Miles Davis' Cellar Door Sessions to Be Released

One of the many shitty things about this whole Sony rootkit scandal is the justified paranoia that will surround every release from one of the most significant back catalogs of commercial American recordings: Columbia Records. Case in point is the late, great (and utterly defenseless) Miles Davis, a musician whose recordings (released and previously unreleased) Sony loves to reissue just about every year. 2005 will be no exception, as the label has announced that they will release The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 on December 27.

The massive six-disc set, which includes a few previously released cuts from Live-Evil, documents a four-night stand Miles spent in Washington, D.C. with an exceptional (even by Davis' standards) backing band of keyboardist Keith Jarrett, percussionist Airto Moreiera, drummer Jack DeJohnette, saxophonist Gary Bartz, and bassist Michael Henderson. DeJohnette's fellow Bitches Brew veteran John McLaughlin made the last night of the stand, and his fusion-forging guitar appears on the last eight tracks of Cellar Door.

If, during the set's nearly six hour duration, you find yourself panting for a break, Sony has included several heretofore unpublished photographs of Miles at his most colorful (Steven Tyler owes much of his 80s look to Davis' feather-thin hankies), and essays written by each of the six sidemen about those pivotal four nights. Just don't try to scan the photos or the essays. The ink might encode some type of anti-Photoshop malware in your operating system.

Tainted traxx:

December 16, 1970:

01 Directions
02 Yesternow
03 What I Say
04 Improvisation #1
05 Inamorata

December 17, 1970:

06 What I Say
07 Honky Tonk
08 It's About Time
09 Improvisation #2
10 Inamorata
11 Sanctuary

December 18, 1970:

12 Directions
13 Honky Tonk
14 What I Say
15 Directions
16 Honky Tonk
17 What I Say
18 Sanctuary
19 Improvisation #3
20 Inamorata

December 19, 1970:

21 Directions
22 Honky Tonk
23 What I Say
24 Directions
25 Improvisation #4
26 Inamorata
27 Sanctuary
28 It's About Time

* Miles Davis:

Posted by Zach Vowell on Fri, Dec 2, 2005 at 1:00am