Miles Davis - The Black Album (2003)

I love a bit of jazz now and then, with my favourite period being the early 50's through to around 1963, but if there's one artist that I've followed throughout his whole career it's Miles Davis, from 'Birth Of The Cool' right through to 'Bitches Brew' and beyond. In 2001 Warner Brothers were working on a boxed set that was to include everything Davis had recorded in the studio during his time with the company (1985-1991) including many previously unreleased studio outtakes and some particularly noteworthy live material from the same era. The box was to be called 'The Last Word', and was initially earmarked for release on Rhino Records in September 2001, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Miles’s death. However, this date was missed and it was rescheduled for August 2002, before Rhino pulled 'The Last Word' from rotation stating: “We deeply regret the fact that we will not be releasing the Miles Davis box set on August 20. Our commitment has always been to offer consumers the best possible audio and video products for the best possible value. Due to developing circumstances beyond our control, we felt that this box set would not, in its finished form, meet our standards, or the standards our customers expect from our products'. 
Gradually the 6-CD set shriveled to just 4 CDs, including very little previously unreleased material, which had been kind of the main point of the set. There must still have been a real belief in getting it out, because under huge time pressure Bill Milkowski completed new liner notes in just four days, and some CD-R review copies were sent out, without art work. Then some time in 2002 the release was quietly abandoned altogether. Officially no reasons were given. In the meantime, the Japanese Legendary Collection Series released 'The Black Album', a two-CD compilation featuring some of the unreleased tracks from the aborted 'The Last Word' album, plus other unreleased tracks. On October 18 2010, Warner released the two-CD compilation 'Perfect Way: The Warner Bros Years', which included three previously unreleased live tracks - 'Portia', 'Carnival' and 'Human Nature' - from the 1986 Nice Jazz Festival, and two unreleased studio tracks - 'Digg That' and 'Rubberband' - from the much talked-about 'Rubberband' sessions, recorded just after Davis signed to Warners in 1985, and featuring keyboardist Adam Holzman, Vince Wilburn Jr on drums and Steve Reid on percussion. 
When these tracks appeared on official releases, the main source of this bootleg deleted them from their download, so I thought that I'd piece the album back together so that you can hear the full 2xCD release as it first appeared in 2003. I've done a little editing to the second CD so that it sounds like one complete gig, even though the recordings are from different periods, but unfortunately the final track was incomplete so has to fade early. There's only a poor quality scan of the cover available online, so I've recreated it based on the original, but I've left the online copy of the back cover in the file.

Track listing

Disc 1
01 Maze (Record Plant Studio, New York City, USA, September 23, 1985)
02 Rubberband (Unknown Studio, Los Angeles, USA, October 17, 1985)
03 See I See (Ameraycan Studio, Hollywood, USA, January 1986)
04 Digg That (Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, USA, December 21, 1987)
05 Street Smart (Unknown Studio, Los Angeles, USA, October 1986)
06 Time Square (Unknown Studio, Los Angeles, USA, October 1986)
07 Punchy’s Theme (Unknown Studio, Los Angeles, USA, October 1986)
08 It Gets Better (Record Plant Studio, New York City, USA, January 5, 1983)
09 Red Riding Hood (Capitol Recording Studio, Los Angeles, USA, May 1, 1986)

Disc 2
10 One Phone Call / Street Scenes / Speak (Live at Jardin des Arenes de Cimiez, Nice July 20, 1986)
11 Time After Time (Live at Jardin des Arenes de Cimiez, Nice July 20, 1986)
12 Portia (Live at The Casino, Montreux, Switzerland, July 17, 1986)
13 Tutu (Live at Chelsea Studios, New York City October 18, 1989)
14 Mr Pastorius (Live at Chelsea Studios, New York City October 18, 1989)
15 Hannibal (Live at Chelsea Studios, New York City October 18, 1989)
16 Come And Get It (Live at Jones Beach Theatre, New York City August 28, 1982)
17 U ‘n’ I (Live at Jones Beach Theatre, New York City August 28, 1982)