The recent release of the new Miles Davis CD, Miles at the Fillmore, has got me going back in time these days to the late 1960s/early 1970s and digging the period when Miles’ electric band dominated the music scene, both in jazz and rock circles. What I’ve been hearing on this new 4-CD set knocks me out, and I’ve got to share something about it here.

This is not a review or a tribute — more like a reminder, if any were really necessary, of just how much of a musical giant Miles was in his lifetime and how, many years after his death in 1991, musicians and fans continue to stand in his widely cast musical shadow.

Miles hit gold with his 1970 studio album Bitches Brew, with its double electronic keyboards, Brazilian percussion and loose funk-driven jams led by Miles’ blazing trumpet lines. Jazz critics didn’t know what to make of the psychedelic-sounding Bitches Brew when it first came out; many rock fans loved it. Today it ranks as one of the bestselling jazz albums of all time, a fact that makes some jazz purists shake their heads in confounded disgust and many others nod in enthusiastic approval. It’s that divisive.

But one thing was undeniable back then: Miles was breaking down musical barriers, pushing the limits of creativity and, yes, pointing the way forward for the coming generation of jazz musicians.

Miles was also accused of “selling out” to fame and fortune in the (mostly white) corporate rock music world back then. It seems to me, though, that if Miles and the younger jazz musicians of that time who played with him really wanted to sell their souls for filthy lucre, they could have found a far easier way of doing it. I mean, when you listen to the tracks of Miles at the Fillmore, one thing is abundantly clear: These cats are working, not wasting time; the level of musicianship is consistently high, with little of the empty flash for which rock music is known. Miles was putting out music of both substance and style, far superior in many ways to what the average rock music band was doing at the time. How could that be considered as selling out?

If you dare, watch to the very end this 30-minute video clip of Miles and his electric band at the Isle of Wight rock music festival in Britain back in 1970. The band is playing out there, to be sure. Miles and band stole that day’s show at Wight — if not the whole five-day festival itself — before an audience of more than half a million people. (And yes, that is pianist Keith Jarrett on stage, sporting an afro and seemingly lost in an ecstatic trance. How the times have changed....)

I haven’t really been into rock music for many years, and now, after hearing the new Miles at the Fillmore CD — and another recent kickin’ live release by Miles, Bitches Brew Live — I’m not likely to be anytime soon. This is it for me; music just does not get any better than what Miles Davis was putting down live and in the studio in those days.

Without intending to insult anybody’s particular taste in music: You can keep your cheesy classic rock/pop bands (no need to mention names here; you know who they are). For sheer skill, talent, craftsmanship and chops, where the music speaks for itself in both quality and volume, I’ll take the electrified Miles Davis band and the Bitches Brew recordings anytime, all of which are still gloriously alive and cooking all these years later.

In the end, the real credit goes to the surviving members of Miles Davis’ estate, especially his grown children, who have been making such long-awaited live recordings of Miles available to the public in recent years. Thanks to them, we are reminded of days gone by when the music could be loud and good, funky and heavy, accessible and deep, all at the same time.

And the music still can be — these new live recordings of electric Miles at one of his many creative peaks are making sure of that.