Miles Davis:
Bitches Brew:
Legacy Columbia:
3xCD 1xDVD:
Out Now:
★★★★★★★★½
Although billed as a 40th anniversary collection, this compact 'bookset' version of Sony's superdeluxeedition from 2010 makes this 45 years young. However, regardless of age, Bitches Brew remains a seismic masterwork that will probably still divide opinions among generations to come.
Recorded in 1969 and released several months later the following year, Miles Davis' explorative electric jazz-rock mode finally kicked in with this follow-up to the equally experimental In a Silent Way. At a time when fusion was bandied around all too often, Bitches Brew was, and still is, all about resolutely NOT fusing anything together (other than schizophrenic mood-swings and psychedelic barriers being trampled down).
This sprawling double-album featured some of jazz's key players during an era when the name of the music game was 'discovery' and 'freedom'. Weather Report's Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock's flautist Bernie Maupin, Mahavishnu Orchestra's founding guitarist John McLaughlin and future ECM artists Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette all took this album's blueprint forward and stamped it all over their respective catalogues.
As for its continued influence today, you need go no further than Talk Talk's Laughing Stock, most of Battles' or Squarepusher's output on Warp and the likes of South, Boxcutter and Amon Tobin, in fact many electronica/indie-rock/hip-hop/breakbeat artists worth their salt - yes Radiohead, I'm including you. Concentrate and you can often hear the portentous double-bass from Holland, the soaring riffs from shredder McLaughlin and the bad-ass tribal funk beats from Messrs DeJohnette and Lenny White. The whole event is topped off with ahead-of-its-time production and sleeve art that adorned walls across the globe, not forgetting its all-important tag-line - "a novel without words".
The title-track and Spanish Key are perhaps the most incredible works here - the former a spatial, minimalist even dubby excursion beyond 25 minutes in length, the latter a relentless dervish of Davis' soft/hard/harsh/harsher expressionist blowing and the rhythm-section's dogged determination to see out the 17 minutes without so much as a breath.
The second disc gathers up the rest of Bitches Brew, including the comparatively laid-back Miles Runs The Voodoo Down, as well as out-takes and single edits (singles! yes, and under three minutes at that), while disc three once again features the well-known 1970 concert recorded in Tanglewood that includes variants of BB tracks and other sundry highlights.
Visual content features a lengthier 1969 show recorded in Copenhagen, again a showcase for BB tracks such as Sanctuary and the title-track. A 44-page colour book with extensive observations from Greg Tate and an interview with drummer Lenny White serve to add spice to an already heady Brew.
Head to online vinyl market-place Discogs and you'll find dozens of editions of Bitches Brew - add to them this compacted but no less essential treasure-trove and you literally have quite a legacy to choose from. Despite (or because of) its unerring chaotics, pivotal arrangements and unrepentant timbres, Bitches Brew is deserving of its place in musical history. It will blow your mind.
Bitches Brew:
Legacy Columbia:
3xCD 1xDVD:
Out Now:
★★★★★★★★½
Recorded in 1969 and released several months later the following year, Miles Davis' explorative electric jazz-rock mode finally kicked in with this follow-up to the equally experimental In a Silent Way. At a time when fusion was bandied around all too often, Bitches Brew was, and still is, all about resolutely NOT fusing anything together (other than schizophrenic mood-swings and psychedelic barriers being trampled down).
This sprawling double-album featured some of jazz's key players during an era when the name of the music game was 'discovery' and 'freedom'. Weather Report's Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock's flautist Bernie Maupin, Mahavishnu Orchestra's founding guitarist John McLaughlin and future ECM artists Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette all took this album's blueprint forward and stamped it all over their respective catalogues.
As for its continued influence today, you need go no further than Talk Talk's Laughing Stock, most of Battles' or Squarepusher's output on Warp and the likes of South, Boxcutter and Amon Tobin, in fact many electronica/indie-rock/hip-hop/breakbeat artists worth their salt - yes Radiohead, I'm including you. Concentrate and you can often hear the portentous double-bass from Holland, the soaring riffs from shredder McLaughlin and the bad-ass tribal funk beats from Messrs DeJohnette and Lenny White. The whole event is topped off with ahead-of-its-time production and sleeve art that adorned walls across the globe, not forgetting its all-important tag-line - "a novel without words".
The title-track and Spanish Key are perhaps the most incredible works here - the former a spatial, minimalist even dubby excursion beyond 25 minutes in length, the latter a relentless dervish of Davis' soft/hard/harsh/harsher expressionist blowing and the rhythm-section's dogged determination to see out the 17 minutes without so much as a breath.
The second disc gathers up the rest of Bitches Brew, including the comparatively laid-back Miles Runs The Voodoo Down, as well as out-takes and single edits (singles! yes, and under three minutes at that), while disc three once again features the well-known 1970 concert recorded in Tanglewood that includes variants of BB tracks and other sundry highlights.
Visual content features a lengthier 1969 show recorded in Copenhagen, again a showcase for BB tracks such as Sanctuary and the title-track. A 44-page colour book with extensive observations from Greg Tate and an interview with drummer Lenny White serve to add spice to an already heady Brew.
Head to online vinyl market-place Discogs and you'll find dozens of editions of Bitches Brew - add to them this compacted but no less essential treasure-trove and you literally have quite a legacy to choose from. Despite (or because of) its unerring chaotics, pivotal arrangements and unrepentant timbres, Bitches Brew is deserving of its place in musical history. It will blow your mind.