This incomplete set was recorded by Columbia at the Newport Jazz Festival. Wayne
Shorter missed this date because of traffic into Newport, so the group performed
as a quartet. This is the earliest extant recording of "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down";
it was a live staple more than a month before the studio version was recorded at
the August 20 Bitches Brew session.
The 1969 Newport Festival featured several rock acts -- Led Zeppelin, Ten Years
After, Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention -- and rhythm and blues
acts like James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. Things didn't work out as George
Wein had hoped, so he returned to the more conservative format in subsequent years.
The Quintet was busy throughout the spring and summer of 1969, including three appearances
at the Village Gate: April 25-26, May 23-24, and July 29-August 10. Other dates include:
Lennie's on the Turnpike, West Peabody MA (May 5-11); Spectrum, Philadelphia (May 11);
Plugged Nickel Club, Chicago (June 4-14); Blue Coronet Club, Brooklyn (June 21-29);
Morgan State Jazz Festival, Baltimore (June 22); Miami Jai-Alai (Miami Jazz Festival)
(June 27); Armstrong Stadium, Hampton VA (Hampton Jazz Festival) (June 28); Festival
Field, Newport RI (Newport Jazz Festival) (July 5); Central Park, New York (Schaefer
Music Festival) (July 7); Olympia Stadium, Detroit (Detroit Jazz Festival) (July 13);
Memorial Auditorium, Dallas (Longhorn Jazz Festival) (July 18); Municipal Auditorium,
Austin (Longhorn Jazz Festival) (July 19); Coliseum, Houston (Longhorn Jazz Festival)
(July 20); Juan-les-Pins Festival, Antibes (July 25-26); Rutgers University Stadium,
New Brunswick (Rutgers Jazz Festival) (July 27); Sheraton Park Hotel, French Lick
(French Lick Jazz Festival) (July 31); Spectrum, Philadelphia (August 15); Kiel
Auditorium, St. Louis (St. Louis Jazz Festival) (August 16); Grant Park Auditorium
Theatre, Chicago (August 22); Crosley Field, Cincinnati (Ohio Jazz Festival) (August
23); Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis (Memphis Jazz Festival) (August 24).
Columbia had planned to record the Quintet live at the Village Gate on August 6-7,
and at the Spectrum in Philadelphia (August 15), but those plans were canceled.
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