches Brew" and "Miles Run The Voodoo Down," often segueing into one another to create a singular suite, and all overflowing with incredible intensity. A monumental task that produced amazing results. Jack DeJohnette and Chick Corea are absolutely ferocious on both of these recordings.

July 25, 1969
La Pinède, Juan-les-Pins
1. Directions
2. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
3. Milestones
4. Footprints
5. 'Round Midnight
6. It's About That Time
7. Sanctuary/The Theme

November 3, 1969
Salle Pleyel, Paris
(First Set)
1. Directions
2. Bitches Brew
3. Paraphanalia
4. Riot
5. I Fall In Love Too Easily
5. Sanctuary
6. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down/The Theme

(Second Set)
1. Introduction
2. Bitches Brew
3. Agitation
4. I Fall In Love Too Easily
5. Sanctuary
6. Masqualero
7. It's About That Time

Herbie Hancock

Man-Child - 1975

If you've been following the goings on down here at The Heat Warps for any length of time, you've no doubt caught a whiff of our serious love of Herbie Hancock's 70s output. The man was simply unstoppable from 1969 on, dropping in on an occasional session with Miles, forming the backbone of what was essentially the house band for CTI in the early part of the decade and, of course, releasing a string of deep funk and daringly experimental LPs with not one, but two legendary combos. Whew. Just thinking about the man's schedule is taxing. And while 1973's Head Hunters was (and maybe still is) the greatest selling jazz LP of all time, to mark the year as any sort of creative peak is a serious misstep. Thrust, the immediate successor to Head Hunters, grooved even harder and tighter, while 1975's Man-Child piled on the guitars (3 to be exact) and went heavy on synths to merge heavy funk with Mwandishi-style headiness. Hell, even Stevie Wonder drops in to blow some harmonica on "Steppin' In It." It could be argued that, despite being overlooked in favor of its more popular an instantly accesable predecessors, Man-Child is the culmination of everything that made Hancock's 70s LPs so impressive. Intelligent songwriting, deep grooves, tasteful instrumentation and an unmatched cast of characters. There definitely a reason it's always finding its way back to the turntable.

Herbie Hancock

Flood (Live) - 1975

Herbie Hancock was all but unstoppable at the midway point of the 1970s. Following his tenure in Miles' great quintet through the latter half of the 1960s, working with the trumpeter to lay the groundwork for jazz-fusion at the turn of the decade, spacing out and stretching the groove beyond recognition with Mwandishi and pumping out some of the most refined, sophisticated funk of all time with Headhunters, Hancock was the master. It was all his turf. On Flood, the 1975 live album he recorded with the Headhunters lineup in (of all places) the Tokyo Sun Plaza, Hancock doesn't necessarily bring anything that he hasn't brought to record before, but featuring cuts from each of his previous three LPs - all of which are stone classics - the album serves as a Headhunters-era greatest hits that proves, yes, this band really was as good as it sounds on record. Chamelion and Watermelon Man, while great, lack the fire that only comes from having performed them a few too many times, so it's the tunes from Man Child and Thrust that really smoke here. Actual proof, indeed. This two-disc set runs a shade over 74 minutes, so burn it to a single, put it in the dash and enjoy those last few days of summer.

Ornette Coleman

Body Meta - 1976

With legions of jazzers of the early-mid 1970s plugging in to Miles electric groove, it's no surprise that Ornette Coleman dove head first into a genre he'd been toying with for years. Leading a band he dubbed "Prime Time," Coleman pressed on through a series of albums of collective improvisation and loose, angular funk that began with 1975's Dancing in Your Head, but reached a frothy peak on Body Meta the following year. Although the album was pulled from tapes recorded during Dancing in Your Head, the two guitar, bass and drums lineup created an LP that was wholly unique to Coleman's discography - the furious grooves would boil up for a short while and disintegrate before they could set in; guitar tones are harsh throughout; and the alto sax erupts all over the proceedings - drawing surprisingly valid comparisons to Beefheart's late 60s output. 31 years on, this stuff sounds fresh enough to have come out last Tuesday. It's not an easy listen, this slightly skewed take on avant funk, but that seems to be the purpose here- just check out Coleman's original liner notes for proof:

Enter - Prime Time in forming a Harmolodic Band, where the needs of the composer and the players found challenging questions. Prime Time is not a jazz, classical, rock or blues ensemble. It is pure Harmolodic where all forms that can, or could exist yesterday, today, or tomorrow can exist in the now or the moment without a second.

