To celebrate Miles Davis at 100, Columbia rereleases Chicago ‘Plugged Nickel’ recordings
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By Mark Caro
Published on March 23, 2026.
Columbia Records is rereleasing recordings of Miles Davis' live performances at the Plugged Nickel club in Chicago in 1965. The recordings were made by drummer Tony Williams, a Chicagoan, who suggested that the band's "second great quintet" should play "anti-music" on stage instead of playing standard jazz sets. The band had recorded its first album in 1965, "E.S.P." earlier in the year, but continued playing live sets dominated by standards. No one was aware that the club would be equipped with microphones for Columbia Records' eventual release. The resulting recordings can be heard on "The Complete Live at theplugged Nickel 1965," a 10-LP/eight-CD box set rereleased earlier this year by Columbia. This release is part of the larger Miles Davis 100 campaign marking the centennial of the trumpeter's birth on May 26.
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