MILES DAVIS - The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 Review

Even Miles Davis fans who weren't thrown off by the 1969 jazz-rock fusion album Bitches Brew (if there were any) couldn't have been prepared for 1970. Bitches won Davis a new audience even as it cost him a few old fans, and it confirmed the infatuation with rock and pop suggested by In A Silent Way. But even if it wasn't pure jazz, whatever that is, Bitches Brew was still recognizable as jazz. One year later, Davis was cutting music that defied even a hyphenated definition....full text The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 is the eighth boxed set in Columbia's stellar Miles Davis Series and the well still hasn't run dry. Recorded over four nights in December of 1970, the six-disc release presents a fierce, funk-centric version of the jazz trumpeter's heady fusion sound?most of which has never before been released (45 minutes appeared as 1971's Live-Evil)....full text This six-CD set features trumpeter Miles Davis with his early fusion band, marking the significant change that he was to bring about in jazz. Recorded from December 16-19, 1970, Davis' music retained the comfortable swing and fiery emotion that he had espoused in earlier years, but added a dynamic force that signaled progress in the entertainment industry....full text