We Want Miles (Bonus Track Version) [Live]

The second installment in trumpeter Miles Davis’ return to work after six years off, 1982’s We Want Miles is a double-length live album (complete with clapping and crowd noise). It was recorded in 1981 at Boston's Kix Club on June 27, NYC’s Avery Fisher Hall on July 5, and Tokyo’s Shinjuku Nishi-Guchi Hiroba on October 4. The personnel is the same for all three dates—Davis with guitarist Mike Stern, bassist Marcus Miller, drummer Al Foster, percussionist Minu Cinelu, and saxophonist Bill Evans. The production here sounds dated (the drums are a bit tinny), but the players all shine; Stern digs in for his solo on the opener, “Jeanne Pierre,” and the drummers push the front line most effectively on “Back Seat Betty.” Davis was still finding his chops, yet this won the 1982 GRAMMY® for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance by a Soloist, and he sounds particularly potent with and without mute on the epic version of “My Man’s Gone Now.” Although the complete Tokyo performance was released in Japan in 1993 as a stand-alone performance, this is the only globally released live effort to feature this band.