Top Five Live Cuts

I am an unabashed fanboy of Smokin at the Half Note. If you want to hear possibly the best music ever produced without horns, this is it.

Complete Jazz at Massey Hall has some great stuff too, despite the quality. The recordings of Hot House, Salt Peanuts, All the Things You Are and Night in Tunisia stand out.

Also, this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ywkpVJ624

I first heard it on some bizarre Coltrane live recording I bought at a used record shop which doesn't show up on any of his discographies and I'm convinced it's some sort of bootleg. It made it's way to Youtube, though. Quality is mediocre but the raw energy of that cut... Man, it's something else.

dreadpirateroberts wrote:

This one? Yeah, it's pretty darn good - nice clear sound too

Yeah and EMI knows it too, your video is blocked in the U.S. on copyright grounds.Either way, I highly recommend that DVD to everyone.

Any thing from Dark Magus or the Cellar Door stuff is is good from Miles.

Also Mahalia Jackson Singing at Newport 1959 I believe the year, it's on that Jazz on a Summer's Day film, Goose Bump City on that one. Louise Armstrong also delivers some killer trumpet work on that DVD.

One night with Blue Note DVD, Freddie Hubbard on Cantaloupe Island, he nearly blows the building down. Jackie Mclean also has a solo on "Appointment in Ghana" that is insane. that whole DVD is stellar, most of the guys were way past their Prime, but somehow they pushed each other to great heights, I also love the Cecil Taylor Piano Solo, this was from 1985.

I have also been a big fan of any of the Buddy Rich Big Band live performances, even some of his from the mid 80's are great, Steve Marcus, one of Fathers of Jazz Rock you never hear about, plays some mean tenor and soprano sax on many of the late 70's early 80' albums, I highly recommend the Jazz Icons Buddy Rich Release, and the 2 DVD's, Channel 1 suite and The lost Tapes, One thing about the last 2 mentioned, It is evident even 2 years before Rich's death, he was never past HIS prime.

A very high quality live recording there. Drummer is a machine, huh?

We are men of action. Lies do not become us.
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^ I listened to the studio version of that song yesterday. This version is very good though.

My Last.fm

I 're-found' it after realising that I hadn't finished uploading some videos to flesh out my own list

Five Peace Band - cool, will check out those versions for sure

We are men of action. Lies do not become us.
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This is close to the live version of Take Five that I really like

We are men of action. Lies do not become us.
Reviews...

js wrote:

The first album that comes to my mind is Miles' "At Fillmore (Fillmore East)", not be confused with the lesser "Black Beauty (Fillmore West)".

On the Fillmore East album, Miles and his band play the material from Bitches Brew, but with a lot more understanding of what they want from it. Far more aggressive, focused and avant-garde than Brew, its an amazing record that contains some oft criticized keyboard "battles" between Corea and Jarret. Although some critics describe their assault as indulgent, I think it reflects the nature early 70s fusion when being indulgent was OK and even encouraged. In today's world it can sound a bit dated, but what they do with the Brew material is pretty incredible.

I know that isn't five, but that is what's hitting me right now. An old friend of mine had some live Charlie Parker recordings that just blow away a lot of studio work I have heard from him, unfortunately I was young and I can not recall the names of those recordings, but I hope to hook up with them again someday.

Have you heard the Fillmore East album "It's About That Time", which came out a few years ago? It has similar lineup to the other 2 Fillmore albums, except Wayne Shorter was still in the band. I was familiar with Black Beauty and Fillmore East; and they're good. But there was something about Shorter being there, the performances were absolutely ferocious. I'm 99% sure that It's About That Time is from March 1970, At Fillmore is from April 1970, and Black Beauty is from June 1970

My Last.fm

What's on "Miles in Tokyo" ?

While thinking about the five, here's a few that immediately flashup:

Les Paul/Nat King Coles duo on Blues ex. Jazz At The Philharmonic 1944

Brecker/Pastorius: Dry Cleaner fro Des Moines (Joni Mitchell's Shadows & Light - alas the DVD of this is an arthouse f***-up)

Joe Morello: Castillian Drums:(ex. Dave Brubeck Quartet Carnegie Hall Live) - about the only drum solo I can now listen to and still get pleasure each time) - in fact Blue Rondo Ala Turka from the same set is a favourite (but I want to mix it for a top five)

Holdsworth/Pasqua: Fred (ex. Blues For Tony) - Fred (aka Kinder) is my favourite Holdsworth, so how can I resist?

But a fifth I have to think about with the following coming to mind:

Shakti live,

Bugge Wesseltoft with John Schofield guesting,

Soft Machine's Third;

MIles Davis off We Want Miles or several others,

Nucleus's Snakehips Dream esp the rhyhm guitar of Chris Spedding (ex. Hemispheres)

................ the list may be huge,

Edited by Dick Heath - 03 Aug 2011 at 7:31am