Refreshed

MILES DAVIS
At Newport 1958 (Columbia/Legacy)
Jazz At the Plaza (Columbia/Legacy)
Live At the Fillmore East - March 7, 1970: It's About That Time (Columbia/Legacy)
The 2001 Miles Davis reissue program, in honor of the music giant's 75th birthday, continues with a spate of live albums, including one previously unissued set. At Newport 1958, recorded in the titular year at the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival but not originally released until 1964, features much of the same band would go on to record the landmark Kind of Blue, with acclaimed pianist Bill Evans replacing Red Garland and drummer Jimmy Cobb taking Philly Joe Jones' place. (Saxophonists John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly and bassist Paul Chambers complete the sextet.) Interestingly, though, the band doesn't play any of those tunes, concentrating on the postbop sounds of 'Round About Midnight and the transitional modal experiments of Milestones. Coltrane and Adderly are in particularly fine form here, and Davis allows them to take the lead on staples like "Two Bass Hits," "Ah-Leu-Cha" and "Straight, No Chaser." That isn't to say that Davis' own horn gets short shrift, as he has several aggressive manifestations, but he's clearly showcasing his band here.

Jazz At the Plaza was recorded the same year with the same band at the Plaza Hotel, but was unreleased in complete form until 1973—an attempt to pacify the hardcore jazzers crying sellout during Miles' fertile electric period, perhaps? Never mind. This set is for the most part at high-energy as Newport 1958, with Davis giving an unusually charged reading of "If I Were a Bell" and the saxophonists running away with "Oleo." A strong reading of "My Funny Valentine" slows things down a bit and is the probable highlight, but otherwise this performance crackles with excitement. Like Newport, Plaza contains a superb take on Monk's "Straight, No Chaser."

Live at the Fillmore East is the most exciting of these collections, however, as it captures some of the first live flowerings of Miles' electric band, fresh from the recording sessions for the infamous Bitches Brew. (In fact, "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" and "Spanish Key" make their live debuts here.) Opening for the Steve Miller Band and Neil Young, Davis confounds the young, allegedly hip rock audience with two sets of jagged, uncompromising improvisation that's more mindblowing than any drug. Davis goes guitarless here, using ring modulators to distort Chick Corea's punchy electric piano clusters, making them sound almost like the chicken-scratch guitar used in funk. Bassist Dave Holland, drummer Jack DeJohnette and percussionist Airto Moriera keep the rhythms at a constant boil, creating with Corea a dense wall of musical noise that was at the time unlike anything that had come before it. Davis and saxophonist Wayne Shorter (who would depart Miles' band after this performance to form Weather Report) spew out angular melody lines with grace and power over the din. It's a hurricane of sound, a gale of notes, melodies, harmonies and plain old dissonance that must have left the audience gasping. That there are two versions each of "Directions," "It's About Time" and the menacing, propulsive "Spanish Key," yet no repetition, speaks volumes about the musicians' prowess and Davis' abilities as a leader. Great stuff. Michael Toland

For fans of: John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra. (more Miles Davis albums can be found here)