Superb 1971 concert in excellent sound, now unedited

October 22, 1971
Stadthalle Dietikon, Dietikon, Zürich, Switzerland
2nd concert

MILES DAVIS
Miles Davis- trumpet
Gary Bartz- alto and soprano saxophones
Keith Jarrett- electric piano, organ
Michael Henderson- bass guitar
Ndugu Leon Chancler- drums
Don Alias- congas, percussion
James Mtume- congas, percussion

Directions (Joe Zawinul) 0:00
Honky Tonk 12:45
What I Say [intro] 24:03
What I Say 25:56
Sanctuary (Wayne Shorter-Miles Davis) 37:55
It's About That Time 41:05
Yesternow 55:08
Funky Tonk [false start] 1:14:44
Funky Tonk 1:16:58
Sanctuary [theme] (Wayne Shorter-Miles Davis) 1:36:48
closing announcement and credits 1:37:47

All compositions by Miles Davis except where noted

Live concert originally broadcast by Deutsche und Rätoromanische Schweiz radio.
2021 rebroadcast by SRF
with additional material from 2001 broadcast by DSR3


In contrast to the astonishing stream of music Miles Davis had recorded from late 1969 to mid 1970- sixteen studio sessions in total- Miles and his coterie of musicians did not enter the studio at all from mid 1970 for almost two years. There were a few live recordings- the legendary Isle Of Wight festival in August 1970 and the stunning Cellar Door sessions in December were notable- but the period of almost obsessive documentation had ground to a halt.

That makes the extensive live recordings from his European tour of autumn 1971 all the more valuable. The core of the band had been together for some time- Jarrett had joined the working band in the late spring of 1970, Bartz that summer in time for the Isle Of Wight gig; Henderson had been playing studio sessions with Miles for some months and joined the live band around a year before this recording. Crucially, Jack DeJohnette had left in mid-1971 to form fusion band Compost, while Airto Moreira had jumped ship to join Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul's new band Weather Report.

Mlies recruited two musicians who had been playing with Freddie Hubbard. One was 19 year old drummer Leon Chancler, who had also recorded with Harold Johnson, Harold Land, and with Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band, and had adopted the Swahili name Ndugu ('brother'). He's been a controversial signing- he's somewhat erratic across the European tour recordings, perhaps unclear as to what Miles required from him. The other was percussionist James Mtume. He was the adopted son of jazz pianist James Forman and his birth father was saxophonist Jimmy Heath, Miles' bandmate in the 1950s. Mtume was deep into the politics of Black empowerment and had recorded a live album at a Brooklyn Black nationalist arts and education centre, The East (Mtume's Swahili name means 'messenger'). Miles bolstered the rhythm team with another percussionist, Don Alias, who had recorded with Davis on the legendary Bitches Brew sessions. This team brought a level of complexity to the music that pointed the way to the rhythmic density of the following year's On The Corner.

This recording comes from the fifth date of a month long 22 stop tour, at the Stadthalle in Dietikon. In 2015 I posted the first concert from this date- it was subsequently released by Columbia Legacy on The Bootleg Series, Volume 4: At Newport 1955–1975 (the gigs were part of a 'Newport In Europe' touring package)- a decent but tentative performance, it was an odd choice for official release. The second set is a completely different beast- an extraordinary concert with astonishing performances from Bartz, who plays out of his skin, a brilliantly creative Jarrett, and a driving rhythm section- you can almost hear Ndugu grow in confidence as the evening progresses. Miles plays incisively, shaping his strongly rhythmic phrases with his wah-wah pedal.

The repertoire is mostly similar to that on the soon-to-be-released Live/Evil. One point of interest- this is the first recording where What I Say picks up a brief intro, slower in tempo, with one of Henderson's funkiest basslines. This first version is less than two minutes but would grow in length during the tour. This technique of having passages of different tempos in a tune was also used in Directions, Ife and, in later years, Wrinkle.

This gig has appeared on numerous bootlegs, usually taken from a 2001 rebroadcast. There were clumsy edits made to eliminate station idents, and Funky Tonk was incomplete. This version comes from a 2021 broadcast and restores these missing sections (although there were also station announcements which I have patched using material from 2001). The sound is excellent, expertly engineered by Klaus Koenig for Swiss radio and the new broadcast eliminates the FM hiss heard on previous versions (the bootlegs also run ever so slightly sharp). I have given it some small tweaks to enhance the frequency range and better balance the stereo field.

Dietikon stands as one of the highlights of the 1971 tour and is among the great unofficial Davis recordings. It's one not to be missed.