The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (Live)

With The Cellar Door Sessions Columbia Records once again sets the standard for lovingly assembled archival releases. This six album set documents a series of concerts given by Miles Davis at Washington DC’s Cellar Door Club in the winter of 1970. Fresh from the headily unmoored jams of the Jack Johnson sessions, Davis assembled a fierce electric ensemble to interpret his new work in a live setting. The Cellar Door Sessions sees Johnson session men Michael Henderson, Jack DeJohnette, and John McLaughlin joined by Keith Jarrett, Gary Bartz, and Airto Moreira. Next to Davis, Bassist Henderson and Keyboardist Jarrett are arguably the session’s most forward looking contributors. Throughout Henderson lays down a series of blisteringly nimble, hyper-repetitive electric bass runs that exude both an ageless sense of gutbucket funk and unrepentant futurism. Jarrett skitters slyly over Henderson’s vamping, cutting loose with jarringly distorted runs on “Inamorata Funky Tonk”, and filling the air with eerie chimes on the tightly wound “It’s About That Time.” The Cellar Door Sessions sees Davis moving fearlessly towards the funky musical disjunctions of On The Corner and embracing the unhinged innovations of Sly and his soulful contemporaries. In the process he created a fearsome and unprecedented brand of improvisational funk that outraged as many as it inspired.