Miles Davis’ second performance at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal in 1983 was finally released on record in 2022 titled, “What It Is: Montreal 7/7/83” And before I start digging deep into this , I just had to say that I love listening to Miles Davis. This musician always finds a way to reinvent himself through blending different musical styles with jazz. And may I just add that the 1983 line up of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, thank you very much! Apart from Miles, you’ve got your opening concert with Sarah Vaughan, the closing concert with Ella Fitzgerald, Pat Metheny, Oliver Jones, Charles Biddle, Oscar Peterson, Stan Getz, Carla Bley, and many more. IN FREAKIN’ SANE! But if we shift our attention back to Miles, his first performance at the festival dates back on the 10th of July 1982 at the Saint-Denis theatre in Montreal. No one knew what to expect from him, because it’s been a while that he hasn’t performed, and people started to question, since Miles is coming back, what are we to expect from him, and how will he reinvent himself? But when he finally took the stage, people’s minds were blown away. Of course his 1985 performance kills where it’s now plastered all over Youtube. You can see him performing covers of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature,” or Cindy Lauper’s “Time after Time.” And he had just released around that time, his record, “You’re Under Arrest.” Miles is something!

But this record is special to me, because it not only contains great melodies, improvisations, but it kinda captures that spirit from his first visit at the festival back in 1982. The only difference is that you’ve got different musicians involved in his line up such as John Scofield on electric guitar, and Darryl Jones the future bassist for The Rolling Stones on electric bass. And let me just tell you that both tracks “What It Is,” and “That’s What Happened,” were already released back in 1984 from his record “Decoy.” But now we’ve finally got the FULL performance. There’s so much improvisation in this record, and that’s a good thing. Each musician gets to improvise with their own musician, while still remaining within the frame of the music. It’s a perfect way to understand how jazz can easily be incorporated with other musical styles such as funk, and rock. Especially with this track called, “Code 3.” It’s so good. Please do me a favour and listen to this! Just hearing the beginning of the track with Bill Evans soloing off of his soprano saxophone, along to this powerful beat going off in the background is just MIND BLOWING.