The great Infinite Foolishness beat me to the punch by posting a slew of great Ornette Coleman albums, including Body Meta. Head on over to their turf to survey the cornucopia of awesomeness.

Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette

Ruta and Daitya - 1971
In this midst of their tenure with Miles Davis' group, pianist Keith Jarrett and drummer Jack DeJohnette stole away a little time while in Los Angeles to create Ruta and Daitya. Alternating between avant-funk and minimalist classic jazz, the LP comprises a group of brilliant sketches that serve as a meditative counterpoint to what the duo were producing on stage and in the studio with Miles. Jarrett is undoubtedly the master of ceremonies here, improvising from end to end and effortlessly switching from woodwinds, acoustic and electric pianos, sometimes playing two at once, but always working within the confines of the two man ensemble as DeJohnette works the range of his kit and taps away on African percussion. I initially approached this album with the expectation that it would be similar to Miles' work around this same time. Although it's a logical extension from that, Ruta and Daitya is a different animal entirely. Enjoy.

Soft Machine

Fourth - 1971
Although Robert Wyatt wouldn't leave Soft Machine until they began recording its follow up, Fourth is where his departure from the group truly began, as the LP included no original compositions or vocals from its founding member. Despite these shortcomings, Fourth is an incredible album of trippy, muscular jazz fusion performed by a band at the height of its powers. Wyatt's drumming is arguably the strongest of his career, but the major contributor here is bassist Hugh Hopper, writing five of the LP's seven songs, including, in true prog fasion, the four song suite that comprised its B side. The unquestionable highlight of this set is its opener "Teeth"; a schizophrenic epic that clocks in at over nine minutes and soars and battles through multiple time shifts, gentle passages and sections of frothy, pummeling rage. Carrying an intensity that may not match that which the band achieved on Third, Fourth is superior in recording quality and outright musicianship. Although better than the majority of their contemporaries for the remainder of the decade, it was all downhill from here for Soft Machine.

Stan Getz

Captain Marvel - 1972
Having famously paired with Joao Gilberto for 1963's massive Getz/Gilberto bossa nova summit, it's no surprise that another equally successful collaboration was in the cards for Stan Getz. At the time he was forming his Return to Forever band, Chick Corea got wind that Getz was on the hunt for a band with which to tour and record new material. Putting his own project on temporary hiatus, Corea plucked Airto Moriera and Stanley Clarke from his fledgling group and enlisted fellow Miles alum, Tony Williams on drums. The resulting album is almost exactly what you'd expect this collection of greats to turn out, and every bit as incredible as Getz better known Gilberto collaboration. With Corea originals making up five of the album's six tunes and Airto's Brazillian percussion filling out the mix, Captain Marvel has a heavy Latin bend throughout, but the percussive plunk of Rhodes piano and controlled chaos of Williams behind the kit pulls it all so slightly into fusion territory. Unquestionably one of Getz' finest moments of the decade, and a fascinating glimpse as to how straight these Davis graduates could play it when they wanted to.

Nucleus

Elastic Rock - 1970

By 1970, the influence of Miles Davis' electric directions ran as deep as could be imagined. Cannonball Adderley fused deep R&B grooves into his repertoire, Carlos Santana stretched into the realm of ambient jazz, and Weather Report built the entirety of their early career around the understated sonic explorations that Davis stretched to the breaking point with In a Silent Way. But across the Atlantic, Ian Carr and Nucleus took a more literal approach to absorbing Miles' influence - they simply copied the blueprint. But that's not to say that the results weren't spectacular in their own right. With a traditional jazz lineup plus the addition of electric guitar and electric piano (either a Wurlitzer or Hohner Pianet, as opposed to the Fender Rhodes that Miles favored), Elastic Rock harkens back to the electric explorations that lead up to Filles De Kilimanjaro rather than unwisely aping the Bitches Brew material that left so many groups reeling. The compositions are also extremely short by fusion standards, with many of its 14 tracks hanging around the two minute mark - making Elastic Rock come off as a collection of fragments, sketches and half-baked ideas on the surface, while in reality, its cohesiveness is stunning. Moody, thrilling, and unmistakably familiar, Nucleus’ first effort is a solid foundation for a band that would soon take the ideas explored here to the furthest reaches.

