Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
Miles Davis performs in Copenhagen, Denmark, during 1969—not long after recording Bitches Brew, which was released 50 years ago.
(Photo: YouTube)Come for Chick Corea’s headband, and stay for Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter playing unison lines.
A live set, captured during November 1969 at the Tivoli Koncertsal in Copenhagen, Denmark, has been posted online. The recording was made available, in part, as a balm for sitting around inside for more than a week. But the music’s also intended to mark the 50th anniversary of Bitches Brew being issued; the album was recorded in August 1969 and released March 30, 1970.
“During this difficult and uncertain time, I like so many others have found solace in music and film,” Stanley Nelson, director and producer of Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, wrote in an email. “My heart has felt so full in recent days since many folks have reached out after finding their own comfort from streaming my film ... . We can learn so much from Miles, but what we should all be thinking about in this current moment is his immense ability to constantly expand his mind and creative capacity during tough times in his own life. No album better exemplifies that than his career-resetting, psychedelic opus Bitches Brew—and on its 50th anniversary I know what I’ll be jamming out at home to.”
Legacy Recordings also is selling copies of The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, released in 1998, as well as new double-LP gatefold version of the original album.
Stream the entire Copenhagen set here. DB
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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