| Live-Evil | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album / Live album by Miles Davis | ||||
| Released | November 17, 1971 | |||
| Recorded | February 6, June 3–4, 1970 at Columbia Studio B, New York and December 19, 1970 at the Cellar Door Club, Washington |
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| Genre | Fusion, jazz-funk | |||
| Length | 1:41:39 | |||
| Label | Columbia/Legacy | |||
| Producer | Teo Macero | |||
| Miles Davis chronology | ||||
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| Live-Evil | ||||
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Back cover.
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Robert Christgau | (A-)[2] |
| Down Beat | [3] |
| Entertainment Weekly | (A-)[4] |
| Penguin Guide to Jazz | [5] |
| Pitchfork Media | (9.9/10)[6] |
| Rolling Stone | (favorable) 1972[7] |
| Rolling Stone | 2004[8] |
| Spin | (favorable)[9] |
| Stylus Magazine | (favorable)[10] |
Live-Evil is an album by Miles Davis, much of which was recorded live at The Cellar Door on December 19, 1970, and part of which was recorded in Columbia's Studio B, with different personnel, on February 6, and June 3, 4, 1970. Though all compositions were originally credited to Miles Davis, the studio recordings "Little Church" ("Igrejinha"), "Nem Um Talvez" ("Not Even a Maybe") and "Selim" are by Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, who also played with the Davis band on these tracks. One of the key musicians on the album, John McLaughlin, was not a regular member of Miles Davis's band during the time of recording. McLaughlin joined the band for one of the four nights at the Cellar Door, rather like a session player; this is not the case for other Davis albums that he worked on.
Davis had originally intended the album to be a spiritual successor to Bitches Brew, but this idea was abandoned when it became obvious that Live-Evil was "something completely different".[11]
Contents |
The album cover was illustrated by artist Mati Klarwein. Klarwein had painted the front cover independently of Davis, but the back cover was painted with a suggestion from Davis:
"I was doing the picture of the pregnant woman for the cover and the day I finished, Miles called me up and said, 'I want a picture of life on one side and evil on the other.' And all he mentioned was a toad. Then next to me was a copy of Time Magazine which had J. Edgar Hoover on the cover, and he just looked like a toad. I told Miles I found the toad."[12]
Billboard stated that the album "captures the live performance of Davis effectively", citing "Sivad", "Selim", and "What I Say" as highlights.[13] Bob Palmer of Rolling Stone commented that "this sounds like what Miles had in mind when he first got into electric music and freer structures and rock rhythms", and praised each band members' soloing on the album's "extended, 'blowing' tracks", stating "Everybody is just playing away, there aren't any weak links, and there isn't any congestion to speak of. Miles reacts to this happy situation by playing his ass off, too".[7] Palmer wrote of "Little Church", "Nem Um Talvez", and "Selim" as "what used to be called 'ballads'. They feature larger groups but there aren't any solos. Just stunning, bittersweet lines [...] Each of these tracks is under four minutes, and they are all things of great beauty".[7] Black World's Red Scott stated "All the tracks fuse into a perfect complement of musicians passing moods to each other".[14] In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A- rating and called its "long pieces [...] usually fascinating and often exciting".[2] He cited "Funky Tonk" as "Miles's most compelling rhythmic exploration to date" and commented that "the four short pieces are more like impressionistic experiments".[2]