Heat Warps Music Nerd Fast Fact: Nucleus drummer John Marshall and keyboardist Karl Jenkins left the group to join Soft Machine in 1976.

Tony Williams Lifetime

Emergency! - 1969

As the first great fusion power trio, Tony Williams (drums), John McLaughlin (guitar) and Larry Young (organ) formed on the heels of Williams' departure as a longtime member of Miles Davis' band. Legend has it, that having already solidified the lineup for his group, Williams showed up for Miles' recording of In a Silent Way and was shocked to find that the bandleader had also booked McLaughlin for the session. In protest, Williams toned down his characteristically thunderous drumming for Davis' session and saved his venom for the recording of Emergency! a few months later. The resulting LP was supremely intense, even by Williams' standards - and despite being dismissed by purists upon its release, is now appreciated as the defining document of jazz/rock that it is...but then, don't ALL the great fusion records from this era share this story? The trio is on the edge of boiling over throughout this double LP, pulling the reins only to make room for Williams' sporadic stoned soliloquies (oddly fitting at points, mildly annoying at others), and plowing back into some ferocious jams just before the bottom drops out. A complete mess, but a focused and inspired one. Cream bassist Jack Bruce would join the band on their next LP Turn It Over, but the songs became shorter, tighter and more pop-oriented - proving further that they had it right the first time.

Miles Davis

At Fillmore - 1971

The result of a four-night stand at the Fillmore East running from June 17-20, 1970, At Fillmore is among the finest, and undoubtedly the most controversial live album in Miles' official catalogue. In order to fit Miles' Wednesday-Saturday residency into a double LP package, producer Teo Macero pulled some of the finer moments from each night and stitched them together to form a medley that took up a single side of vinyl. Initially, some listeners derided Macero's efforts on the basis that several tunes were repeated throughout the album, while others bellyached that editing the songs in such a fashion removed the groove that propelled each night's set. More savvy listeners however, heard the album as a brilliant distillation of Miles' live performance and a compelling record of the band's ability to so drastically reinterpret the same material night after night. Aside from the addition of Keith Jarrett on a wah-wah'd combo organ, At Fillmore features the same personnel that produced the live Black Beauty LP only two months previous - yet the two albums are so different that they could have been recorded years apart. Whereas Black Beauty was loose, mean document, ferocious to the point of frightening, At Fillmore is ambient, funky, tightly wound and extremely focused. On Black Beauty, the music was in complete control. Here, the ensemble holds the reins. Listen close. The results are absolutely incredible.

Pharoah Sanders

Deaf Dumb Blind - 1970

Preceded by a string of LPs that included Jewels of Thought and Karma (both from 1969), Deaf Dumb Blind (Summing Bukmun Umyun) combined the deeply spiritual tone of his previous LPs with tastefully funky R&B. And while Pharoah didn't necessarily morph into Sly Stone on this LP, the first of the album's two sides is a glorious landslide of polyrhythms African and Latin, pinned together by the piano of Lonnie Liston Smith (not to be confused with Hammond master, Dr. Lonnie Smith) and a massive five-piece horn section which included Gary Bartz (whose sax was all over Miles' Live-Evil and Cellar Door Sessions). An all-organic, funky affair. The second half of the LP is an entirely different animal. Inspired exercises in melodic phrasing and droning emotional climaxes, "Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord" is much more than a soothing comedown from the album's first half. From AllMusic:
This piece, and this album, is a joyful noise made in the direction of the divine, and we can feel it through the speakers, down in the place that scares us.
Amen.

