The Phases of Electric Miles Live 1969-1975

Jan 04 2021

The first Miles Davis electric era lasted from 1969 to 1975. During this period Miles explored many different approaches to electric music both in performances and recordings, with a large cast of musicians in various lineups. While Miles’ electric albums have become iconic, the music he was playing live during this period is often very different. I like to think of the electric period live bands as two distinct phases with completely different lineups and styles, with a period of transition between the two. Phase 1 was roughly 1969-70. 1971 and 72 were years of transition, and Phase 2 lasted from 73-75. Here’s my attempt to break it down.

PHASE 1 Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea
1969
1969 was a huge year for Miles. In February of 1969 he made his first serious foray into electric music when he recorded In a Silent Way. The band consisted of Tony Williams on drums, with Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Joe Zawinul on keyboards. He also brought in John McLaughlin on guitar for the first time. Dave Holland played bass.
After this session Miles switched up his touring band, the famous “second great quintet,” replacing Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, and Chick Corea. Only Wayne Shorter remained from the legendary 60s band. This new band is often referred to as the “lost quintet” because they never made an official studio album. Corea started off on electric piano and Holland began incorporating electric bass, something Ron Carter had told Miles he was not interested in doing. Stylistically, this new band picked up where the 60s band had left off: shifting, elastic rhythm with forays into free improvisation, and Miles reigning them in when he’d had enough. They continued to perform through the summer, incorporating new tunes that would soon be included on Bitches Brew. The famous Bitches Brew sessions took place at the end of August. For those sessions the core band was augmented even further than for In a Silent Way and played in a more subdued, hypnotic manner. This was quite a contrast to the explosive, open-sounding flux of the live band. When those sessions were over the quintet took off for a European tour that ran until the end of the year.
Although this band never made a formal recording they were well-documented with live performance recordings. Two concerts were recorded in July at the Jazz à Juan festival, La Pinède in Juan-les-Pins France, followed by a several concerts from the fall European tour. These recordings illustrate the radically different approach to the Bitches Brew material, and reveal a band taking their music to the extreme outer limits of melody, harmony, and time. Chick Corea is pushing the electric piano into new sounds while DeJohnette and Holland develop a deep telepathy.

November 3, 1969 Salle Pleyel, Paris:

Transition phase
1970
Miles began a series of recording sessions that lasted from November of 1969 until the spring of 1970, again augmenting or swapping out musicians for each session. He seemed to have no interest in capturing the sound of his touring band. At this point the Phase 1 band began to slowly transform with the addition of Airto Moreira on percussion. This was a first for Miles and he continued to use percussionists for the rest of the 1970s. Wayne Shorter left the band in March, his final shows being from the Fillmore East on March 6 and 7, and was replaced by Steve Grossman. Despite these changes the band still revolved around the core of Phase 1: Corea, Holland, and DeJohnette and their increasingly heavy and edgy free-jazz-funk. By this time they’d completely abandoned the previous era’s standards, focusing exclusively on their unique approach to material from Bitches Brew.

April 11, 1970 at Fillmore West, San Francisco:

In June another big change was made: the addition of Keith Jarret on keyboards. The combination of Corea and Jarrett, both on electric pianos and/or organs, allowed for some incredibly strange and dissonant sounds. This lineup recorded four nights at the Fillmore East in June and the results were released as Miles Davis at Fillmore. This album was heavily edited by Teo Macero, possibly to try to bring it closer to the Bitches Brew sound, as well as to condense the performances. Fortunately the full recordings have been released as Miles at the Fillmore: Miles Davis 1970 The Bootleg Series Vol. 3. This version of the band lasted a short five months, but included performances at Fillmore East and West, Tanglewood, and culminating in the incredible set at the Isle of Wight festival. During this period saxophonist Steve Grossman was replaced by Gary Bartz. The Jarrett-Corea combo really resulted in some of the edgiest stuff from the Electric Miles era.

