Miles Davis - Rainbow Theatre (1973)

1. Turnaroundphrase - 11:54
2. Tune In 5 - 10:24
3. Untitled - 21:29
4. Right Off - 13:38
5. Ife - 20:49
6. Calypso Frelimo - 12:19

Lineup:
Miles Davis - trumpet and organ
Dave Liebman - soprano and tenor saxophone and flute
Pete Cosey - guitar and percussion
Reggie Lucas - guitar
Michael Henderson - electric bass
Al Foster - drums
James Mtume Forman - congas and percussion

Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, July 10, 1973

In 1972, Miles Davis released On The Corner. In his autobiography, Miles felt Columbia Records didn't push the album, which added to his frustrations, but it was also a time when Miles learnt more of Stockhausen's concepts of music. He said: "I had always written in a circular way and through Stockhausen I could see that I didn't want to ever play again from eight bars to eight bars, because I never end songs; they just keep going on."

With percussionist Mtume Heath and guitarist Pete Cosey in the lineup, "the band settled down into a deep African thing, a deep African-American groove, with a lot of emphasis on drums and rhythm, and not on individual solos."

Miles added: "I would try exploring one chord with this band, one chord in a tune, trying to get everyone to master these small little simple things like rhythm. We would take a chord and make it work for five minutes with variations, cross rhythms, things like that. Say Al Foster is playing in 4/4, Mtume might be playing in 6/8, or 7/4, and the guitarist might be comping in another time signature, or another rhythm altogether different. That's a lot of intricate shit we were working off this one chord."

For audiences attending this show in London in 1973, they would have thought of Miles playing tracks from On The Corner. But for many, the performance, though fiery, probably sounded more like improvisations and noddlings. Tracks like Turnaroundphrase and Tune In 5, which featured here, would only reach a wider audience with the release of the Dark Magus live album in 1974.

For now, fans can say a word of thanks to saxophonist Dave Liebman who had the presence of mind to put a tape recorder on stage and record the shows.

As valleybird commented on the internet: "This is an excellent stage recording, and so is the performance itself! Click on start, close your eyes if you like, and be on stage with the band! Thanks to Dave Liebman, who I believe is the source of this tape. What you get here is an excellent capture of the stage sound at a Victorian entertainment theater, the Rainbow Theater. The sound of the drums sound natural... There is only low interference of the PA, what you get is their stage amp line, which wasn't so bad for this time. A really interesting recording for audiophiles too."

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