Legendary Miles Davis
At Newport, 1955-1975
The Bootleg Series Vol.4
Miles Davis created some of the most important music in history.
JAZZ loves its Aces. Or Kings and Queens, and Jacks. As George Wein, the Creator of Newport Jazz Festival, said:
“Year in and year out he [Miles Davis] was always a major attraction for us and he created some of the most important music that ever happened at Newport.”
Newport Jazz Festival was born in 1954 and made a major impact on our society, as it was a way to draw large crowds of people – which was impossible to do for the indoor venues.
Miles Davis was one of the prominent musicians who made his impact on his fans. Nobody would think at the beginning how relevant and important Newport Jazz Festival would become for the careers and prominent of many musicians.
Lois Armstrong himself once mentioned:
“The Newport Jazz Festival? Oh man, that was one of the greatest thrills of my life.”
Duke Ellington, whose declining popularity was reversed with one single concert at Newport, wrote about it in his autobiography:
“I was born at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956.”
Remarkable, isn’t it, for the musician to associate his birth with the event that had reversed the unlucky streak of life into a prominent and fruitful life-long musical career?
Same happened to Miles Davis – his first performance at Newport led him to become one of the sensational trumpeters in the history of Jazz.
This 4-disk album chronologically arranged with Miles Davis’ music as he performed it at Newport’s Festival Field. All tracks and discs are nicely detailed in the enclosed booklet. You will find some interesting facts and little-to-unknown facts about Miles Davis and his involvement with Newport Jazz Festival.
I love the disk collections like this one for one simple fact – they tell a story as it pertains to the music offered in the collection. One more time, the fascination about Jazz is so easy with the flow of hundreds of facts about organizers, musicians and their music as it is offered on these CDs and in the enclosed materials.