Munich electric

I probably need another collection of Miles Davis' electric music like I need hungry wolverines roaming my apartment. I dropped $270 this winter on "The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux 1973-1991" (20 disks) and "The Cellar Door Sessions 1970" (six disks), which I'm gradually working my way through. I'll say this, I might have been pissed if I had paid $75 for the first disk of "Cellar Door" alone. But not too pissed. It's as powerful a Miles Davis as you've ever heard and the other band members, Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette among them, are stunning as well. Gary Bartz makes his sax sound like the bagpipes on "What I Say," and I don't mean just a little. Likewise, John Scofield's rockin' guitar god showing on some of the "Montreux" disks is a revelation to me. (More on all this later.)

Still, I wouldn't suggest "Cellar Door" or "Montreux" (they're both from Columbia) for everybody given the cost. I will suggest "Miles Davis Munich Concert," from Imc Music, which I spied for $15.99 at the local Best Buy this month, a bargain price for a three-CD set, mostly from 1988, that gives you a good idea what the later Montreux stuff sounds like.

That is, like rock, pop and jazz fused in a way that made for a jazz music, if not with the popularity swing once commanded, at least more popular than jazz had been since the swing era. Kenny Garrett in particular rocks, man, as much as Clarence "The Big Man" Clemons ever did with The Boss, and Garrett's a much more technically proficient saxophone player.

As a bonus to fill the third CD, you get 35-minutes of "Call It Anything" from a 1970 Isle of Wright Festival recording. The band included most of the "Cellar Door" crew, plus Chick Corea and Dave Holland.

At five bucks and change for each disk, I'll be suggesting it henceforth to anyone who wants a nice, representative slice of Miles electric.