And it would be the conclusion in a long lineage of front-line partners that once included John Coltrane. What's "un-definable" in Davis lore was that this "Lost Quintet" (Davis and Shorter with keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist David Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette -so named for the absence of any recorded studio albums) was a sign of things to come. Truthfully, they were the sonic guinea pig for the firestorm that would become the legendary Bitches Brew album, released just a few scant months later. What those Steve Miller and Neil Young fans in attendance at the Fillmore were treated to that night was Davis leaping headlong, without a 'chute, into the Hendrix/Family Stone acid funk that would become his musical code over the next decade. Although both Davis and Shorter were unwilling to cut all their ties to bop tradition (their solos here still tend towards slightly harmonious lines and resolutions), Holland and DeJohnette (still both twenty-somethings at the time) treat these jams with angular grooves while Corea jumps between cosmic waves and stinging, hyper-active handiwork from his Fender Rhodes.

While all of that night's participants eventually went on to pursue their own, different jazz-rock muses (and lengthy, post-fusion careers), it's still exciting to hear how Davis and band flipped the switch (and perhaps most of the Fillmore crowd's lids) with this radical free-electric sound.