Live at Montreux

Performer: Miles Davis/Quincy Jones
Artist: Kenny Garrett; Wallace Roney; Lew Soloff; Gil Goldstein; Bob Malach; Howard Johnson; Marvin Stamm; Larry Schneider
Producer: Quincy Jones
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); Quincy Jones (conductor); Kenny Garrett (alto saxophone); Wallace Roney, Benny Bailey (trumpet, flugelhorn); Carles Benavent (bass); Grady Tate (drums). The Gil Evans Orchestra: Alex Foster (soprano & alto saxophones, flute); George Adams (tenor saxophone, flute); Lew Soloff, Miles Evans (trumpet); Tom Malone (trombone); Gil Goldstein, Delmar Brown (keyboards); Kennwood Dennard (drums, percussion). The George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band includes: George Gruntz (piano); Sal Giorgianni (alto saxophone); Larry Schneider (tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, oboe); Bob Malach (tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet); Jerry Bergonzi (tenor saxophone); Howard Johnson (baritone saxophone, tuba); Marvin Stamm, John D'earth, Jack Walrath (trumpet, fluegelhorn); Dave Bargeron, Earl McIntyre (trombone, euphonium); Dave Taylor (bass trombone); John Clark, Tom Varner (French horn); Mike Richmond (bass); John Riley (drums, percussion). Engineers: Dave Richards, Justin Shirley-Smith. Recorded live at the 25th anniversary of The Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland on July 8, 1991. Includes liner notes by Leonard Feather. MILES AND QUINCY LIVE AT MONTREUX won the 1994 Grammy Award for "Large Jazz Ensemble." MILES DAVIS & QUINCY JONES LIVE AT MONTREUX finds the legendary trumpeter come full circle, returning at the end of his career to those musical highlights which set his sound and style in stone for generations of listeners. Drawing upon his collaborations with the innovative arranger Gil Evans, LIVE AT MONTREUX reprises some of Miles greatest moments from THE BIRTH OF THE COOL, MILES AHEAD, PORGY AND BESS and SKETCHES OF SPAIN. The fact that Miles Davis, for some 40 years, steadfastly refused to offer his fans a backwards glance in the face of new and more interesting musical challenges, only adds to the poignancy of this July 8, 1991 event. It's as if he knew that, in a spiritual sense, he had to face this music one last time. Clearly when he hit the stage at Montreux, Miles Davis wasn't the instrumentalist he once was, but his musicianship had grown more profound with every passing year. Yet once Miles gets his sea legs under him, he imbues each passage with his classic logic, intuition and sense of romance. On the more taxing passages, his stunt doubles--alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett and trumpeter Wallace Roney--play with great passion and poetic restraint. Jones and Gil Goldstein's adaptation of the Evans charts are brassier and more sprawling than the originals. Still, it's Evans originals such as "Orgone," "Blues For Pablo" and "Solea" that elicit the most powerful performances. And at the end, when confronted with the incantory, guitar-like grandeur of "Solea," Miles rises one last time to the challenge of these ancient themes, going out like a champion...with his boots on.

Entertainment Weekly (8/27/93-9/3/93, p.110) - "...LIVE AT MONTREUX is simply the most exquisite music of tragedy this side of a New Orleans funeral....an almost unbearably honest musical expression, without apology or shame, of weakness, age and pain..." - Rating: A Q (11/93, p.143) - 3 Stars - Good - "...the sound is sparse but fiercely heavy and funky..." Vibe (11/93, p.104) - "...the recreation sounds fairly accurate....The best thing about [LIVE AT MONTREUX] is that it sends us back to the originals..." Musician (10/93, p.92) - "...Miles navigates these harmonic steeplechases with an authority that transcends technique alone..."

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