Miles Davis- May 25, 1974 Theatro Municpal, Rio De Janeiro | Remastered

Intense, noisy music from a rare South American tour

May 25, 1974
Theatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

MILES DAVIS
Miles Davis- trumpet, organ
Dave Liebman- tenor and soprano saxophones, flute
Pete Cosey- guitar, percussion
Reggie Lucas- guitar
Dominique Gaumont- guitar
Michael Henderson- bass guitar
Al Foster- drums
James Mtume- congas, percussion

Funk [aka Agharta Prelude, part 1] (Miles Davis) 0:00
Turnaroundphrase (Miles Davis) 16:12
For Dave [aka Mr. Foster] (Miles Davis) 23:16
closing titles 40:04

Recorded by Dave Liebman

Miles Davis's health problems had been accumulating for several years. By 1974 he was in poor physical shape- calcium deposits in his hips had hospitalised him a decade earlier, but now they seemed to be disintegrating, leaving him in near constant severe pain, made worse after breaking both legs in a car crash in late 1972. He also had a bleeding ulcer, and would often spit up blood. He was taking codeine and morphine to relieve the pain but he was also drinking more than usual- vodka plus "Bloody Marys all day and scotch and milk at night," according to Jim Rose, his road manager. There was also copious amounts of cocaine, and- something of a rarity for Miles- marijuana in the mix. A rare South American tour was conducted under a narcotic fog, which grew worse as the tour progressed. On May 24, in the middle of the initial three night run in Rio de Janeiro, news broke that Duke Ellington had died, plunging Miles into deeper depression. The storm clouds were gathering, but things were about to get much, much worse.

The band Miles took to Brazil was the one he had lead for the past year, but with the addition of yet another guitarist. The French Hendrix-inspired Dominque Gaumont had auditioned for the band onstage at the Carnegie Hall gig in March, recorded and released by Columbia on the LP _Dark Magus._ According to Gaumont, Reggie Lucas had started to complain about wanting a raise and Miles recruited a third guitarist as a warning that Lucas was not indispensible. "Miles had no need of me, but he wanted to make Lucas flip."

The third of the Rio performances was recorded, as were some other shows on the tour, by saxophonist Dave Liebman. As might be expected, the sound palette here is incredibly dense, the three guitarists creating a solid wall of sound that occasionally threatens to engulf the horns. "Just listen to it. It's so breathtaking," Miles told an interviewer. "You can't know how terrifying it is to be in the middle of all that. It's endless sound." Musically, Miles continued his quest to fuse jazz, rock, the funk of Sly Stone and James Brown, gutbucket blues, and the concepts of Karheinz Stockhausen, through whom Miles said "I could see that I didn't ever want to play again from eight bars to eight bars, because I never end songs, they just keep going on." Changes of direction or breaks in the music could be cued in by small body movements from Davis, facing his band like the conductor of an orchestra. His own playing now consisted of short, rhythmic phrases, shaped with his wah wah pedal (which can be heard squeaking on the recording). As Liebman noted, "Even playing Eb for four hours, which is what we did most of the time, even within the context of that very limited area and beat, and four guitars and an amazing amount of sound- even within that I was able to discern the subtleties of Miles's playing."

Fortunately, the superior sound quality (Liebman used two Sony Nakamich 1700 microphones, running to a Sony cassette recorder) allows a good deal of clarity, and with the somewhat spotty documentation of this period and often lo-fi bootlegs, these recordings are very valuable. I have done some work re-EQing the audio, to enhance the dynamics of the original recording.

During the second half of the tour, after the first date in Sao Paulo, Miles collapsed. Fearing he had had a heart attack, Davis called a doctor who rushed him to hospital. "The band was scared," Miles wrote in his autobiography, "Everyone thought I was going to die. I thought to myself, This is it. But I pulled through that one." Incredibly, Miles was discharged the next morning and played a concert the following evening. But the brush with his own mortality was a wake up call and for the first time Miles started to seriously consider quitting music. But it would be another year of worsening health before the silence finally came.

