Live In Montreal July 7, 1983 - Miles Davis

Ideated from: I keep a playlist of things that have been reissued, remastered, or given some kind of historical or archival release. I’ll tick some of those off this week.

This is a single disc from Davis’ Bootleg Series, Vol 7. The other two discs are like these bootleg releases often are: a hodge podge of alternate takes and studio chatter from his 80s sessions for Columbia Records. Take it or leave it. But this live disc is a late-era Miles gem.

Miles was really into modern pop music in his last decade, maybe trying to push jazz back to be more a part of the pop conversation like it had been decades earlier, but that’s only me speculating. You can see the other discs in the set for his takes on Cyndi Lauper, Tina Turner, and Michael Jackson.

This live set isn’t as much pop, but there is a lot to take in. The band featured guitar virtuoso John Scofield playing more blues licks than you’d expect from a Miles project. Bassist Darryl Jones and the rest of the band bring a heavy dose of slick 80s funk, all mixed in with Miles’ usual spare, minimalist trumpet attack.

Tracks I Liked

What It Is - a Scofield guitar workout

It Gets Better - Miles’ longest and deepest solo in the set.