Miles Davis & Friends Live in Paris

This fantastic footage shows Miles Davis – jazz' greatest and most-recognizable face – at a very particular moment in his career. Journalists and writers like to split his musical life up into different segments, with each one representing what is essentially a new era in the direction of American music: The Bebop Years, The Birth of Cool, Hard Bop, The First Quintet (alongside John Coltrane), Kind of Blue, The Second Quintet (with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams) ... it is the most impressive résumé in jazz. Yet, at this point, in 1969, Miles was leading the so-called "Lost Quintet," named because this particular formation only performed together, never setting down their sound in a studio. 

It is a staggering line-up: Miles Davis on trumpet, Chick Corea on electric piano, Jack DeJohnette on drums, Wayne Shorter on saxophone and Dave Holland on bass. All of them were fusion masters, boundary-pushing auters with vision and daring in the new musical space of the late 60s/ early 70s. They only toured together for a year and, as such, this concert is a precious document for lovers of jazz cultural seekers. The following year most of the musicians, barring DeJohnette, would participate in the recording of Bitches Brew, recognized as one of the greatest jazz records of all time and a bubbling stew of electrified rock, funk and improvized music.