The cultural ramifications of jazz great Miles Davis are still being heard today in EDM, rock, hip-hop, and, of course, jazz.
Over the course of his long and storied career, Davis maintained a 20-year relationship with the historic Newport Jazz Festival. His impact will be commemorated this summer at the Festival’s 60th anniversary with tributes, talks, and jams. In advance, a special boxed set of music will be released that traces Davis’s performances in Newport through eight dates, including hours of never-before-released material.
Releasing July 17, Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975 is the latest in the Columbia/Legacy’s Bootleg series. It includes such gems as Davis’s premiere at Newport, a hastily arranged session that included Thelonious Monk that led to his being signed to Columbia, and his final public performance of the 1970s, in 1975, at Lincoln Center. This track, appearing exclusively on The Daily Beast, is the October 22, 1971, performance of “Directions” from the Newport Jazz Festival’s iteration in Switzerland.
