Miles Davis

LP version. Released by Columbia in November 1971, Live-Evil sets long concert recordings from December 1970 against short studio pieces taped earlier that year. It captures the band Miles Davis toured with after Bitches Brew at full strength. The live sides come from the Cellar Door in Washington, D.C., and producer Teo Macero cut them down and assembled them in the studio. Between them sit three quiet pieces by the Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal. The contrast between the two kinds of music gives the double album its shape. Even the titles play with it: Sivad and Selim spell the leader's name backwards. The front cover is a painting by Mati Klarwein, and the back, at Davis's suggestion, shows a toad meant to resemble J. Edgar Hoover.

The concert band of 19 December 1970 had Gary Bartz on saxophones, John McLaughlin on guitar and Keith Jarrett on electric piano and organ. Michael Henderson played electric bass, Jack DeJohnette drums and Airto Moreira percussion. What I Say and Funky Tonk each run past twenty minutes, driven by Henderson's bass figures and DeJohnette's drumming. Over them, McLaughlin's guitar and Jarrett's keyboards trade lines with Davis's wah-wah trumpet. Sivad opens the album with a live section joined to studio material from May 1970. Inamorata fills the last side and closes with a narration by Conrad Roberts. The studio tracks come from sessions of February and June 1970 with Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Ron Carter and Dave Holland. The medley Gemini / Double Image also has Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul and an electric sitar. On Little Church Pascoal whistles over electric piano, and he sings on Nem Um Talvez and Selim. In Rolling Stone in 1972 Robert Palmer called the shorter pieces things of great beauty. In his 1981 Record Guide Robert Christgau heard in Funky Tonk Davis's most compelling rhythmic exploration to date.

This Music On Vinyl edition (MOVLP1483), released in 2016, presses the album on two 180 gram LPs in a gatefold sleeve.