On 4/9/70, Miles and his electric band opened for the Dead at the world-famous Fillmore West in San Francisco. I am gonna sit here, get poisoned, and listen to the evening’s presentation. Join me! (Not for the poisoning. You don’t want that. Just listen to Miles and the Dead with me.)
Here (along with the newly-deceased Stevie Grossman on soprano sax, Chick Corea on the electric piano, Dave Holland on the Fender bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums, and Friend of the Dead Airto Moreira on assorted percussion) is Mr. Davis:
And here’s everybody’s favorite semi-defunct choogly-type band:
Thanks! Will give it a go tonight.
Reminds me of a show I went to some time in the middle oughts, when they were billed as “The Dead.” I’d checked out of the scene since ’95 and was a bit jaded, but the show definitely pretty much sucked. I was happy to be back in the lot post-show, hanging in my Westfalia listening to Bitches Brew. One of my buddies got back to the van and asked “what show is this?” and I felt kind of bad telling him it was Miles.
I think if you read all the liner notes, you can do March at the Fillmore East: Miles with the final lineup with Wayne Shorter (released date is March 7 ’70 I think), and then Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Not sure if Neil released Mar 7, or if you have to do the compilation, but–Miles and Crazy Horse, not a bad evening at the thea-a-tah.
Third act was Steve Miller Band, not a particularly good lineup. You can probably pretend you were at the concession stand (although SMB from that period circulates, I think from Holland, if you want the full experience)
One hell of a night, what I wouldn’t give to’ve been there. btw, Dave Liebman posted a lovely eulogy for Steve Grossman on Facebook (they were in Elvin Jones’s band together after Grossman left Miles, then Liebman in turn joined the Davis band, replacing Carlos Garnett and appearing on the mind-bending Dark Magus album). One thing I definitely didn’t know: Grossman was only 18 when this was recorded. Can you imagine being just a kid like that and Miles is your boss?