Miles Davis- May 2, 1982 Théatre du Châtelet, Paris, 2nd set | REMASTERED FM version

Very good quality FM broadcast of Miles's comeback band

May 2, 1982
Théatre du Châtelet
Paris
2nd set

MILES DAVIS
Miles Davis- trumpet, electric piano
Bill Evans- tenor and soprano saxophones, flute, electric piano
Mike Stern- guitar
Marcus Miller- bass guitar
Al Foster- drums
Mino Cinelu- congas, percussion

Ife 0:00
Fat Time 15:52
Jean-Pierre [incomplete] 31:06
closing titles 46:50

All compositions by Miles Davis
Radio broadcast

After returning to the stage in the summer of 1981 following a five year haitus, Miles and his talented young band toured extensively for the rest of the year around the US and Japan. At the end of '81 Miles married actress Cicely Tyson and shortly after suffered a stroke that affected the movement in his right hand. By the spring of 1982 he had recovered enough to resume touring and the rest of the year continued with a string of dates around the US and Canada and, starting in mid April, a month long tour of Europe, his first since 1973.

Towards the end of the run the band played two nights at the Théatre du Châtelet in Paris, a beautiful opera house that seated 2,500 (at the time of the concert the venue was also known as the Théâtre Musical de Paris). The second of the two nights was broadcast by ORTF (and can be heard here:    • Miles Davis- May 3, 1982 Théâtre du Chatel...   ); I'm not sure of the source of this recording but it appears to be a very good quality FM broadcast (there is some high frequency hiss, especially noticable in the quieter passages, and a few of bursts of FM static but nothing overly intrusive, and there are also small skips at 17:50, 26:49, from 32:23-32:27 and at 37:05 which are inherent in the recording and were not repairable). There is also a poorer quality AM broadcst in circulation which includes a version of Aida, presumably from the first set of the evening, an incomplete Ife, and a longer Jean-Pierre. I'm not in possession of this recording and I don't know if the rest of the first set was part of either broadcast.

These three tunes come from the second set of the evening. Ife is the only piece that harks back to the pre-haitus bands- it had originally been recorded in the June 1972 sessions that had produced On The Corner and became a staple of the live sets of the period. The tune was revived in late 1981, where it replaced Kix in the setlist, and was played regularly throughout 1982. Fat Time first appeared as the opening track of Davis's comeback LP The Man With The Horn, while the sing-song melody of Jean-Pierre had been played at the early comeback gigs and two versions were released on the live We Want Miles album, released a few weeks before this concert. The band had been playing together for the best part of a year and were now a well-tuned, cohesive outfit. Miles himself occasionally falters- unsurprisingly, given his then recent health issues- but the inspiration remains high and the great sound quality and mix of the broadcast highlights the strengths and subtle interplay of this line up; this remaster tweaks a few frequencies to restore some of the dynamics.

The band would spend the rest of the summer touring before going back into the studio to start work on the next album, Star People. By the new year there would be personnel changes and new musical directions that would see Miles' superstar status grow.

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