Official Electric Miles Davis Thread

Since there seems to be enough passionate fans of this music, it'd be interesting to have a single thread with all of our collective observations and knowledge over this vast body of underrated work.

Listening just now to "Go Ahead John" off of Big Fun, I for the first time noticed how Miles overdubbed his trumpet playing over another solo of his (about 12:30 in], thus allowing for a unique effect of soulful longing and unfathomable pain. It is so incredible, I cannot put words to it . . . anybody else feel that?

 

I listened to most of the On The Corner sessions yesterday which has a lot of good stuff. I even like the Live in Concert (72) discs that were from that time period, but Live Evil, particularly the first 4 minutes of Sivad, which was the excerpt on the Columbia Years box set, encapsulates all that I love about electric Miles. I could listen to that bit forever just for DeJohnette's drumming and the interplay of Jarrett and McLaughlin.

 

Based on your previous thread, I listened to Bitches Brew yesterday and I am listening to On the Corner today.

On the Corner: I dont seem to like this one as much now as when I first heard it. Bitches Brew still scares the living crapola out of me, what a fantastic record. Miles top 5 fer sure.

 

I think I really learned to like OTC after listening to the OTC box set. It made me return to the original CD and really made me appreciate all that's going on in there.

 

Bitches Brew is still my favorite. It's not as "electric" as his 70s music, and it's definitely still jazz, which is probably why I like it so much.

 

Actually Teo Macero combined two different takes of the piece. The separate takes are on the Jack Johnson box set.

 

Anyone with the Bitches Brew box will know the song 'Feio'. This turned up as the title track on Wayne Shorter's Motto Gross Feio and then again (with the tune taken quicker) as 'Ana Maria' on Shorter's Native Dancer.

I well remember getting the box and hearing Feio and thinking '"Hang on a minute...I know this!"

Incidentally the early Weather Report used a fair number of tunes that were around in the electric Miles days. Besides Orange Lady they used to play Early Minor, Directions, In A Silent Way and It's About That Time.

 

Any love for STAR PEOPLE?

 

I think it is his strongest album after his comeback. The long blues is really good, I think.

 

Well I knew that, I was commenting on the mood of the two solos, and how effective it is.

 

Sure, because Zawinul wrote the tunes.

 

Thanks for bringing this to my attention! Not only is it lovely, but now it looks like I'll have to rebuy "Big Fun" to have a copy of the originally released version. The Jack Johnson box has all of the original jams in unedited form, but not the edited and superimposed version!

A little frustrating, but I should have hung on to the album (the cd remaster), like I did with "Get Up With It!"

L.

 

Big Fun also has different mixes of "Great Expectations" and "Lonely Fire" compared to the Bitches Brew box set versions (with a murkier sound similar to the original BB mix).

 

I truly love this period. I bought Kind Of Blue on a whim (luckily, the Gold Mastersound version - something told me it would be an album worth spending my student money on). I was heavily into the Mo Wax sound at the time, which pushed me to Ki-Oku by DJ Krush and Toshinori Kondo (who sounds very Miles-like on that album), which pushed me to Panthalassa and Bill Laswell's remixes latched me on to the electric years for ever.

Unfortunately I pursued the albums themselves looking for the tracks on Panthalassa, which meant I started with In A Silent Way (which was even better than the 1/2 length Laswell version) and Agharta & Pangaea. Then Get Up With It... then Bitches Brew... then the rest of the 70's stuff. This kind of skewed my thinking because I heard IASW, which is very self-contained to me, then Agharta, which made everything from 72-74 seem like they were lesser works.

They're not, but when you hear the process from the end result backwards, it might seem that way.

Bitches Brew was the hardest for me. I just loved the bass on anything with Michael Henderson, and BB seemed like it wasn't deep enough, and was too improvisational. I finally got into it a few years back after seeing Collateral and hearing Spanish Key in surround sound.

For a long time I hated On The Corner because it felt like a failed version of the Agharta/Pangaea material, but with a lack of space. (However I liked Ife, so I knew those sessions weren't without some merit) After hearing the OTC box and hearing the unedited jams, I appreciate that LP much more.

The biggest disappointment has been the so-called 'complete sessions.' Most of the BB sessions box was rightfully unreleased IMO, and it's a shame they couldn't throw in a disc 5 with the alt. takes of the issued tunes.

The Silent Way box was great in one respect, as it had Ghetto Walk, Early Minor and the uncut takes, but that disc of not-quite-quintet material? totally out of place. There's a good Deluxe Edition waiting there, I feel.