August 29, 1970, Isle of Wight:

Miles was looking to put an end to this free playing, pushing even more for a funk groove. He was never really a fan of free playing, rarely participating when his 60s quintet would get far out. His funk aspirations led to the departure of Holland and Corea after the Isle of Wight. Corea was not replaced, leaving Jarrett as the only keyboardist. Although a lot of changes were happening, the first seeds of Phase 2 were really planted when Miles hired Michael Henderson to replace Dave Holland on bass. Henderson was a young funk bassist that had been playing with Stevie Wonder. Miles told Wonder, “I’m taking your fucking bassist.” And he did! Henderson brought a completely different approach and it was the sound Miles was after: FUNK.
Henderson didn’t have any interest in playing free or far out stuff, but he could hold down a heavy funk bass groove forever. But as heard on the live recordings from the Cellar Door in December of 1970, the rest of the band, Jarrett, DeJhonette, and to a lesser extent, Airto, were still trying to pull free, creating an interesting tension against the insistent bass grooves. However, the different approaches were also causing tension within the band.

May 7, 1971 Fillmore West, San Francisco:

1971
The band sounded much more in sync five months later at the Fillmore, as heard above, but it would be the last show for DeJohnette and Moreira. DeJohnette was the only one left from Phase 1, but he stuck it out until summer. He knew Miles wanted a funky timekeeper to lay down a solid groove and realized he wasn’t the right drummer for that job. There’s no doubt he could do it, but like Corea and Holland, that’s not where his interests were going. DeJohnette was replaced briefly by Ndugu Leon Chancler, and Moreira was replaced by Mtume. With Bartz, Jarrett, and Henderson, they headed out on a fall European tour. Miles was getting nearer to the sound he’d been looking for; uptempo, hard driving funk with a bed of percussion and bass grooves, but it would be Jarrett’s last tour with Miles.

November 7, 1971 Universitets Aula, Uppsala:

PHASE 2: Foster, Henderson, Mtume,
1972
Miles changed up the band once again and the core of Phase 2 was now in place. The new lineup was Henderson (bass), Mtume (perc), Al Foster (drums), Badal Roy (tabla), Cedric Lawson (keyboards), Reggie Lucas (guitar), Carlos Garnett (saxophone) and Khalil Balakrishna on electric sitar. When you hear Foster you understand why DeJohnette left. This metronomic playing was too restrictive. Foster, however, was the perfect choice for the sound Miles wanted. They recorded the album Miles Davis in Concert live at the Philharmonic Hall as one of this lineup’s first gigs. The seminal On the Corner was recorded in June and released in the fall. As with the earlier electric albums, Miles used a large ensemble made up of Phase 1 and Phase 2 members, plus others.

October 1, 1972, Palo Alto, Ca:

1973
Miles was back on tour in 1973 with a modified version of the ’72 lineup. The core of Henderson, Mtume, and Al Foster remained. Dave Liebman replaced Garnett on saxophones, and the experimental funk guitarist Pete Cosey was added, and soon became a crucial element of the Phase 2 sound. Lonnie Liston Smith played organ, but when they left for a tour of Europe in June Smith was out of the band, along with Balakrishna and Badal Roy. Miles dropped the Indian elements completely and added Reggie Lucas as a second guitarist. Miles began playing organ himself as a textural element.

October 17, 1973 Stockholm:

1974
Miles added Dominique Gaumont, a 3rd guitarist, to the lineup and saxophonist Azar Lawrence. Both of these musicians can be heard on Dark Magus, recorded March 30 at Carnegie Hall in New York. Lawrence wasn’t invited to join the band, but Gaumont stayed on until the end of 1974. Liebman left in the summer of 74 and was replaced by Sonny Fortune.

June 2, 1974 Theatro Municipal, São Paulo, Brazil:

1975
The band recorded two live albums in a single day, Agharta and Pangea on February 1 in Osaka, Japan. When they returned to the States, Miles replaced Sonny Fortune with Sam Morrison. The final concert of the 70s was September 5 in Central Park. Miles retired from music until 1981.

June 11, 1975, Bottom Line Club, New York City: