Great piece! I've owned Bitches Brew for probably over 20 years but it never hit me until the last couple months how incredible it and his 70s period in general really are. I've been diving in listening to Live Evil, Dark Magus, BB Complete Sessions etc. and just marveling at how fresh a lot of it still sounds. It's interesting how within a lot of this music, you can find roots of genres like noise rock, hip hop, drum n bass, and edm, but also find elements of classical, Indian, African, and Caribbean music as well.
Its also interesting how the electric period continued Miles' practice of removing harmonic limitations to improvising by stripping it all back to just a groove and a bassline. I remember when I first got the album thinking that the keyboard players especially were just making noise (which to be fair, sometimes they are, and some of keyboard textures of this period are things I haven't heard before or since) but it wasn't until years later that I understood that the relationship of what they were playing to the bassline was a pretty incredible harmonic relationship. Most musicians would play more conventionally over those bass lines but these are jazz musicians so of course they aren't going to settle for that.
You’ve hit on something important and special about his electric period—stripping everything back to a groove in a primal, pure sense. If you’ve never listened to Get Up With It, add that to your queue. Dark and atmospheric, but his most underappreciated work IMO. https://www.bestmusicofalltime.com/p/get-up-with-it-by-miles-davis
I've only listened to He Loved Him Madly (due to how cool the Bill Laswell version from Panthalassa was!) but Get Up With It was among the albums I ordered that came in last week and one that I'm looking forward to the most!
When I was a jazz musician, other jazz musicians always used to go on about how much "freedom" there is in jazz, and there is more than in a lot of other genres, but there's still a lot of framework even to Miles' more out stuff prior to Bitches Brew. If anything, I'm starting to think that his electric period was fulfilling the promise of musical freedom in a way nobody else did (at least not up to that point, besides maybe Ornette Coleman.)
I keep a cassette copy close, it's the talisman of the Avant Garde Jazz-nicks and gave birth to jazz fusion and a sense of do what you like and maybe others will like it who cares? I never really dug it. There are other documents and artists better suited for the task. Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Nichols... Miles paved the way in so many ways but he's better off remembered for modal jazz Kind of Blue cool. Great article I'll give it another two or three listens but by myself with headphones on looking for clues.
I hear you, Steve. It wasn’t love at first listen for me either. But, with every new listen, another new detail blows my mind. Thanks for reading and commenting!
I keep my 2CD copy of this on hand for regular listens. I still hear new things I never heard in it before every time.
Great piece! I've owned Bitches Brew for probably over 20 years but it never hit me until the last couple months how incredible it and his 70s period in general really are. I've been diving in listening to Live Evil, Dark Magus, BB Complete Sessions etc. and just marveling at how fresh a lot of it still sounds. It's interesting how within a lot of this music, you can find roots of genres like noise rock, hip hop, drum n bass, and edm, but also find elements of classical, Indian, African, and Caribbean music as well.
Its also interesting how the electric period continued Miles' practice of removing harmonic limitations to improvising by stripping it all back to just a groove and a bassline. I remember when I first got the album thinking that the keyboard players especially were just making noise (which to be fair, sometimes they are, and some of keyboard textures of this period are things I haven't heard before or since) but it wasn't until years later that I understood that the relationship of what they were playing to the bassline was a pretty incredible harmonic relationship. Most musicians would play more conventionally over those bass lines but these are jazz musicians so of course they aren't going to settle for that.
You’ve hit on something important and special about his electric period—stripping everything back to a groove in a primal, pure sense. If you’ve never listened to Get Up With It, add that to your queue. Dark and atmospheric, but his most underappreciated work IMO. https://www.bestmusicofalltime.com/p/get-up-with-it-by-miles-davis
I've only listened to He Loved Him Madly (due to how cool the Bill Laswell version from Panthalassa was!) but Get Up With It was among the albums I ordered that came in last week and one that I'm looking forward to the most!
When I was a jazz musician, other jazz musicians always used to go on about how much "freedom" there is in jazz, and there is more than in a lot of other genres, but there's still a lot of framework even to Miles' more out stuff prior to Bitches Brew. If anything, I'm starting to think that his electric period was fulfilling the promise of musical freedom in a way nobody else did (at least not up to that point, besides maybe Ornette Coleman.)
Couldn’t agree more :)
A classic!
I keep a cassette copy close, it's the talisman of the Avant Garde Jazz-nicks and gave birth to jazz fusion and a sense of do what you like and maybe others will like it who cares? I never really dug it. There are other documents and artists better suited for the task. Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Nichols... Miles paved the way in so many ways but he's better off remembered for modal jazz Kind of Blue cool. Great article I'll give it another two or three listens but by myself with headphones on looking for clues.
I hear you, Steve. It wasn’t love at first listen for me either. But, with every new listen, another new detail blows my mind. Thanks for reading and commenting!