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I know it's been a controversial period, but it's my favorite portion of his output, from Bitches Brew through Agharta. I even throw in Filles & Miles in the Sky. I don't like In a Silent Way.
What do we think of the early 70s Miles?
"'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice./And when justice is gone, there's always force./And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!" Laurie Anderson, "O Superman (For Massenet)"
Follow Ups:
Miles had so much talent that he couldn't keep it in check, and he always had to be growing, experimenting. This led to the electric era, which I associate with drugs, anguish, and generally negative stuff. But then, I don't find much to like about the Seventies.
My favorite decade but not for the popular turn of fusion but for the underground uneasily conceptualized as "the loft scene" that nurtured artists such as Arthur Blythe, Julius Hemphill, David Murray, Sam Rivers, Muhal Richard Abrams, Hamiet Bluiett Ornette's Prime Time, and so many others. This fertile period as been written out of standard jazz history as taught in most of the college jazz programs, and ironically critic Stanley Crouch and his acolyte Wynton Marsalis are most responsible for establishing this limited jazz canon. Ironically because before the age of Reagan, Stanley was the principle chronicler, advocate, and even participant (playing drums with his pre-Wynton protege David Murray) of the loft scene:
I've been collecting records for almost 50 years. There was a total of 28 albums that I would classify as jazz in my collection. About a 1/3 was rock or funk fusion, another 1/3 was similar to Jazz Preservation Society, Pete Fountain and Bob Scobey and the rest kind one off odd ball stuff.
Inmate Musetap posted a Sonny Sharrock link a few months back. I checked it out on Spotify and recently found a nice nm copy and ordered it from Europe - also interested in Last Exit. From there I discovered 6 Miles Davis records Bitches Brew through Agharta that I want and should get sometime this year. It's Bitches Brew, Tribute To Jack Johnson, On the Corner then some live records - Live Evil and two other live records.
I very much like this electric period too. This stuff is essential for my rock collection.
There was a sort of fusion (I will call it Free Funk/Jazz Fusion for lack of a better word) that is on the harder side of most of the well known stuff. Names to look out for: James "Blood" Ulmer--either under his own hame or Music Revelation Society (often w.David Murray,) Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society, and of course Ornette Coleman's Prime Time.
If this stuff is called Jazz it's ok with me and I'll call it jazz in my database. But in my mind it's rock. I just listened to James Blood Ulmer's Odyssey. That's really a great record - I'm going to have to spend more time on spotify with more of his records.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Genre designations just suck.
One of the most... outre...jazz... respected cornet players, Olu Dara has played
on MANY, MANY dates for decades and his two "solo" titles (under his own name)
owe little to jazz as we know it but LOTS to great American music. Not only that
but his son, Nas, is a well respected and talented rapper.
There's SO MUCH great music that falls between the genre cracks...
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
I've been checking him out on Spotify. There are 2 James Blood Ulmer disks on the way from eBay - and 3 more of his in my want list que with 5 Miles Davis 70s era disks. Found a nice copy of Seize the Rainbow and it arrived from Germany today - can't wait to give it a listen when the boss goes out tomorrow am.
You link didn't work but I spend some time checking out your recommended artist on youtube. Tasty!
View YouTube Video
Labels all get fuzzy at the fringes, but to me jazz is a process not a thing, and to me Blood fits under that rubric. "Odyssey" is one of my favorite records, and I got to hear Blood with his Odyssey Trio this past summer at the Vision Festival in NYC.
I once had a girlfriend who would take all her clothes off and dance to "Jazz Is The Teacher (Funk Is The Preacher)".....
I came to think highly of that track.....
Bitches Brew did it for me, although the original CD transfer was MISERABLE. I also love Pangea & Agharta (both recorded on 2/1/75).
"'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice./And when justice is gone, there's always force./And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!" Laurie Anderson, "O Superman (For Massenet)"
Electric Miles is the title of a DVD that i watched after decades of not embracing his electric period (not the period after his hiatus which i liked a lot). it gave me the appreciation perspective that i had been looking for and THEN i was ready.
this fit in with my experience with Bitches Brew where i bought a used copy, played it and thought "this is CRAP" and put it away for ten years before warming up to it and realized that the group Weather Report was spawned therein.
at any rate, the DVD opened the door for me, it's worth a try for anyone looking to expand their horizons.
...regards...tr
Thumbs up for In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, but his second great quintet was my favorite period. Didn't Miles say "I knew fusion wouldn't last because there were no chicks in the audience."
"Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once." - John Coltrane.
Cpwill
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Don't care a whit what anyone else thinks but '69-'75 Miles IMO is fantastic.
If he hadn't done anything before or after the music he helped create
in that period it would have guaranteed him legendary status.
Not that I don't love most of the music he made before '69 and a
fair amount after 1980, but that '69-'75 period is quite special.
Miles Davis wasn't the only one blazing trails in that timeframe either.
The floodgates were open to electric innovation and exploration across the
globe, genre boundaries be damned.
The In A Silent Way complete box might have you rethinking that period.
The On The Corner, Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson Boxes are imperative.
The first time I heard Pangea (initially only available as a Japanese import)
I had to sit down.
And I was already seated!
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
I have always loved this album but the box set expanded my appreciation exponentially.
I see you like the 1969-75 period and that's exactly the period I don't really listen to.I jump from Miles in the Sky (1968) straight to "Man With A Horn" and the albums with Marcus Miller in particular. I think this was a good period for Miles and though he soloed less than in his Sorcerer period where he did a lot of noodling with flurries of closely spaced notes (boring....), he did play out more and interact with the arrangements, which he was always good at from the Gil Evans years.
Not everything was good after 1975. I write a lot of it off and just listen to selected tracks. For example on Amandla which I really like all through the tracks were simpler with no keyboards, but the overall sound was nice with lots of felicitous percussion playing. Something like the way Weather Report progressed from looser improvising with Miroslav Vitous to more written parts with a lot of percussion.
I think that's the most successful of his last period. The other tracks I like are Tutu and Portia from Tutu, Human Nature and Time After Time from You're Under Arrest, The Man With A Horn and Aura-Yellow.
Edits: 03/01/22
to each his own.
P
nt
What do I think? Well, since you asked ...
The MD period in question is ... not my cup of tea ... or, to be more
precise, it's a steaming dung heap full of worms foisted off on a public
ready to accept anything he did no matter how paltry the musical content.
You asked.
Whether or not you can observe a thing depends upon the theory you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed. - Albert Einstein
Obviously, you don't like it. It'd not bluegrass, And the 70s were bluegrass's finest decade.
"Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once." - John Coltrane.
Cpwill
Yes to:
Filles de Kilimanjaro
Maybe Big Fun if I'm in the mood
Miles in the Sky
The Man With The Horn
You're Under Arrest
Tutu
Amandla
Aura
No to:
In a Silent Way, especially don't like John McLaughlin in anything
Bitches Brew
Agharta
Jack Johnson
Live Evil
On the Corner
Get Up With It
Dark Magus
Star People
Decoy
Doo-Bop
I'm a big fan of Marcus Miller as a bassist, arranger, composer and just in general. I like his own bands too.
So alongside Man With the Horn and Tutu, which he composed and arranged, I'd include some tracks from We Want Miles, for instance, which has strong soloing from Mike Stern and Bill Evans and nice interplay within the rhythm section, loose and tight at the same time.
I'm less interested in Star People, though it has a similar lineup. And not interested in Music From Siesta either. But I really like Amandla. Marcus Miller was a big asset to Miles.
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