What’s that, you ask? Did Miles Davis open for the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore West? In what world could such a thing happen? In the world of the late sixties/early seventies, when jazz fused with acid rock, acid rock with country, and pop culture took a long strange trip. The “inspired pairing” of the Dead with Davis’ electric band on April 9-12, 1970, “represented one of [promoter] Bill Graham’s most legendary bookings,” writes the blog Cryptical Developments. I’ll say. Davis had just released the groundbreaking double-LP Bitches Brew and was “at somewhat of an artistic and commercial crossroads,” experimenting with new, more fluid compositions.
Aggressive and dominated by rock rhythms and electric instruments, the album became Davis’ best seller and brought him before young, white audiences in a way his earlier work had not. The band that Davis brought into the Fillmore West, comprising [Chick] Corea, [Dave] Holland, soprano sax player Steve Grossman, drummer Jack Dejohnette, and percussionist Airto Moreira, was fully versed in this new music, and stood the Fillmore West audiences on their ears.
I can only imagine what it would have been like to see that performance live. But we don’t have to imagine what it sounded like. You can hear all of Davis’s set below.
In his autobiography, Davis described it as “an eye-opening concert for me.” “The place was packed with these real spacy, high white people,” he wrote, “and when we first started playing, people were walking around and talking.” Once the band got into the Bitches Brew material, though, “that really blew them out. After that concert, every time I would play out there in San Francisco, a lot of young white people showed up at the gigs.”
Did the Dead become a crossover hit with jazz fans? Not exactly, but Davis really hit it off with them, especially with Jerry Garcia. “I think we all learned something,” Davis wrote: “Jerry Garcia loved jazz, and I found out that he loved my music and had been listening to it for a long time.” In his autobiography, the Dead’s Phil Lesh remembered having his mind blown by Davis and band: “As I listened, leaning over the amps with my jaw hanging agape, trying to comprehend the forces that Miles was unleashing onstage, I was thinking What’s the use. How can we possibly play after this? […] With this band, Miles literally invented fusion music. In some ways it was similar to what we were trying to do in our free jamming, but ever so much more dense with ideas – and seemingly controlled with an iron fist, even at its most alarmingly intense moments.” You can stream the Dead’s full performance from that night below. Think what must have been running through their minds as they took the stage after watching Miles Davis invent a new form of music right before their eyes.
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Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness
I was on my way to the Friday night show but the vehicle I was in was pounced on by the SFPD and unfortunately, there were drugs under the front seat. Luckily, I hadn’t ingested any of the more powerful as spending the night in SF County Jail instead of inside the Carousel was not fun…at all. Sorry I missed this one.
am I wrong?
there is only a 10:38 taste of the Miles.
…..
I have all four nights of both the Dead’s sets and Miles’. I can tell you that the Dead were absolutely inspired by what they heard.
Miles liked the Dead. He talks about it in his autobiography “Miles”. He really respected Jerry Garcia. He did NOT respect Steve Miller. Ha! You really do need to read that book. Brilliant.
Thanks for posting this.
Tom, if you let the clip continue to play, it will move to the next track on the Youtube playlist.
Towards john h.
Any suggestions on where I can find the dead with miles for my collection
Is it available commercially
Miles Davis and his band sound highly explosive that night! Grateful Dead seem devastatingly intimidated by what had preceded them, unable ever to find the right groove for the rest of the evening; thankfully they would recover from the drubbing they took in that pairing, most other bands would have packed it in…
Will take Davis over the Dead any, ANY, time….
I was at the first night and the audience was very tense with young black men not knowing(or caring) how to inner act with the young white men & women in the audience. It was fortunate that for the most part they left after Miles played his set. I was also at the Hughie Newton birthday party that the Panthers hosted the following year in Oakland where was again it was a very tense evening. Some young guy took a swipe at Weir while he was entering the auditourm.
Randy
Oops,
I just realized that I misspelled interact. I don’t want to sound negative but that first night was tough on us”longhairs” out in the audience. Ditto with the Panther gig.
Randy
Check out “Miles Davis At Fillmore West:Black Beauty” Columbia CD
there are 10 sections, they automatically play one after the other so the whole show is there.
isn’t that book 98% hyperbole?
I’ll take ’em both. I think that jazz dudes that don’t get the Dead miss the point. And I think that jam dudes that don’t get Miles are exactly as dense.
too bad the dead went with such a timid setlist…shoulda busted out a dark star…doesn’t jibe with the list from deadheads taping compendium either…
I was at the concert in 1970. From what I recall it was pretty bizarre.
4/12/70
Fillmore West – San Francisco, CA
Set 1:
Good Morning Little School Girl
Casey Jones
Mama Tried
China Cat Sunflower
I Know You Rider
High Time
Good Lovin’
Drums
Good Lovin’
Set 2:
Candyman
Deep Elem Blues
Cumberland Blues
Dire Wolf
Black Peter
Uncle John’s Band
Set 3:
Dancin’ In The Streets
It’s A Man’s World
Viola Lee Blues
Wasn’t the Miles Davis album “Live Evil” comprised of music from this concert?
No Live Evil came from Washington DC shows at the Cellar Door. The complete recordings came out a while ago. Highly recommended.
Damn , that is insane. You witnessed. My hats off to you for your historic memories. I would love to hear more. Take care and peace to you, , Rob
I went one of the nights, don’t remember which. Davis was effectively top-billed. The opening band played, the Grateful Dead played, Davis played, the Grateful Dead played again, then Davis played the final set. I thought the Grateful Dead played great.
You have both set of the Dead on 4-10-70 ?! There’s alot of people that would like to listen to that. Thats the missing night!
Randy, It’s a two way street, isn’t it? Maybe you didn’t know how to interact with the young Black men. Perspective…
And here I am, silly me, thinking that Procol Harem and Black Sabbath were the weirdest double bill ever.