Send "Miles Davis " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 There's a passage in Miles Davis' notorious 1990 autobiography where he's talking about how much quality music he recorded in the mid-to-late 1960s with his second great quartet-- the group featuring Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. "I made six studio dates with this group in four years," he says. "And there were some live recordings that I guess Columbia will release when they think they can make the most money-- probably after I'm dead." I can remember chuckling at that line when reading the book the year of its publication, but it would have been difficult to imagine just how extensive and sustained the Miles Davis reissue program would actually be after his death in 1991. The anniversary sets; the complete studio sessions boxes; the boxes collecting the boxes. It goes on and on and every new gift season brings another new offering.And now here's the latest, from a couple of years after the period Davis mentioned: two re-releases of the legendary 1970 2xLP set Bitches Brew. One is a 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition gathering together the original album on one and a quarter CDs, along with studio outtakes, another CD containing a previously unissued let set recorded at Tanglewood, in Lennox, Mass., in August 1970, and a DVD containing a previously unissued concert in Copenhagen from November 1969. The other version of the album is part of Columbia's Legacy Edition and contains the first two CDs from the 40th Anniversary set along with the Copenhagen DVD. There's a reason Bitches Brew is getting this kind of treatment, even after the release of the 4xCD Complete Bitches Brew box set 12 years ago. It is, after all, one of the three or four most important albums of Miles Davis' career. And coming nine months after In a Silent Way, it is also one of founding texts of jazz fusion. It's a Big Deal Jazz album that's been tapped as being an essential part of any collection. Which unfortunately is something that tends to obscure the actual music. Putting on Bitches Brew and then straining to hear why it mattered so much is a pretty lousy way to go about enjoying this music. Which is not to say there isn't a lot here to puzzle over and listen for-- the music on Bitches Brew is so variable and hard to pin down it rewards any amount of close listening. But Bitches Brew is also pretty accessible as electric Miles goes, and it's something you can put on and let wash over you for now, figuring out what it means and what everyone was doing later....full text |
| Progreviews |
| Bitches Brew, a double album recorded over a span of three days in August of 1969, is often heralded as the first shot fired in the fusion movement — even though it is cut from much of the same cloth as In a Silent Way (which Davis made six months earlier) and despite the fact that jazz and rock had already been mingling for a couple of years. I think that writer Paul Tingen (Miles Beyond: Electric Explorations of Miles Davis, 1967-1991) was accurate in his observation that the album represented a "paradigm shift." It was the first electric album from a jazz artist to be massively influential and it was the fulcrum for much of fusion's experimental wing. Bitches Brew could be generally described as a darker, funkier, fiercer version of In a Silent Way; certainly, that's the case with the tracks on Disc One. It's also bigger, as Davis used thirteen musicians instead of eight. Six of the eight musicians from In a Silent Way returned for Bitches Brew (Tony Williams and Herbie Hancock did not participate), and all four of Davis' sidemen in his then-current working band (Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette) played on it, giving the project some continuity with Davis' most recent work. The new additions (musicians who did not play on In a Silent Way and who were not part of Davis' live band at the time) were: Bennie Maupin (bass clarinet), Larry Young (electric piano), Harvey Brooks (electric bass), Lenny White (drums), Don Alias (drums), Airto Moreira (percussion) and Jim Riley (percussion). Not all tracks feature all of the musicians but each piece is performed by a large ensemble and the result is often a roiling sea of sound. Despite a similar method of construction, the music differs from In a Silent Way in several important ways. First, there is the bass clarinet. It's a simple addition but it casts the music in an entirely different light. Maupin plays the bass clarinet purely for its tone color — he doesn't solo or really even contribute any riffs; the instrument is used almost like a didgeridoo and this adds a decidedly non-western atmosphere to the music. Second, there's the playing of Miles Davis himself. If In a Silent Way marked the return of Miles Davis the trumpet player (the later albums cut by Davis' '60s quintet did not prominently feature the leader's horn), Bitches Brew takes this resurgence to an entirely different level. Producer Teo Macero recognized the renewed spirit in Miles' playing and he astutely boosted the sound of Davis' horn into the front of the mix so as to maximize the effect. Third, there is the rhythm section. Whereas Davis kept the rhythms simple and spare on In a Silent Way, he wanted the drumming to be energetic and funky on Bitches Brew. He also wanted to experiment with polyrhythms and he deployed multiple percussionists on a few of the tracks. As on In a Silent Way, the percussion and the bass are the least improvised elements of the music; unlike In a Silent Way, their function here was to be noticed for what they were doing as opposed to what they were not doing. Bitches Brew was an album shrouded in mystery for some time, although information has surfaced over the years that clarifies the picture somewhat and dispels a few of the myths. One myth that Miles himself perpetuated was that the music was almost wholly the product of spontaneous creativity — that the band didn't know anything about the music until sketches were shown to them on the day of recording. In fact "Spanish Key," "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" and, of course, Wayne Shorter's "Sanctuary" had been in the live band's repertoire prior to recording Bitches Brew, and I've read that fragments of "Bitches Brew" had been played live as well. Furthermore, Joe Zawinul and Lenny White have both stated that they participated in rehearsals at Davis' house the day before the recording sessions. Due to the complexity of the material and the unwieldy size of the ensemble, it was probably a very good idea that at least some of the newcomers had a few dry runs before the tapes started rolling, anyway. Miles Davis was almost psychic in his superlative abilities to create an atmosphere that got the most out of his band on virtually every occasion and if he felt that brief rehearsals were necessary, then the music is likely all the better for it....full text |
| Blogcritics |
| From the moment the needle slides into the groove of “Pharoah’s Dance” on Miles Davis’ landmark Bitches Brew lp, the listener is transported. Forty years after its initial vinyl release, the album is back, as a limited audiophile edition double album. And it sounds better than ever. I have been listening to this for at least the past 25 years, and every listen seems to bring out some new aspect of this dense, adventurous record. There is probably not much a person can add to the discussion of one of the most influential albums in jazz history. But just for kicks I went back and looked at some of the original reviews, published in 1969. They are illuminating, to say the least. Why the so-called “underground” press did not jump all over Bitches Brew at the time is fascinating when you think about what was being touted as “revolutionary”. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, anyone? Or how about the endless, meandering blues workouts of Cream? I’m sorry, but remove the drugs and most of that stuff is un-listenable these days. Not so with Bitches Brew. There are a number of reasons for this, beginning with the unprecedented line up. Just a few of the musicians credited here include: John McLaughlin, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, and Joe Zawinul. Bitches Brew was the template of jazz well into the 1980s, in a lot of ways defining the last significant era of the music....full text |
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