Description
Chick Corea The live stuff really should have been gotten on tape because that was when the band was burningThat quintet developed some really beautiful improvised stuff. We would do two or three pieces that were just strung together, one right after another for the whole concert, and we would make this wonderful, wonderful composition. Jeremy Erwin has described the onecontinuouspieceofmusic set they played in Vienna in October 1969 as supremely weird starting with one of the more abstract versions of Bitches Brew. Given that Miles was sharing the bill with Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington as part of George Weins Newport Jazz Festival in Europe tour, it is perhaps not surprising that a large part of the audience walked out during the first ten minutes. But those who remained went on to witness a shining Wayne Shorter quoting from Super Nova throughout on Agitation a slowburning, fifteenminute version of Miles Runs The Voodoo Down, and a classic setcloser, I Fall in Love Too EasilySanctuary. In Erwins view the bandleader knew that a dose of serenity was the only resolution to a set as batty as this one. The neverrecorded Lost Quintet that toured Europe in OctoberNovember 1969 had spent the preceding August rehearsing and recording a new double LP set Bitches Brew, within a kind of rock big band lineup. But here there was no John McLaughlin on guitar Wayne Shorter was on saxophones, Chick Corea on Fender Rhodes, Dave Holland on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. This Quintet did record for Columbia in November 1968, but the session was not issued until 1981 on the Directions album.
