Had a recent conversation with an anonymous source very close to such information and here’s a further take on the subject of who shot Miles Davis following that fateful (see below) gig at the Blue Coronet in Brooklyn. Make of this what you will…
There was a bit of a struggle for the mob to keep its cash flow via Village jazz clubs in the late 60s. Miles (along with Max Roach) decided to take their music uptown and to Brooklyn to avoid the shakedowns in the Village. Miles had booked the Gate by himself by 1969-70 but after the shooting he sent a memo via Teo Macero to Bill Graham asking to play the Fillmores. Miles had turned down the gig due to the lack of play but Columbia [Records} had made a deal with Graham to record a lot of Columbia artists at the Fillmore so Columbia paid Miles to play the hall.
The actual shooter [of Miles], according to some people was Vincent Gigante.
After all of this shit, Miles fired [his attorney] Harold Lovett. He stopped playing jazz clubs and began his long movement into pop music.
The man who was trying to take over booking was probably fronting for the mob. When rock hit the Village, the rock clubs were mostly teen bars with no liquor license so the mob could not get extortion from leasing its licenses to the clubs. For years, most of the clubs in the Village had licenses issued by the South Street Corporation, a front for the Gigante family.