Jack Johnson box is good but overwhelming. It almost needs to be in LP side lengths to take it all in. 800 versions of Willie Nelson in succession tire me out! And as for The Mask, well... if that had stayed in the vault, fine with me. It did make me appreciate that Teo took 80% of the good stuff out of those sessions to make the LP, and left a hell of a lot of cruft!

Yet the OTC box is frustrating because it's missing so many of those funk collective jams! Hours of material unreleased because the bean counters wouldn't allow two box sets! Shame! But I now appreciate OTC, so it's not all bad.

As for the comeback years... I love We Want Miles! It's like a cleaner late 70's recording to me, with discernible solos and even some walking bass. Very enjoyable.

I also quite like the austere Aura, although that one doesn't come out too often. The Siesta soundtrack is a good one to play straight after In A Silent Way for your chillout session. I also have much love for Doo-Bop because I'm a Hip Hop head. Most people can't seem to get past the fact that there are sample loops in there. Miles' playing is wonderful, and if you think there is no artistic merit to sampling, no musicality to it, go listen to Endtroducing... DJ Shadow and eat your words.

That said, while I felt Live Around The World was not as good as it could be, hearing Time After Time followed by the final performance of Hannibal always gets me

 

I love this period of his work.

"ON THE CORNER" is one of my top ten Miles discs for sure.

 

Here is a new interview with John McLaughlin reminiscing about In a Silent Way.
http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/john-mclaughlin-reflects/jul-09/97579

 

In that case, and if you don't already have it, you will want: http://www.plosin.com/milesAhead/Disco.aspx?id=MilesMiles

I love Endtroducing, but have no love for Doo-Bop!

 

You bet! What a combination of talent - Miles, Mike Stern, John Scofield, Marcus Miller, Tom Barney, Al Foster, Bill Evans, Mino Cinelu, Gil Evans and Teo Macero! The opener "Come Get It" has one of the most amazing bass lines I've ever heard. Then there are the two blues numbers, plus the funky "Speak" and "Star on Cicely." The only filler in my view is "U 'n' I."

I love the 80s period, especially when Stern and Sco were in the bands. Great thread Masswriter!

 

I have to admit that my knowledge of the 80s music is lacking, I never found it having the edge I need like the electric era of the 1970s. That's where a thread like this can educate me . . .

Today, while I am working on a book, I will be really listening to those last two live masterpiece sets from Japan . . . . that material from 1975 really makes me feel like Miles is toeing the abyss of his demons before totally plunging into it by 1976.

 

Can't say I'm a fan of the "comeback" albums--a song here and there, yes, but no albums stand out. I never even got them on CD. I think the last one I bought was Decoy or You're Under Arrest.

I do love the 69-75 material--Jack Johnson with McLaughlin and Sharrock, The Cellar Door sessions and Live Evil, I've loved On the Corner for decades. Bitches Brew was the first jazz album I ever bought--age 13 in 1976 because I was a Santana fan and kept hearing references to it. It started me on a 33 year trip as a huge jazz fan--I've bought thousands of jazz albums since then.

The 75 Live in Japan albums remain standouts to me, particularly the rhythm work and Pete Cosey--what an evil sound he gets out of that telecaster! Heavier than any metal band I've ever heard, and you can smell the sulphur coming out of the speakers as Dark Magus plays.

 

Actually, I found the fact that We Want Miles was selected from several gigs, and in some cases, edited, made it a better listen for me than Miles Miles Miles, which was unedited. I was the same with Live Around The World when I finally heard the uncut version of Hannibal... they made the right choice.

I wasn't comparing Doo-Bop to Endtroducing, it doesn't come close by a few football fields. It was just an example of quality sample-based music to suggest that if people could get over the Hip Hop snobbery they'd hear some great Miles solos.

Agharta/Pangaea are still the high water mark for me.

 

This thread has got me thinking. What do you consider to be the dividing line for Miles' jazz-rock era? Most say "In A Silent Way", some say "Bithches Brew". I say it's "Miles In The Sky". There was a definite change in direction on this album as Miles seemed to re-assume most of the songwriting from Wayne. The addition of George Benson and the electric piano (is this Miles' first use of electric guitar on his recordings?) marks the beginning of the transformation.

 

Miles in the Sky is def the start........

 

The first released ones. He used Joe Beck on some 1967 cuts that weren't issued until later (can't remember which ones, though--I'm at work and don't have the albums to check.)