Miles Davis circa 1973-75

This thread (and a few others) prompted me to get Agharta (SRCS 9720-1) and Pangaea (SRCS 9752-53) from hmv.co.jp. The sound is fantastic on these and a dramatic improvement over the Legacy discs. :headfi:

Thanks guys.

 

Agreed.

I'd like to hear more of it, too.

 

I have the GUWI 2-SACD Japanese release and it sounds great.

 

I am just starting to get into this era. Wow, 4 CDs recorded in one day in Japan, that is awesome. I never thought I that I would like this stuff, but it hits you just right so that it is not offensive, not too heavy, just funky.

 

There's also a :cough: special import disc that documents the concert in Tokyo from 22 January '75, with a scorching "Ife" and "Turnaroundphrase".

 

Sorry to kind of bring this thread back on a tangent, but I was really struck by this comment.

I'm a big fan of some of the 50's records, especially Kind of Blue, but had always kind of bounced off the electric period. However, there is something that keeps me coming back to it, and for some reason, Jack Johnson really clicked with me the other day, and I had kind of a revelation about why: there's some kind of similarly/connection/affinity between John McLaughlin's guitar playing on Jack Johnson (particularly on "Right Off") and Bill Evans piano playing on Kind of Blue. I don't really know how to explain it, but, impressionistically, it's to do with the way their instrument provides the same kind of harmonic accents and kind of in the same rhythmic way. It's not the same chords or anything I'm sure, but there's some kind of weird psychic affinity.

Am I just crazy? Does that make any sense?

Geoff

 

It might be worth grabbing the Complete Jack Johnson set. While it mainly proves what a great job Teo did of compiling an LP out of a lot of rambling jams and the odd classic cut, you will get to explore John's guitar a bit more. Also, Go Ahead John is provided in several takes that have some great blues guitar. Willie Nelson, however... there's something like 3,000 takes of it on there! (or at least it seems like it )

 

Geoff,

That actually does make sense to me. I'll have to listen a bit more to make clearer sense of it, but I think it has to do with the complexity of the harmonic pallet that both work in. It's complex and open and maybe ambiguous enough to give Miles the kind of space he likes to work in.

L.

 

I ust got a vcd of a Miles in concert movie from 1973 called "Prince of Darkness" by some Japanese guy, it's in color, straight from the master and is excellent quality, but only 30 minutes....pretty cool, he looks really strange licking his lips with that pencil thin mustache in the shiny pimp outfit! The music is out of this world! does anyone know where this was filmed? I know it wasn't in Japan due to the afros smoking the big fat brother joint in the front row.....

 

http://www.plosin.com/milesAhead/Disco.aspx?id=PrinceOfDarkness

http://www.plosin.com/milesAhead/Sessions.aspx?s=730112

 

You know, those 45 minutes or so, of something like 8 or 9 different takes of "Willie Nelson" include some of THE most interesting playing on the whole set. Every cut's sicker than the one before. Definitely a big highlight of the set for me -- among many.

(The Jack Johnson box is probably my favorite out of all the Miles boxes.)

 

well put, give me a lifetime of nothing but Willie Nelson and his/it's
medicine and I'd be a happy camper!

 

We'll have to agree to differ my friend... I think my favourite box is the On The Corner box, which has the most interesting music for me. But each to their own - it took me 8 years to finally 'get' Bitches Brew and not hear it as a bunch of aimless jams, whereas Agharta/Pangaea I loved from the start. Maybe I'll catch up with you someday!

 

Yeah, the early 70's miles was always my favourite miles. On the corner was one of the records that got me seriously into music listening, it's just so powerful and dense. Compared to the 80's fm radio I was listening to at the time, it was like a sledgehammer to the head. I really enjoyed the recent On the Corner Box set, great packaging and great sound. Highly recommended.

I was wondering what people think of miles drug use, do you think it helped his music. It might not be very pc, but I don't think he would have been as creative or experimental if he was 100% strait. I know it lead to his retirement in 75, and some very dark times, but I also think it lead to some of the most innovative music ever. But of course, maybe it curtailed his creativity and we missed something even more special because of it.

 

I think in that era drugs were a good thing, he definately looks coked up in the Prince of Darkness movie, my personal experience was that coke was horrible for creativity, while heroin was great....don't think he was into that though...?

 

A difficult topic. Afaik Heroin was around from the Harlem days of Jazz and the musicians spread that like a disease. Would I say tha it was a good thing for the times ?
Well i don't know and won't judge this , but it surely helped them feeling brave and forget about everything else but the music that was played atm on this very stage...
It brought personal tragedy and drama to many of the musicians and probably the best thing that some could do was get rid of that habit. Others died a tragic death - but that isn't as important as the art is in the scheme of things..

 

I think that, quite simply, had Miles not been in the state he was in, we never would have got On The Corner, Agharta or Pangaea.

For Silent Way, Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson, he was at the top of his game - fit and healthy and happy. That music is airy, comparatively light and open. It also lead to hours and hours of indulgent noodling and produced a few gems.

Fast forward to 72 and after an enforced break thru illness Miles is back in the studio and looking for something new, something street and funky, and we get On The Corner. I would guess he was still relatively happy with life at this point... but the critics weren't!

Then we hit May 1973 and the new working band is in place. We get 2 and a half years of illness, heavy drug use, and a downright negative mood. The band are misunderstood and in a lot of cases loathed. Hence the material got darker, angrier, and much much more dense. Even the lighter material at the time was pretty down (like He Loved Him Madly... what mood do you have to be in to come up with a 30 min dirge?)

So are drugs a good thing? To quote Bill Hicks: "Not all drugs are good... some of them are great!" Flip side: A friend of mine, a designer, was asked by a client if he smoked weed. He replied 'no' to which the client said they were only able to be creative when high. My friend said to the client 'That's all well and good, but I have to do this 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.'

But seriously the drugs, illness and emotional strife in Miles life at the time seem to have contributed to the mood of the recordings from 73 to 75. Whether it was good for him really doesn't matter. We benefit by getting this amazing music, which I personally feel is his strongest since Trane left the Sextet in 1960. But maybe that's just my broken hip, arthritis, and the vodka and cocaine talking...

 

I still don't entirely get the Bitches Brew stuff (it's my least favorite out of all the post-1965 Miles 'Columbia' boxes) -- or at least not the studio "BB" material (but I am down with the live versions that "float about" of the same material).

The "One The Corner" box is also a HUGE favorite of mine too. It and the "Jack Johnson" box are both incredibly underrated, in my opinion.

 

Miles' career was almost completely stopped in the early 50's due to heroin abuse. In his bio, he talks about doing very little cocaine until passing 1970 or so. Obviously, it pretty much took over his life in the late 70's. I think Miles' best work came when he was (relatively) straight: 1965-1969 or so. The band, rather than Miles himself, seemed to be carrying a heavier load during the early 70's period.

 

I'd concur on that observation. Which makes it even more puzzling as to why Pangaea has a substantially higher user rating than Agharta over at the progarchives site (takes a while to load):

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3906