Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West

Artist: Miles Davis
Label: Columbia
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Live
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2
EAN: 4988009974897
ASIN: B00005HY7Z

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Tracks:

Directions
Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
Willie Nelson
I Fall in Love Too Easily
Sanctuary
It's About That Time

Tracks:

Bitches Brew
Masqualero
Spanish Key/The Theme

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Live at the Fillmore East (March 7, 1970): It's About That Time
At Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East
In Concert: Live at Philharmonic Hall
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Customer Reviews:

Better Sound Than It's About That Time, Weaker Performance.......2006-10-20

Any fan of Miles's electric work is going to want these sets recorded at the Fillmore West about a month after It's About That Time was recorded at the Fillmore East. Apart from Miles moving off mic once or twice early on, it does sound as though the engineers are getting a handle on how to record this band live.

Miles's playing is extraordinary. He really rips it up, though it does sound like he kind of loses interest in a couple of places on the second disc. De Johnette and Holland are absolutely, positively the best rhythm section in the history of rock period. Their performances are much clearer on these sets than on the earlier Fillmore East sets. While the overall performance at the Fillmore East (that included Wayne Shorter) is markedly stronger and far more intense, De Johnette's and Holland's playing is a bit muddy - it's much cleaner here on Black Beauty. Holland is sounds fabulous on the track called Willie Nelson.

Steve Grossman's playing isn't so bad as other's have made out though it does sound a little thin after hearing Wayne Shorter blow his tenor to pieces on the Fillmore East release. Grossman is only heard on Soprano on Black Beauty. It is interesting to hear Chick encourage him on Directions, the opening track. When Grossman seems to stall, you can hear Corea chime in and start some dialog with him and get his solo moving again.

Chick's playing seems to have a lot more form on these sessions than on the other two Fillmore releases, lots of interesting stuff going on and his noodling around with the ring modulator device is kind of fun and spaced-out.

Airto's playing is also a lot earier to hear on this release than his playing on the earlier concert.

If I could rate this 4.5 stars I would because the earlier Fillmore East sets are so much stronger... they were downright savage. Black Beauty is still very good, it just isn't as good as It's About That Time despite its superior sound. Buy only after you purchase It's About That Time - Live at the Fillmore East.

A shade below Cellar Door..........2006-07-21

But not by much. Black Beauty was recorded at the Filmore West auditorium in 1970. By this time, Miles' third quintet was starting to break up, with Steve Grossman replacing Shorter in March 1970, and with percussionist Airto Moreira becoming a member.

This concert is definitely not as good as the Isle of Wight concert, or the "It's About That Time" concert in March. Nevertheless, it is a concert that has much to offer.

By this time, Chick Corea was starting to connect his Fender Electric Piano to a ring modulator, and was bringing the tradition of jazz piano to trippy new heights. Listen to the bizarre reinterpretation of the theme in his solo at the end of "Miles runs the Voodoo Down", complete with jackhammer pounding, screaming missile launchers, howls, twitters and wild feedback. This is jazz piano as you've never heard it!

Also listen to Miles Davis' playing. As if to show the world that he still has jazz chops, he plays a heartbreaking, and heartbreakingly short, solo on "I Fall in Love too Easily" - the only performance that gets cheers from the rock crowd!! Also listen to his manly soloing on Directions.

The rest of the band is performing OK, except for Steve Grossman. I can never understand his improvisation here, which seems to consist largely of identical twittering sounds repeated over and over. Perhaps he was stoned at the time?

There are other problems with this concert. The sound quality is quite appalling, considering this is a new reissue. Surely the tape couldn't have been this bad? Listen to the tape hiss on "I Fall in Love too Easily".

There's also Teo Macero's bloody annoying habit of shifting tracks from one stereo speaker to the other, which comes to full fruition in "On the Corner" (curse the name!) but is almost equally annoying here. Can anyone please tell me the purpose behind throwing Miles' trumpet from one stereo speaker to the other every couple of bars??? It's mad!

Also, the performance definitely runs out of steam towards the end. "Bitches Brew" has nice electric piano but Miles seems weary. "Masqualero" is even worse; and this must be the least energetic version of "Spanish Key" I have heard.

Altogether, this concert is definitely inferior to several others. The band is competent, but competent is not good enough for musicians of this calibre! There's definitely something not quite on the button with this concert; maybe everyone was tired. Nevertheless, it's worth getting.

Electric Piano As Electric Guitar.......2006-06-27

Miles wanted each live show to be a unique experience in itself. And in this concert Chick Corea drives the music with an electric piano being used like a rock band with a driving electric guitar player.

The energy is picked up by Steve Grossman, a much-maligned band member by critics, but who turns in a fantastic performance. The rhythm section of Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and Airto keep the pace fast & Miles simply is.....well, Miles.

Hearing the band nearly 40 years later shows how ahead of the curve they were in 1970. And since then I don't believe too many bands have even been near that road.

Jazz Rage.......2006-02-08

Its About That Time documents the first appearence of Miles during a rock concert (he had been adding electronic elements live since 1968) but Black Beauty is on equal footing (even though it lacks Wayne Shorter) because it sounds more self assured. By this time Miles had decided he definitely want to appeal to a rock audience and rock out (in a free jazz kind of way) during his concerts, not because some producer manipulated him into it (as the many myths go)but because he wanted to make jazz that would reach out to the popular arena as well, not just a quiet, sit down audience at a jazz club. I don't have as much against Steve Grossman's playing as some reviewers. Sure, on this concert he's new but Miles' bands was all about recruiting new and young talent (remember Tony Williams started in his band at 17)and preparing them for their own careers. Miles playing is rock steady and assured even when he stops briefly for a standard. This was right before the easy availibility of synths in a live setting. However, Chick Corea more than makes up for it by connecting his Fender Rhodes (a legendary jazz electric piano) to a ring modulator and getting weird, disturbing squawks of feedback at a time when he was not afraid to take chances (near to his membership in the free jazz group Circle with Anthony Braxton). Frankly Miles was the one who made this possible. Miles was not a fan of free jazz but his live performances during the electric era were basically free jazz but still managed to remain melodic. He pushed all the members of his band to greater heights and encouraged them to take chances. This concert has to be taken as a whole and in that sense it completely works. Things only got freakier from there.

Good, But There's Better Out There.......2005-11-28

Until a few years ago, when Columbia finally released "It's About That Time," this was one of few early-1970 live Miles concerts available on cd (Mid- and Late-1970 is a bit more readily available. That's right, 1970, not 70s - as Robert Christgau has put it, things moved pretty fast in those days). "It's About That Time" features the last concert with the great Wayne Shorter on saxophone, and has excellent, full sound as well. This release, recorded in April 1970, has a rather weak original transfer, with the bass and drums sounding particularly bad. Miles is in fine if squeaky form, and Chick Corea's distorted electric keyboard comps are one the major highlights. Steve Grossman, soon to be booted in favor of Gary Bartz, wastes most of his solos with repetitive swoops and scales, like a parody of Coltrane's soprano work. There are some Grossman fans out there, but I'm just not one of them, and I find his solos detract considerably from the album as a whole. Fans of electric Miles will still dig this. But it's sad to think that the record company pushed this average concert recording to a widespread audience (tried to, at least) and left the stupendous "Jack Johnson" (recorded three nights before this concert took place!) to flail in obscurity.

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