Miles Davis

The Lost Mid-70s Sessions - 1973-76
This scattershot collection has been compiled on numerous occasions and in many forms, most notably on the bootleg sets Unknown Sessions 1973-1976: Volume 1 and Unknown Sessions 1974-1976: Volume 2. As the title implies, the collection featured here includes the various studio jams in their un-editied forms that would appear on Davis' mid-70s LPs, as well as successful funk studio workouts the band would add to their live repertoire up until Miles "retirement" in '76. And while there are plenty of fine moments in this collection, including a couple of truly wicked takes on "Agharta Prelude Pt. 2," the overarching feel is that of a weary, unfocused and uninspired Miles Davis. When he attempts to solo here - over a band that is painfully beyond his control in comparison to the taught precision of his Jack DeJohnette-led ensembles at the turn of the decade - his horn is heavily processed and his tone is often aching and thin, but thankfully, and most interestingly, he resorts to playing the organ throughout the majority of this material. A six-disc Columbia box titled Beyond the Corner is rumored to be in the works, and will almost certainly pull from these sessions.

Art Ensemble of Chicago

Les Stances a Sophie - 1970

Recorded as a soundtrack to a film of the same name, but for one reason or another, never actually used in the film, Les Stances a Sophie marked the crest of jazz fusion's first wave. As expatriates living in Paris, AEoC ingeniously paired with the vocal talents of trumpeter Lester Bowie's then-wife Fontella Bass, who had scored a massive hit of her own in "Rescue Me" four years earlier. The result is a genre-defying LP that seamlessly bridges their brand of avant-jazz and loose funk with heavy American soul. All of the tracks here are incredible, but the lead off "Theme de Yoyo" is a hands-down knockout -- tight, tough and all the while subtly feminine, it's easily one of the best under the radar tracks of the early 70s. There's no excuse to pass up this LP, ever.

Weather Report

Live in Tokyo 1972

While Weather Report were tight, focused and (at times) overly sick on their studio LPs, they were a completely different animal in a live setting. On stage, the band's focus turned from creating a singular, rigidly structured organism to allowing the members to stretch out on their own terms. And stretch out, they did. As expected, Joe Zawinul is tremendous, effortlessly switching from acoustic piano to heavily modulated Rhodes, often sounding like multiple keyboardists at once. However Miroslav Vitous and Eric Gravatt really come into their own here; managing to hold down the groove while tearing off into their own direction throughout. A truly captivating album and one of Weather Report's finest, hands down.

Herbie Hancock

Crossings - 1971

A couple of years before he emerged as one of the most commercially successful fusion artists of the 1970s, Herbie Hancock was deeply entrenched in creating albums that took electronic music to soaring heights and stretched improvisation to its limits. The second in a trilogy of LPs that included Mwandishi and Sextant, Crossings benefits from incorporating the elements that defined what was so unique about both of these; the solid, proto-funk grooves of the former and the far out synth-based, skeletal rhythms of the latter. Comprised of a mere three tracks, the first of which is a 24-minute, 3-part suite, this is avant-garde funk at its finest, performed by a crew of musicians that all but defined the genre. Very weird, precisely executed and extremely rewarding.

Miles Davis

Deep Brew (Bitches Brew Recording Sessions) - 1969
Volume 1, Volume 2
Aside from being among the most powerful statements in the history of recorded music, Miles Davis' 1969 Bitches Brew LP also stands as a testament to the incredible editing work of the album's producer, Teo Macero. Throughout three studio sessions on August 19-21, 1969, Miles led ensembles of up to 13 musicians through numerous song sketches, bizarre atonal experiments and dense polyrhythmic vamps that forced them to listen closely to one another and allow the music to take on a life of its own. In some of the quieter moments you can actually hear Miles giving instructions by snapping his fingers to set the tempo, telling individuals where to solo, or, in his distinctive whisper, saying, "Keep it tight"; indicating that all the while he and Macero maintained a clear picture of how they would fuse these sections into cohesive compositions. Considering this method of recording, the resulting LP is nothing short of astonishing.

Going well beyond the expansive Complete Bitches Brew Sessions box set, Deep Brew, Volumes 1 & 2 collects nearly all of the material recorded during those August sessions. Amazing stuff.

*Many, many thanks to Heat Warps' visitor Hansame for sharing this incredible set!

