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Drifting from spiraling psychedelia into frightening soundscapes and ecstatic funk, the Miles Davis septet built a universe unto itself across its 1975 tour of Japan. This tour-spanning mix gathers some of the choicest cuts and most experimental moments from the unissued tapes.
All told, this was a remarkable tour - a high water mark of the electric era and, unless you dig what he got up to following his 1980 re-emergence, the final stunner in the career of Miles Davis.
I shared my rundown of the tour’s ins n’ outs at AD a couple weeks back. https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2025/01/28/agharta-deluxe-live-miles-in-japan-1975/
The Miles Davis septet’s 1975 tour of Japan produced the bandleader’s final definitive statements of his electric era with the Agatha and Pangaea double live LPs. Until a Bootleg Series entry celebrates the tour with a much-deserved box set, unofficial tapes of the 3-week run remain our deepest look into this expanded universe. Here’s a primer on the best of the lot. The shows that burned the hottest and those that explored the furthest reaches of terrain to which no artist has returned.
To sweeten the pot, a reader shared their homemade matrix mix (aud + sbd), which I’ve linked to in the post. However you listen, this one’s essential.
The evening show’s a rough ride fidelity-wise but worth the investment. Miles is in astonishing form from end to end (boundless energy, this guy) and the 24-minute “Right Off” is proof - the “So What” tease on organ is a sure sign the boss was feelin’ it - and the band weaves into and out of “Yesternow” mid tune for a slick Jack Johnson medley.
50 years ago today, the Miles Davis septet wraps a historic tour of Japan with matinee and evening shows in Tokyo. The final overseas dates of his electric era. 🇯🇵
The matinee is extraordinary, with the band exploring endless pockets of grooves across both sets, decimating with an all-time “Calypso Frelimo” > “Ife” to start the afternoon and jamming “Maiysha” for 34 minutes to close.
50 years ago tonight, Miles + crew return to Tokyo to close an 11-date tour with a final blast of gigs. 🇯🇵
The 2/7 tape is a stone classic: tightly wound and more than a little frantic, as though the band were trying to cram a tour’s worth of peaks into 2 sets. “Ife” is a brief but potent dose and “Turnaroundphrase” > “Tune in 5 (w/“Willie Nelson” tease) is an easy tour highlight.
The gigs that followed were often great but Miles never returned to this peak as a performer or bandleader - retreating from the stage 8 months later into years of heavy drug abuse, paranoia, darkness. The man knew his work was done, so he split.
Give these albums your time and play em loud. Any version will do but the 1996 and 2000/2001 Japanese CDs feat the unedited shows with several min of excised ambient soundscapes.
Here’s the extended disc 2 of Agharta for ref:
https://youtu.be/Hm4YcJQXIV8?si=D6bvZ7zu6ketjQsx
50 years ago today, Miles Davis records Agharta and Pangaea - the definitive statements of his electric era.
Documenting the day’s matinee and evening shows, the LPs crystallize the expansive slow burners of In a Silent Way + Bitches Brew, the taught, rubbery funk of Live Evil + Jack Johnson, the rhythmic density of On the Corner and the alchemy that inexplicably elevates his in-concert LPs (At Fillmore, Live Evil, Dark Magus etc) into a higher realm.
The aud captures a show that’s remarkably dialed in and sinister well into the second set (“For Dave” is a tour highlight here) until the band briefly stumbles and bassist Michael Henderson takes the reins.
The final ~25 minutes are filthy cosmic slop and the crowd is INTO IT, drawing out the 10-min percussion finale with some playful call & response. A rager. https://youtu.be/3y2VRjS8ynU?si=YO-oAMcy9k5lKdp7
50 years ago tonight, the Miles Davis septet leaves Kokura in tatters - shifting from menacing psych to jubilant, dead on heavy funk across a pair of sets that conclude with an honest-to-god audience clap along.
50 years ago tonight: night 2 in Tokyo gets weird. The septet opens with a sprawling “Ife” that touches the edge of the cosmos and ends the night with 11 minutes of textural drum machine, howling feedback, and punishing synth noise. The aud tape is sonic pudding but suits the chaotic vibe.
The band returned to the scene of the crime (Tokyo’s Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall) to close the tour 15 nights later. Odd itinerary but I guess times were different. #jazz #milesdavis https://theheatwarps.com/2022/04/21/1-22-23-1975-tokyo/
