Columbia/Legacy propose making this set available from Friday, 17 July 2015 – 60 years to the day of Davis' breakthrough performance at Newport in 1955 with an all star line-up that resulted in George Avakian signing Davis to the Columbia label. That particular set – also featuring the likes of Thelonious Monk, Zoot Sims, Gerry Mulligan, Percy Heath and Connie Kay – provides the starting point of this remarkable musical odyssey covering 20 years when Davis and the ensembles he led were considered the ne plus ultra of jazz. This 4CD set documents Davis' Newport Jazz related performances in 1955, 1958, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973 and 1975. Note the cautious use of words here. Of these, only the 1955, 1958, 1966 and 1967 concerts are at the original Newport, Rhode Island festival field. From then on things get a bit complicated since the 1971 concert is a ‘Newport Jazz Festival in Europe’ presentation at the Neue Stadthalle in Dietikon, Switzerland while the 1973 concert is another ‘Newport Jazz Festival In Europe’ presentation, this time at the Berlin Philharmonie – interestingly introduced by Britain's Ronnie Scott. The 1975 concert returns to the USA with a Newport Jazz Festival in New York presentation, held at Avery Fisher Hall, NYC on 1 July that year. All this clocks in at 296 minutes of music, of which we are told some four hours is previously unreleased. The liner notes tactfully omit to mention Davis refused to play the Newport festival in 1972 apparently claiming his fee was insufficient. The 1955 jazz session at Newport appeared in its entirety on the Miles Davis 2CD set on the Storyville label (1038421) while six tracks from the 1966 and 1967 Newport concerts appeared on Miles Davis Quintet Live at Newport 1966 & 1967 on the Domino label. However, the sound on the 1966 and 1967 Columbia/Legacy set is far superior and the complete concerts are included here in their entirety. Also, I actually prefer the At Newport 1955-1975 sound of the 1958 Newport concert to Miles Davis At Newport 1958, released on CD by Columbia/Legacy in 2001. Highlights are of course this 1958 set with the Kind of Blue sextet, and the second great quintet performances of 1966 and 1967, with Shorter, Hancock, Carter and Williams. The 1971 Newport Jazz Festival in Europe concert also provides a striking example of the post-Bitches Brew band that included Keith Jarrett that, like Bitches Brew 40th (reviewed below) adds another significant performance by this band to the Davis discography. The 1975 concert at Avery Fisher Hall, NYC is mercifully reduced to just one representative track ‘Mtume’. Davis was dogged with health problems at the time and was playing little trumpet in concert and the addition of Sam Morrison on tenor sax (‘Who's he?’ went the cry around the jazz community at the time) suggest his health problems were distracting him from the music – you only have to look at contemporaneous press reports for evidence of this to see the band seemed to be performing woefully below par – as John S. Wilson of The New York Times wrote: “Miles Davis' ability to leave his listeners languid was given pointed display”. Ouch. The publicity notes claim this was his last public performance before retiring to attend to his problems (he wouldn't return to public performance until 1981), the liner notes point out it wasn't until ‘the end of ’75’. In fact, he threw the towel in by cancelling a concert at Auditorium Theatre on 12 October. Ultimately, however, it's worth reflecting on where it all began, with Davis' jam session solo ‘Round Midnight’ that prompted Avakian to sign him to Columbia. It makes this performance a very significant moment in jazz history.