Joe Zawinul

Zawinul - 1970

There has possibly never been a pianist who has explored the Fender Rhodes to a greater depth than Zoe Zawinul ... except for maybe Herbie Hancock. Thankfully, this LP contains them both. A towering monument of late 60s jazz fusion, Joe Zawinul's self titled LP stands up to In a Silent Way as one of the greatest electric piano-based albums of all time. In fact, it's easy to look at Zawinul as the sequel to Davis 1969 masterpiece, as both LPs included Zawinul and Hancock on Fender Rhodes, both feature extended exercises in subtle textures and mood, both include Zawinul's tune "In a Silent Way", albeit in drastically different forms, and esthetically, both covers are strikingly similar in the way the bandleader's head takes up the entire frame. Similarities aside, Zawinul and Hancock's use of ring modulators, echo and a bevy of other effects take the music and the Rhodes itself, into an entirely different sonic realm than Davis' album and well past the psychedelic boundaries that any rock group (then or now) could dream to tread. A landmark LP on so many levels. Enjoy.

Zawinul - Joe Zawinul

Miles Davis

Directions - 1980

To satiate his fans during his "retirement" in the late 70s, Columbia issued two fine rarities collections that focused on the rarely-heard (at that time) transitional periods of Miles Davis' career, Circle in the Round, which chronicled the years 1955-1970, and Directions, which covered 1960-1970. While Circle in the Round is notable for containing an all-acoustic version of Sanctuary, a tune that was later re-recorded in full electric glory for Bitches Brew, as well as a hauntingly majestic rendition of David Crosby's Guennevere, Directions simply overflows with gems from Miles' late 60s fusion peak - the rare period before everyone else fell in line and the road belonged to Miles alone. The Complete In A Silent Way and Jack Johnson session box sets have since collected most of the tunes on Directions, however this double LP places them in a context that illustrates Miles' transformation like neither of the sessions sets could, simply because it speeds up the process. Highlights include the tightly-wound funk morsel "Duran" featuring a smokin' John McLaughlin and "Willie Nelson" in all its wah-wah glory. Dig it now.

*Another fine Slidewell contribution. Thanks again to him for sharing the wealth with The Heat Warps.

Miroslav Vitous

Mountain In The Clouds/Infinite Search - 1969

Much like John McLaughlin's Devotion LP, Mountain in the Clouds was recorded in that rare pocket of time after which all of its players had (in most cases) recently left Miles Davis' band, but hadn't yet formed their own groups. The music is, not surprisingly, very similar to what Miles was doing towards the end of the 60s and at many points sounds like Bitches Brew filtered through a smaller ensemble. Originally released in 1969, but trimmed down and reissued the same year (who on Earth knows why...), the version here is the original Mountain in the Clouds LP and therefore contains the track "Cerecka" which was trimmed from the subsequent Infinite Search reissue. Very confusing, I know. Either way, this often overlooked album is a high water mark of the early days of jazz fusion and a must-have for those looking to dive a little deeper into Miles' directions.

Lineup:
Miroslav Vitous, bass
Joe Henderson, tenor sax
John McLaughlin, guitar
Herbie Hancock, electric piano
Jack Dejohnette, drums
Joe Chambers, drums

John McLaughlin

Devotion - 1970

Recorded immediately following John McLaughlin's tenure in Miles Davis' band, yet before he formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Devotion was the result of a session with Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles (drums), Larry Young (organ) and Billy Rich (bass). The recordings featuring Hendrix have never seen an official release, and rightly so -- matched up against Jimi's prowess, McLaughlin's playing is meek, careful and downright out of character -- plus, his guitar was on the fritz throughout. But during the sessions without Jimi, his guitar work is a monument of powerful jazz rock psychedelia that lays the foundation for one of the greatest fusion albums of all time. With his tremendous influence on Davis' Tribute to Jack Johnson still lingering, McLaughlin's focus is on creating tension and dynamics with his cohorts while he plows his way through genres and toys with several themes that he would eventually flesh out to a greater degree with his Mahavishnu Orchestra. An essential document for fans of McLaughlin or the adventurous side of early 70s fusion.