In a retrospective review of the album, Allmusic editor Thom Jurek called its tracks "fine and deeply lyrically grooved-out" and described it as "the sound of transition and complexity, and somehow it still grooves wonderfully", noting "the live material [...] wonderfully immediate and fiery".[1] Edwin C. Faust of Stylus Magazine dubbed Live-Evil "one of the funkiest albums ever recorded" and commented that its "somber" short pieces "are haunting examples of musical purity—Miles enriching our ears with evocative melodies (his work on Sketches of Spain comes to mind) while the bass creeps cautiously, an organ hums tensly, and human whistles/vocals float about forebodingly like wistful phantoms".[10] Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A- rating and stated "With [Davis'] inimitable trumpeting — by turns melancholy, pungent, and lyrical — at the music's center, his electrified cohorts stretch the limits of jazz, rock, and funk".[4] Pitchfork Media's Ryan Schreiber called the album "easily the most accessible of Miles Davis' late-'70s electric releases" and described its music as "at once both sexually steamy and unsettling", writing that "The 15+ minute live jams [...] run the gamut from barroom brawl action-funk to sensual bedroom jazz magic, creating two hours of charged eccentricity you'll never forget".[6]
Side One (25:20) 1. "Sivad" (15:13) Recorded December 19, 1970 at The Cellar Door, Washington, DC & May 19, 1970 at Columbia Studio C, New York, NY
| Timing | Source |
|---|---|
| 00:00-00:01 | "Directions" (2nd set) 0:00-0:01 (drum roll) |
| 00:02-03:24 | "Directions" (2nd set) 11:30-14:44 + "Honky Tonk" 00:00-00:08 |
| 03:25-04:14 | "Honky Tonk" (studio, May 19, 1970) 00:00-00:49 |
| 04:15-09:11 | "Honky Tonk" (2nd set) 05:23-10:20 |
| 09:12-15:12 | "Honky Tonk" (2nd set) 15:13-21:14 |
2. "Little Church" (3:14) Recorded June 4, 1970 at Columbia Studio B, New York, NY
3. "Medley: Gemini/Double Image" (5:53) Recorded February 6, 1970 at Columbia Studio B, New York, NY
Side Two (25:12) 1. "What I Say" (21:09) Recorded December 19, 1970 at The Cellar Door, Washington, DC
| Timing | Source |
|---|---|
| 00:00-20:50 | "What I Say" (2nd set) 00:00-20:50 |
| 20:51-21:09 | "Sanctuary" (2nd set) 00:00-00:18 |
2. "Nem Um Talvez" (4:03) Recorded June 3, 1970 at Columbia Studio B, New York, NY
Side Three (25:38) 1. "Selim" (2:12) Recorded June 3, 1970 at Columbia Studio B, New York, NY
2. "Funky Tonk" (23:26) Recorded December 19, 1970 at The Cellar Door, Washington, DC
| Timing | Source |
|---|---|
| 00:00-02:54 | "Directions" (3rd set) 00:47-03:41 (theme excised) |
| 02:55-04:53 | "Directions" (3rd set) 03:54-05:51 (theme excised) |
| 04:54-16:14 | "Directions" (3rd set) 06:20-17:39 (theme excised) |
| 16:15-16:50 | "Directions" (3rd set) 18:03-18:39 |
| 16:51-20:12 | "Funky Tonk" (3rd set) 00:00-03:21 |
| 20:13-20:18 | "Funky Tonk" (3rd set) 03:59-04:04 |
| 20:19-23:23 | "Funky Tonk" (3rd set) 04:15-07:20 |
Side Four (26:29)
1. "Inamorata and Narration by Conrad Roberts" (26:29) Recorded December 19, 1970 at The Cellar Door, Washington, DC
| Timing | Source |
|---|---|
| 00:00-16:34 | "Funky Tonk" (3rd set) 07:21-23:55 |
| 16:35-16:47 | "Sanctuary" (3rd set) 01:50-02:02 |
| 16:47-23:08 | "It's About That Time" (3rd set) 00:00-06:21 |
| 23:09-26:08 | "It's About That Time" 0:00-2:59*
Narration by Conrad Roberts first 0:43 |
| 26:08-26:28 | "Sanctuary" 0:00-0:20* |
| (*) The final two sections are not from The Cellar Door. |
Note: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 box set uses the titles "Improvisation #4" (for Keith Jarrett's keyboard intro) and "Inamorata" instead of "Funky Tonk". In the Source column of the tables above, the title "Funky Tonk" is used.
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