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[teelurizzo]

LOL...my parents went to one of these shows Completely clueless squares in their early 30s that they were, they knew about the hippies and that the late 1960s had happened, but they didn't read Rolling Stone magazine, and information travelled vey slowly back then they had no idea that Miles had gone through his second quintet and that jazz and rock had mixed up in this new thing called jazz rock fusion. So they thought they were gonna hear acoustic, straight ahed, 'Birth of The Cool, 'Quite Nights', 'Sketches of Spain', 'Kind of Blue', late 1950s, early 1960s Miles, the stuff they actually enjoyed.... They had no idea!

They walked into The posh Municipal Theater and were immediately taken aback by the large PA and amps os Stage, also the audience was a mix of Jazz fans and psychedelic looking Freaks and once the music started they simply could not deal w/ what they years alter described to be as 'formless, ear-splitting cacophony'...they had also never been to a real Rock show either so no surprise...They hated the show!....Lol!

[scotty]

And somehow with all that trauma and illness surrounding Miles, this all still sounds amazing.

[rrrrog]

Sincerely thank you.. all of the live shows from this period are incredible but the sound is always rough.

[andresouzaparente]

I live in Rio de Janeiro and I saw this show when I was 16 years old. It changes everything to me. Now I know whats explain my love for Agharta, recorded the next year in Tokyo, The sound is more or less the same. Thanks to whoever posted the video on Youtube.

[bmuhamad]

Wow, I can actually hear the sizzle of Al Fosters' cymbals, clearly & succinctly...😅 Very clean. Kudos..

[gingerayle]

All Brazilian 1974 shows are amazing, great music. By the way, here are another '74- '75 bootlegs that need, in my opinion, sound remastering, if it's possible:
- August 3, 1974 Paul's Mall, Boston;
- November 18, 1974 Bottom Line club;
- June 10, 1975 Bottom Line club.

[jeffjazzwraight]

Thanks again for your work on all things MD. Always appreciated!

[bmuhamad]

I absolutely love Al Foster's sizzling "ride / crash cymbal...

[adautocampos]

Eu moro no Rio de Janeiro-Brasil, e tive o privilégio de assistir à essa apresentação do Genial Miles Davis.

[EdwardSanchezMusic]

The Heaviest Metal you will ever listen to.

[sf]

Fantastic show, fantastic commentary, and fantastic job on the sound!

All of the shows from that tour are excellent, and the show from the night after his collapse and hospitalization (June 1) is maybe the best… an end-to-end stunner.

Love the quote from Miles about the terrifying intensity of this band, and how it felt to be in the middle of all that energy.

[ontrack]

8:30 Pete Cosey sounding like an organ! (briefly). Man!! There's nothing this band can't do nor willing to try

[JoseHLeal-wjfe]

Yes, thanks for posting I was there too, the first chords of the Prelude were a big punch to my entire body. I've been trying to "remember" this magnificent sound for the past 49 years, thanks again for making it possible!

[adautocampos]

Não sei se é correto o que escrevo, mas vejo semelhanças nestes temas, apresentados por Miles Davis, com os do Mestre Jimi Hendrix. Acho que um encontro deles pra trabalhar juntos, seria extraordinário.

[GOGOLH]

Plus - that was the day before his birthday, I think, on top of Duke's death, but It's an incredible set. Not sure about Gaumont though...

[Karensinger]

Wow oh my Father God in heaven!! Miles rest easy in paradise with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ our Redeemer!!

[mathlenih]

I fell in love with your channel!
Do you remastered this boot' by yourself ?
So much bootlegs of this 73-75 period who need to be restored ... Hope to see them here one day, like this great one!
Around 29:00 + Pete Cosey playing an hard rock sound, so cool...

[bmuhamad]

Miles Davis in free form Funk mode.❤😂🎉😅

[JCR]

This could easily be Vol 8 in the bootleg series. Anybody know why there hasn’t really been much from 73-75 coming out? Other than some stuff on the Newport bootleg.